Motorcycle couriers - What's it like?

[swbarnett]

If you are awesome you can make good money. $300 per day.

I did a few months with Road Runner in the '80s. Our best guys were doing over $300 per day back then. Then faxes came in and most of our business went out the window.

[F5 Dave]

If you are awesome you can make good money. $300 per day. But factor in that you have to pay all of the following out of that:
Fuel
Maintenance
Repairs
Gst
Income tax
Acc
. . .

yer what? you didn't even mention depreciation of vehicle & still that's going to leave shit all of nothing.

[cheshirecat]

Did it London, just as the money was going out with email etc.

Everyone I knew was hospitalised at some stage and three were killed. They were good riders too.
I did at least 10/12 hour days winter and summer and made enough but one bad day puts everything back. The first week was the worst week ever. It rained every day, everything got soaked and stayed that way, visors permanently misted etc and I only just covered petrol/food costs. 2nd week the same, but 3 rd week, new company it came together in that I could hear the radio, keep my clipboard dry and not get quite so lost. After a couple of months of perpetual rain I barely noticed it anymore and and somehow figured how to stay dry, not mist up etc.

Eventually I ended up with a very good company, they sent flowers to the misses if you ended up in hospital and provided a decent min guarantee.

DR's had a phrase for newbies, "gone by lunchtime" and they weren't kidding.

Oh I might add you'll come out with a dim view of certain riding attitudes.

On the upside its great for your riding skills and you will be able to anticipate a vehicle movements before they do and being out every day in grotty weather won't trouble you at all - plus of course you'll adore filtering.

[danchop]

its changed a lot since i started 7 years ago,theres only 2 bike couriers i know left in auckalnd,i quit last week.
yes it killed my love of normal motorcycling because come the weekend,the last thing i wanted to do was go for a ride.
a scooter is the best to use now for a lot of reasons,the biggest is that a scooter can carry larger items and more of them than a bike(try carry 2 x 20litre containers of brake cleaner on a busa,yet i can on a scooter).most work now is for the automotive trade not lawyers,media,real estate etc because internet is used more often now.
money is up and down,still do the odd $300 plus day but more likely $200 average which aint that crap hot cause you get no holidays,sick pay etc.
maintenance wise is fuck all on a scoot because you have no chain sprockets to worry about,tyres are $40 not $250 and fuel is less.
lanesplitting is a hell of a lot easier and faster on the scoot,and your less noticed by the feds on scoot than a normal bike(most think your on a moped)
to the naysayers about the scoot being any good,i would compete against a drz400 and a zx1000 at my company and beat them hands down in earnings take.
anyway the lack of suspension and the councils love of fucking speed humps everwhere has fucked my back over the last 7 years and i had to quit,give me a ring if you want any info cause deadline couriers are looking to replace me as soon as,i will also be selling my pile of uz125 bikes and parts(two complete bikes and 3 ive used for spares)
danny 0272755860

[swbarnett]

On the upside its great for your riding skills and you will be able to anticipate a vehicle movements before they do

Couldn't agree more. I learnt more in my few months as a courier than at any other time in my riding career.

[F5 Dave]

Riding skills being traffic avoidance. can't see it being a real boon to racing skills, but any time on a bike must help, but your vision will be close based, not like fast riding.

I've been thinking about this too much, but from above lets say $200 average. 48 weeks if you take the same 4 weeks off (pretty dead post Christmas I imagine anyway) most people do, Well that's $48k a year. Close to what you are on now. Irrespective of how frugal you are the expenses will take the wage to less than you are on now.

[The Reibz]

Yep your right bro, expenses + long days for 6 days a week just to keep yourself afloat makes it hardly worth it. Definitely a lifestyle thing, don't know how the van drivers do it when they have to replace their vehicles every few years just to stay contracted with the company.

try carry 2 x 20litre containers of brake cleaner on a busa

Got to take a falcon cylinder head out to the machinists today, will see how well that works. It aint a heavy traffic bike, thats for sure.

Thanks for all the handy info

[F5 Dave]

My step-sis used to work in office at large courier company & her take was they were all stressed to make it work & none had marriages that survived as far as she could tell.


Good luck & research whatever line of work you jump into.


Managed with my C20 van head on back of a bike before. Was a bit concerned it was going to bail so well secured.

[swbarnett]

Riding skills being traffic avoidance. can't see it being a real boon to racing skills, but any time on a bike must help, but your vision will be close based, not like fast riding.

If you keep your vision close you're dead. The short time I spent as a courier went a long way to teaching me to look ahead as far as I could while still being aware of what was immediately around me.

Of coursse, when I did it (almost 30 years ago now) the traffic was a LOT lighter and lane splitting was almost purely for getting to the front at the lights.

[nzspokes]

Then faxes came in and most of our business went out the window.

Wow your old.

We should catch up for a ride sometime.

[Oakie]

Mrs earns around 70k as a sales rep for a major trade firm. Not that its anyones business though.

Well I thought it might have been my business because I'm in HR and do the recruiting for our organisation in Christchurch. Never mind though.

[Brian d marge]

Giz a job , go on ,,, giz a job

Stephen

[rastuscat]

Dateline 1988. I started as a motorcycle Popo on an R80RT in Orkers. Bike couriers almost exclusively had write off CBR600RRRRRs or Impulses, the little brown numbers with orange frames. All previously written off by insurance company's for panel damage, but awesome ugly courier shuttles. Only dudes I ever envied, tho my employer paid all my fuel, insurances, yaddy yaddy. Envied their freedom to hammer the city. Not really a career I suspect. Mine is.

[The Reibz]

Well I thought it might have been my business because I'm in HR and do the recruiting for our organisation in Christchurch. Never mind though.

No offence bro but its just a bit of a personal question that was all. Seems everyone is ending up in Christchurch or over in Aussie at the moment.
Personally I would move north (Whangas), because the rent is cheap and there is better fishing up there...

[angle]

Mrs earns around 70k as a sales rep for a major trade firm. Not that its anyones business though.
Mr Key pays me around 42k to work 96 hours a fortnight, doing a job I hate, so I can impress people I no longer like.
Pay was good 2 years ago, then they sacked most of my mates and replaced them with civilian workers. Raised rents, meal charges on bases, removed all the good things all in the name of budget cuts. The DF is a depressing place to work at the moment, hence wanting out.

There are actually no dedicated IT streams for uniformed personnel in the Navy; are you an ET? Navy IT personnel normally have no problems whatsoever finding a job in the 'civvy street', qualified and skilled welders are also quite sought after in the civilian world.