Thanks everyone – once my financial fortunes improve then I will be in a position to help the next LB’er that gets stuck in some dodgy dilemma, and that makes me real happy 
About the illegals – if you were actually a courier and you saw job minimums drop from 4 pounds to 3.30, mileage rates drop (and petrol prices going up), double rushes paying 1.5 times instead of 2 times (while the company still bills 2 times of course), you would be pissed off too.
Without these wetbacks who accept any and all conditions and who let the controllers treat them like slaves, us couriers would have a stronger bargaining position. I’m no racist. Hell, I’m even a foreigner myself. But a) am I legally permitted to be in this country by law and b) I don’t let me controllers treat me like a Sao Paulo rent boy.
Now, I don’t blame these Brazilian fellas on a personal level. They see an opportunity, and they seize it. They’re from a poor country, more power to them. But what makes me sick is how the companies and the government in this country are so complicit in letting them get away with it, because they both like cheap labor. They do roadside tax and MOT checks, why not Home Office checkpoints?
It also pisses me off every time I make a comment or ask a question to a fellow courier at the traffic lights and all I get for an answer is “speak no english”. You’re in ****ing England now, learn the language or get the hell out!
But, seriously – Unless you get a radio and a bib and you see for yourself what passes for this job these days, I suggest you get off your high horse. Go down to Great Marlborough Street and talk to some of the couriers that have been doing this job for a decade or more and they will tell you the same. It’s simple mathematics, too much supply, steady to declining demand, has resulted in a rate race to the bottom – excessive immigration has ruined what was once a great paying job, but that’s true for a lot of blue collar gigs these days.
Tell me, if I get a 100 mile job, and it pays 55p a mile, and my bike costs 24p a mile to run, and I go back empty (2x24p = 48p), how do I live on the 7p a mile thats left? Or buy a house? Or even keep my bike on the road? Not possible eh?
PS: sorry I didn’t show at BM, but after coming back from Suffolk today and burning 2 tanks of petrol since 7am this morning the only thing I wanted was a sofa.
And @jonesy – no, not a courier job. I’m going back into IT… boring, but it pays the bills. And until the Brazilians / Polish learn to write integration code in Perl to hook up e-commerce systems to the customers existing IT infrastructure, a pretty safe and profitable one as well.
Also: Gixxer, no way! I’m a Honda man 'till I die 
A second one is still outstanding and there is a 3rd interview tomorrow morning… looks like I can tell ****tySprint where to stick it pretty soon… and start saving for a new bike 
