I’m between jobs at the moment for a period of up to 4 months. I am still on a 125 and thought courier work would be a good way to earn some dosh. Spoken to a few companies and have been told to upgrade insurance to include courier work. My girlfriend is worried as the thinks I am heading for my doom.
Anyone with any idea about what it is like to be a courier in London… pay, conditions, targets, possible injuries?
Ta
Speaking from personal experience couriering for two different firms this year, I would say it’s a worthwhile undertaking.
Pay is around 300-600 quid a week depending how good you are, and how hard you work. Unfortunately there are loads of Brazilians about who are in the country on student visas depressing the prices, and I’ve met Polish couriers too. Even so it’s still much better than stacking shelves at Tesco – remember you are being paid to ride your bike all day!
A 125 should suffice for Central London work. For my part I love my 650 and would never ride anything less, but Charlie has done couriering on a 125 for like 3 years and did alright from what I hear (no doubt he’ll weigh in on this 
). You won’t get any lucrative out of town work (which I personally love == 100 quid to go down to the coast for example) but you’ll earn money towards your DAS and also have less fuel cost than a bigger displacement bike.
Also remember since you will ride 100 miles a day you will be running it into the ground. Take an old beater to begin with and either fix stuff yourself, or know the courier workshops that’ll do the stuff you can’t handle quickly and cheaply. Make sure you know where to get cheap tires etc. You’ll go through a lot of consumable parts.
Conditions vary greatly. Some companies are absolute assholes to work for and others are brilliant. You want a fair company with a friendly controller who sorts you out with enough work to make a crust. On some days you will like your job (when its warm you’re making mad dosh and you’re driving around looking at the birds all day.) On others you will hate it, when you’re freezing in the rain and they’re sending you to Dorset. Choose your company wisely and don’t expect to be great from day 1. It takes time to get good at this job. Also, invest in a cheap GPS, it will save you loads of time.
Insurance wise, courier insurance is a must and is very expensive (3x of what your normal insurance costs pretty much), but there are ways around this as some companies let you put your bike on their insurance for about 20 quid a week which comes out of your pay.
Possible injuries: well, I’ve been knocked down once in the three months I worked as a courier and got off very lucky. Bike impaled itself in the car of a lady who turned without indicating and I flew clean over the car and scrubbed off a bit of skin on the tarmac. I was out for 3 weeks and so was the bike. Remember you won’t make money when you’re out of the game because of injury, and you’ll also have to fix your bike.
DO NOT get into this unless you have a fair amount of experience riding in London. I’ve read your CBT story and I have to say I’m a bit worried about you after that. How much experience have you gathered since?
Before I’ve started I had a scooter for a while, then did ScooterMan for a few months, and then my DAS. Even then do not try to be a hero. You will have loads of close calls anyhow (1-2 daily) but learn from them don’t go out there tempting fate. I’ve spoken to loads of old, grey haired, bearded couriers and they all said the single best piece of advice they’d give a newbie is “RIDE SLOW!” You don’t really make much more money by riding like a madman, but you’ll most definitely get hurt.
Injuries are pretty inevitable as the odds are stacked against you when you ride 40-50 hours a week. You WILL come off at some point. One of my buddies has been down 50-60 times in the last 12 years he’s worked as a courier, but that’s not stopped him from loving his job. However he’s probably broken every bone in his body at least once.
If you do go down, the single biggest challenge after you have healed up and fixed your bike will be that first ride down your street. Being on a bike feels seriously strange for the first time after you exited via handlebars and came to in the ambulance. Remember if you don’t get back on the bike then, you will never. Just put your balls on the table and do it. Don’t go straight back to work, take short little rides at first and get over your trauma. Never freeze up in any situation (you will when a situation resembles your accident). Just remember to breathe, do what needs to be done and stay cool. This way you’ll be back on the road in no time, battle scars and all.
That being said, I still think it’s the coolest job in the world and you should at least try it for a while. The other couriers (who aren’t Brazilians) are great and you’ll get to kick it with them in various meeting spots around London while you are waiting for calls.
If you are serious about giving it a go, then contact me for some info to get you started (PM). Given you can demonstrate a good knowledge of London (ie. know where most major streets are and how to get from A to B) you can pretty much get a job straight away walking into most courier firms, and that’s the great thing about it. You could walk in today be given a test, and if you pass it be given a radio and PDA and start tomorrow.
try and get some contract work like the brazilians do,buy riders digest,mcn,or evening standard on thursdays.if not just go ask some couriers parked up in the west end.
i was a courier for 23yrs some times i hated itbut most of the time i loved it,i only had one bad crash at work,broke my wrist all the others have been out of work.
yes it is hard work at times,you will go home with a headache alot of the time,and the pay will not be great to start with or at the end of it to come to think of it.
but all said and done i do miss it,being with my mates all day.
you are a very very brave man! I’d love to do it but know I’d be crap!
m
Hats off to you.
I couldn’t to it all day. Not this time of year.
£500-600 still very achievable.
my top riders are still earning between £800-950 a week.
Like what Itsthemechanic said. RIDE SLOW! For one thing you’re more likely to get there in one piece, for another you’re more likely to pick up other jobs on the way, and doubling up is when you make most of the money!
Buy the best waterproofs you can afford and be ready to trade up as often as necessary. Being cold and wet on a bike isn’t great at the best of times, but knowing you have nothing but 6 more hours of it is a real pisser.
Give these guys a go: http://www.couriertraining.co.uk/
They trained me in the basics of couriering, IIRC it’s free if you’re out of work, and they’ll get you a guaranteed job with a company that isn’t too poo!
