Job as a courier / messenger?

hey, captin slow, im just finishing my a levels, i worked as a messenger during last summer holidays for about a month. it was the best job iv ever had, but the pay was shit and the days were long. it also had somthing to do with the good weather and not having a single rainy day. i learnt my around london in the first week or two, but i have always ridden around london so already knew some of it anyway. the company was shit and ripped me off every week, but they did hire me the day after i called them so i cant complain too much, it was excel messengers. but you might want to find one a little more central because it is a bit of a trek to their office in canary wharf.

so basically if you can live on no money and like ridding a bike all day every day then its a good job for a while.

try destinations in hackney they will rip you off, unless the guy on the box really likes you then you will make bank.

fresh meat for the grind

the controller at ecxel didnt seem like an idiot, but i think towards the end of my time there they changed and the new guy didnt seem too good. but it was mainly the other guy who annoyed me.

the controler at desperations (andy i think) was not to bad, he just had 3 guys he took care of, and the rest got the crumbs. they didnt expect much of you and if you speak english treat you ok. he yelled alot espicly at the polish guys, who couldnt understand him. martin and bill at creative where much much much better

Pete that's fast reaction, good you didn't forget the forum name
do check movingtarget, it's messenger specific, even though not that busy ( especially now that Buffalo Bill -the moderator is on holidays )
and come to polo

if you go to polo watch out for a blond polish girl she might crash into you ;)

Welcome Captain, if you whisper me your address I`ll drop you a copy of Riders Digest which has adverts for most of the London Courier Cos in the back, its a crap Motorcycle courier mag, but the adverts are there

good 'ol RD funniest read on a slow summers day at the steps.

oh yeah captain, you got to hang out at the soho steps on your down time in w1, meet some brilant people.

My advise is finish your a-levels and go to university. You can ultimately cycle to a well paid job. However, you may well hate yourself when you sell your soul to the man. PS I just watched that Dave Gorman documentary. I am not a courier but enjoy bikes and riding plenty. When you live in London the trick is to attempt to buy a house, when you have one you are so far from the centre this is plenty riding for anyone and the shit public transport forces you to cycle even when you are knackered.

i dont know your situation, but as some one who after school messengered and traveled for a few years and is now trying to start uni (total sell out i know, give me shit later) i'm starting to wish I had done it the other way, espicly when i see my school freind who is starting medschool next year.

that said i would not trade the life i've lived or the adventures i have had for anything... and would probably do it all the same way.... well i might not drop my passport in the truck stop.

oi destinations all well and good:-), now it looks like a bloody muppet show:-)...aha and there is a 360 guarantee which you can break through offered now....plus 10 percent bonus:-) so at least 396 a week.......
when Lee was on the box no probs at all:-)
that is... they feed you if they know you are not a muppet:-)
same everywhere..........i havent met single fast rider who wouldnt be fed after they had learnt that he was actually fast.....
Ian works for mach1 which everybody regard as a crap company......he is well off cuz he is what???? fukken fast:-)

broken_77 at least 396 a week.......

yes please!

where do I sign?

What's selling out about going to uni and earning a decent wage? Nothing. My decent wage allows me to say 'fsck you' to the man when I want. E.g. leaving Oz and cycle touring Europe for a few months.
Then bumming around London and eventually 'working for the man' again.. whatever the fsck that means.. I'm working for myself! It's my bank account getting filled at the end of the day.
It's 'the man' paying for my bikes and paying for my cycling trips and holidays. Just in case anyone forgets, most of the couriers working in London are delivering parcels from companies like the ones I work for.
The only people not working for 'the man' are totally off the radar, living in communes, eating their own produce, that kind of thing. I hate this "selling out" bullshit. I think I need coffee. Rant over.

I don't work for The Man...

Where does your income come from?
Who do you pay for electricity?
Do you pay tax?

RipPuM not working for the man…

you steal my soul with your picture box!

hippy Where does your income come from?
Who do you pay for electricity?
Do you pay tax?

a: work
b: the scottish
c: yes, unfortunately, we all pay tax one way or another.

but seriously, I own half the company I work for, we work for private customers, who may or may not work for The Man..

which still brings us only two or three steps from The Man..

you can't avoid him, it's just on what level you chose to serve.

slave or slaver?

it makes me laugh when idealist fringes of society soap dodgers harp on about politicians/councils/police/taxes/rules/corporations etc but are quite happy to take what's offered in state handouts, healthcare, library's, schools, use of the roads, legal aid and all the other stuff that is paid for by taxes.

to me 'working for the man' means working in a soulless corporate office type job surrounded by pink shirted social climbing tossers and a culture of management speak with a complete cunt of a boss.
thankfully i don't have a job like that. but we are all cogs in the machine and that includes the couriers riding from soho to the city everyday.

"to me 'working for the man' means working in a soulless corporate office type job surrounded by pink shirted social climbing tossers and a culture of management speak with a complete cunt of a boss."

MrSmith says pretty much what I'm thinking but cannot write properly. :)

I work with cool people, on mostly my terms (save for that fscking bike parking issue) and earn enough to keep me happy. Job done.

I'm self employed and the boss is a right cunt

hippy
MrSmith says pretty much what I'm thinking but cannot write properly. :)

a prime example of management cuntiness that i don't have to deal with, i don't get emails about 'performance targets', 'appraisals' or my badly written english.
i'm just glad that i don't have hippy as a boss :-) or any boss at all.

I meant I cannot write what I'm thinking as well as you had written it MrSmith.. u right gud wurds!

We don't have time to set performance targets :)
My last appraisal
"Do you want me to keep working here?"
"Yes"
"Okay well I want £x more per hour"
"How about £x-2?"
"Ok, but I want holidays in March, June and Aug"
"Ok"
"Same terms as last 12 months?"
"Yep"
"Cool"

grammar isn't my thing :-)