“IT’S Russian
roulette every day,” said Cassandra Castillo, a tough, tattooed
26-year-old who is one of the city’s handful of female bike messengers.
“Every day we’re two paychecks away from disaster.”
Each morning, Ms. Castillo removes her bike from its hook on the
ceiling of her apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, pulls her short dark
hair into a ponytail, checks Weather.com (“Messengers live by
Weather.com,” she said) and hopes that the day’s hustle will treat her
well.
According to the New York Bike Messenger Association, of the city’s
approximately 2,000 bike messengers, 50 to 100 are women. The
messengers, however, say they know of only about 30 women, and Ms.
Castillo estimates that a mere dozen of them work full time.
Many of them know one another, if only by the color of their bikes or
the type of bags they carry. Carmen Burkart, a slight, tight-bodied
43-year-old who smokes and drinks only hot coffee for hydration, even
in the summer, can think of only five women who ride full time.
The International Federation of Bicycle Messenger Associations (IFBMA)
is pleased to announce that Copenhagen messenger Martin “Banana” Larsen
has been awarded the 2008 Markus Cook Award. The Cook Award is
presented annually to “to the courier who inspires and empowers the
wider messenger community, the messenger that puts all of us before
themselves.”
The MCA was conceived as a way for the international messenger
community to thank it's most dedicated workers. Nominations are sought
from the messenger community for those individuals who have done most
for us.
Martin is a veteran messenger who as IFBMA president, Andy Duncan,
notes “is “known for tireless hard work, organizing messenger races and
pulling people together.” Messenger championships all over the world
have benefited from his sacrifice and dedication. From Copenhagen, Oslo
and New York City to Sydney, Dublin and Toronto, Martin’s influence is
not only upon the Championships but also the messenger community.
Through his leadership in the IFBMA, the Copenhagen Bike Messengers
Association and the Toronto Bike Messenger Association, Martin has
fought to improve living and working conditions for all messengers.
At much personal and financial sacrifice, he spent much of the past
year in Toronto helping to organize the 2008 Cycle Messenger World
Championships. His experience, his diligent efforts and most of all his
example were a gift to the city, its cycling community and its
messengers. Before Martin left six months later he laid the ground work
to unite the struggling community and rebuild the city’s Bike Messenger
Association.
2006 Markus Cooke winner, Kevin “Squid” Bolger lauds Martin’s work at
the 2002 CMWC. “I was blown away with dedication and attention to
detail that he exhibited in producing the main event. I asked him to
show me how it worked and he gave me his completed notes and
instructions in a leather binder.” He also “helped enormously with the
main event. His ideas and execution were invaluable.”
Squid echoes the entire messenger community when he says “I am happy
and proud to be a part of awarding the Markus Cooke Award to Martin
'Banana' Larsen!!
October 9th is
Messenger Appreciation Day! Let's congratulate all bike couriers
on the benefits they bring to our cities:
a solution to the problems of pollution,
congestion and gridlock faced by large urban centres
reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the
downtown core
take up less space on the road and do
less damage to the roads than cars resulting in better conditions and
streets for all road users
increase the safety of pedestrians
compared to cars.
provide a value added service that
continuously improving firms seek out as a means to reduce costs and
improve efficiency
are ambassadors of goodwill for the city
year round cyclists who promote the
bicycle as a viable form of transportation and economic development
The
mayor of Toronto proclaimed Messenger Appreciation Day every year
from 1997 through 2007.
This is the first time in 11 years the city has not proclaimed it. Other
Messenger Appreciation Day celebrations in New
York City, Chicago
(proclamation)
and San Francisco.
Bicycles offer a healthy, hassle-free
alternative for entrepreneurs to deliver their products.
When Daniel Corno opened his Pita Pit
franchise five years ago in the heart of Washington, DC, he knew
deliveries would provide an important revenue stream. The only question
was: How to get hot food to customers' doors in a dense, urban
neighborhood with snarled traffic and few parking spaces?
Pinched by both logistics and expenses, Corno shifted gears, settling
on the lowly bicycle as the best way to pedal his pitas. His riders are
a common sight on the streets and sidewalks of the Foggy Bottom
neighborhood, and teaming up with DCSnacks, another bicycle-based
delivery service, helped boost his sales by $2,000 a week.
Besides more timely deliveries and fewer parking tickets, Corno found
there were definite economic advantages to the low-tech distribution
method. First, salary expenses went down because he didn't have to
build the cost of gas into his drivers' wages. Secondly, with no
motorized vehicles to worry about, his liability insurance plummeted.
And finally, much to Corno's surprise, turnover decreased.
"A lot of drivers think the money looks good until they get their gas
bill, do the math, and decide they're not making enough," he explains.
With gas
prices hovering around $4 a gallon, Corno is glad he made the decision
to park the delivery van, and it seems other entrepreneurs are jumping
on the two-wheeled bandwagon, as well. Courier services from coast to
coast are adding newfangled bikes to their fleets and touting the cost
savings of going gas-free.
Most of the tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan who have lost
legs to land mines have no way to make a living other than begging.
But one group of "mine survivors," as the United Nations calls them,
has come up with another way to feed its families. It operates a
bicycle messenger service in Kabul.
On a recent morning, Afghan bicycle messenger Amin Zaki hands out
documents to be delivered from a Kabul park that he calls his office.
Fellow messenger Abdel Sabur tells his colleagues where they'll be
working.
Normally, the messengers would also divide up pizza delivery duty. But
as it's the holy fasting month of Ramadan, the work on this day is
limited to documents.
A few minutes later, the messengers get up off the grass and walk to
their bikes. One is on crutches and the others are limping.
Each of the men has only one leg. But they don't see the loss of the
other one as a problem in their line of work.
The transportation of goods and children through an urban landscape is
a universal need. In Copenhagen many our of citizens choose the
self-propelled transport option and cycle to work, school and on
errands.
On any given day you'll see people moving things about on their bikes.
A ladder, a newly-purchased bean bag for the living room, heavy bags of
groceries dangling from the handlebars. It's what we do.
In Copenhagen, however, we have our own version of the SUV. We call it
'ladcyklen' or 'the cargo bike'. Often there are goods too large or
cumbersome for convenient bicycle transport and if you have a child or
two or three, they have places to go and things to do and you are the
one who has to get them there.
In Denmark the three-wheeled cargo bike is the vehicle of choice for
moving things about and the cargo bike market here continues to enjoy
steady growth. A cargo bike is a generic term for any bicycle that is
designed to carry 'stuff,' whether it has two wheels or three.
The necessity for cargo bikes is as old as bike culture itself. Since
the early part of the last century, cargo bikes have moved things
around the city. A little sub-cultural group formed rather quickly in
cities, namely 'svejerne'. They muscled their heavily-laden cargo bikes
through the streets and were known for their rowdy tone and for
whistling at girls. Half a century before the modern bike messengers.
Indoctrination into the cut-throat bicycle
messenger world, where time
is money and money comes per delivery, can be daunting.
Lindsey Welsh lucked out, and she knows why.
"I'm the new kid on the block," said Welsh, 29, of the South Side, who
six months ago became the only full-time female bicycle messenger in
Pittsburgh. "I get treated very well, because I'm the only girl. I
didn't get the normal rookie treatment; they had to be nice to me."
About 15 riders work full time for Pittsburgh's four bicycle messenger
companies: Steel City Delivery, where Welsh works, Jet Messenger, Quick
Messenger and Stat Courier.
Brad Quartuccio, editor of Bloomfield-based cycling magazine Urban
Velo, said Pittsburgh's messenger scene is like those in most other
cities.
"Messengering has always been a male-dominated thing," said Quartuccio,
27. "It's a boys' club that tends to be jockish."
It’s midday, and I’m sitting with a group of bike messengers at the
Beach – a hangout known by most passersby only as a cement bench near
Place Ville Marie. At the moment I’m speaking to Papa, who, at 47, is
one of the older messengers in the group. He’s standing a few feet away
holding his bike and a joint, and telling me how he quit his job at a
rubber factory to become a messenger.
“At this job, you’re outside; you have central control over what you
are doing,” he says. “Me, I can smoke my joint a couple of times a day,
and no one bothers me. I can smoke it all day long, that’s it. Couriers
aren’t in boxes.”
The bike messenger business is changing. Electronic document transfer —
especially for legal documents — has cut into the business. But now,
high gas prices and new bikes that can carry bigger loads mean that
bike messengers are branching into bigger deliveries.
New York City’s bike messengers remain a fixture on the streets, having
weathered the advent of the fax machine and, of course, e-mail. Now,
with the cost of gas pummeling courier companies that rely on motorized
vehicles, a few enterprising cyclists are using the opportunity to
generate more business.
A small but growing number of pedal-powered messengers are outfitting
their bicycles and, in some cases, tricycles, with boxes and flatbeds
on which they can load hundreds of pounds of cargo.
“Eighty percent of the jobs done in a van I can do,” said Hodari
Depalm, the owner of Checker Courier, a cargo messenger company in
Manhattan that says it can move up to 200 pounds of documents by bike.
Mr. Depalm said his two-man messenger business had increased by 20
percent within the last year.
Auckland
City Harbour News, Friday, 15 August 2008
2008 Cycle Messenger World Champion Jenna
Makgill
The St Lukes resident was the best woman rider in the Cycle Messenger
World Championships held in Toronto during June. The 22-year-old, who
works for Urgent Couriers, says she wasn’t expecting to come away a
winner. But riding around the hilly streets of Auckland gave her the
edge on the competition.
"Auckland is one of the hardest cities to courier in. Here couriers are
more aggressive and people aren’t used to having bikes around," she
says.
The competition involved riding a set course for three hours dropping
off and picking up packages at different checkpoints, while locking up
her bike in-between deliveries. And just to make things that little bit
more difficult, Jenna had to deal with unpredictable weather.
Atlanta's bike messengers count about 10 of
their kind on the roads.
They ride Downtown to Midtown sometimes a dozen times a day to deliver
documents with the urgency of e-mail and the gravity of paper. Some
couriers say they expect business to go up to keep gas costs low. Some
say their workload will shrink as more businesses and government
agencies figure out how to do their work online.
For now, this is their job security: cars can handle the long haul and
fragile cargo, but in Atlanta traffic, a bike gets there faster.
Ottawa's 2ndNorth Side
Polo Inviational (NSPI) takes
place August 2 - 4, 2008. Here is the Gobal National
story
on Bike Polo featuring Ottawa's Mallets of Mayhem
and Los Marcos.
Ten years ago
on July 23, 1998, Toronto messenger Wayne Scott made tax law history.
For the first time a court decision made it possible for bike and foot
messengers to deduct their extra food expenses as a business expense
equivalent to "fuel". After a lengthy 18-year battle, the court
ultimately agreed with Wayne's argument that the extra food required
by messengers to perform their jobs was similar to the gas required by
car couriers to perform their jobs.
The orginal court decision allowed couriers to deduct $11 per day as a
fuel expense for food. As of 2008 the current deduction permitted is
$17 per day. The automatic deduction is based on the number of days
worked and it is not necessary to submit supporting receipts unless the
courier attempts to deduct an amount greater than the daily limit.
Revenue Canada underestimated Wayne's grit and determination. After
losing early battles in the Tax Court, he appealed to the Federal Court
of Canada where he was finally successful.
The current limit amounts to a tax deduction for food of about $4,250
every year
for every bike and foot messenger in Canada.
Two lines of four people square off across the parking lot, each
balancing on their fixed-gear bikes with only the heads of their polo
mallets resting on the ground.
This is urban bike polo, a game that's hijacking empty lots, basketball
courts and sometimes parking garages across the country and world. Here
in Sacramento, it's played twice a week in the parking lots beneath the
freeway on X Street.
Here is a great pitch
reel for New York City's
CycleHawk
Messengers . This is a demo reel for a proposed TV series about the
world of a New York City based bike messenger company. Produced by
Steinway Productions.
The few, the proud, the otherwise unemployable. Welcome to the chaotic
world of bike couriers on the rugged streets of Toronto . See the
cumulative effects upon this invisible minority after years of working
too hard for so little. Experience the desperation, the humanity, the
fear and the dreams of Silver and Stinky. These two characters view
society from down in the underground economy. It is not always a
pleasant viewpoint, but still, they find ways to have fun. Watch as
they wrestle with issues, both personal and world-changing. Silver and
Stinky are veteran bike couriers. Theirs is a nine-to-five job for
misfits. This play marks the first time actors Kelly Fanson and Greg
Dunham have worked together.
Ottawa police
are stopping outlaw cyclists after an elderly man was knocked down by
one who was riding illegally on a Pretoria Bridge sidewalk last week.
Constables Steven Lewis and David Zackrias were downtown yesterday
handing out warnings, fines and information pamphlets to cyclists
breaking a myriad of rules.
CMWC 2008 was the longest weekend of my life - almost 2 years. It was a
roller coaster ride of hope and optimism that caused me to witness some
of the most inspiring and some of the most disappointing behavior
during my life in the messenger community.
But now that it's over I can't help but think about the best and worst
of CMWC. The best part of CMWC is always the people. Messengers from
all over the planet carry the party from country to country every year
inspiring more of the same to join the trek. People like
Switzerland's Luk Keller and Porno Steve whose positive attitudes and
infectious smiles spread not only throughout CMWC but around the world
too. It's no wonder they both seem to look younger every time I see
them. And people like Martin Banan who showed up three months
early to help, just in time.
But for everything that has a best there's also a worst and CMWC is no
exception.
The moment the fresh batch of competitors
walked their bikes to the starting line, spectators could tell that
this group of cyclists were not quite the professional bikers who were
racing earlier in the day. These riders had tattoos of pirates and
skeletons covering the length of their arms. Some wore cut-off shorts
instead of spandex. And all of them had canvas work bags slung over
their shoulders as they clutched their handlebars, ready for their race
to begin.
When they are not busy delivering packages, most of these New York bike
messengers see the city streets as their unofficial playground, and at
times, their illegal racetrack, facing-off in street contests they call
"alley cat races." But on June 15, they participated in a different
kind of race — one that did not involve dodging pedestrians or weaving
through rush-hour traffic at 25 miles-per-hour. There are differences
between the messengers and the pros. The street riders' pre-race diet
is often beer instead of energy drinks. It was also alien locale. The
race, part of this year's Harlem Rocks 35th Annual Skyscraper Cycling
Classic, was held in Marcus Garvey Park, up by Fifth Avenue and 120th
Street. Many bike messengers rarely travel above 100th Street since
most of their business keeps them downtown. Still, says James "Speedy"
Hines, a Harlem resident and a bike messenger for two decades: "It
feels phenomenal, man. Just to be racing amongst the pros — I feel like
a pro biker."
Toronto's bike couriers have ganged up to give
themselves a smoother ride on the job.
You might've seen Cheryl Douglas, 57, weaving in and out of the city's
busy intersections before, but she's doing it with health benefits and
better wages now that she's a part of Courier Co-op Toronto.
"We did the math and said 'this is ridiculous,' these guys work hard
for just a few dollars," Douglas said yesterday while at the Cycle
Messengers World Championships on Toronto Island's Hanlan's Point.
Officials with the co-op, with just five members and in its seventh
week, were busy promoting themselves yesterday amidst other bike
messengers competing in races and bike polo competitions.
"(Bike couriers) make under minimum wage as it is and we wanted to
change that," said Shane Murphy, 39, a courier for the last 16 years.
"We want the courier to feel he's making what he's worth."
The 16th annual Cycle Messenger World Championships
are taking place June 13-16 in Toronto. In addition to all the official events for registered
participants there are many unofficial and underground events
happening that are free and open to everyone's participation.
Saturday, June 14th
8pm - Navid Presents: Goldsprints Finals and Block Party. Qualifiers at
8pm, Finals at 10pm. Maple Syrup giveaway! Prizes! 625 Richmond Street,
back alley, See
Map
Sunday, June 15th
12-3pm - Bike Union Social Bike ride: Meet at Little Norway Park (End
of Bathurst St., South of Lakeshore) See
Map
Evening- Island Social - Bring your own Firewood. Contact Navid for
details. See Map
for ferry boat. The dock is at the bottom of Bay St. Schedule
Monday, June 16th,
8pm- Navid Presents: Ken Stanek and Luke Styles' collection of NY Short
Films. Cine Cycle - 129 Spadina Avenue. Coach house behind 401 Richmond
st. After party and BBQ!, See
Map
