Motorcycle courier work?

[ready4whatever]

id love to get paid crap if it ment riding all day

[MarkH]

spoke to a guy 2 years ago in auckland central, he was making 50 K a year as a motorcycle courier. basically what I was making as a photographer.
and his bike was the same outlay as about half of one good lens.

I'd do that job for that money! How would someone go about getting a job like that?

[Squiggles]

id love to get paid crap if it ment riding all day

You like commuting all day then?

[cambridgedan]

sounds like it could be a fun summer job, how does one go about getting a job like that ??

[danchop]

i finish this friday,was real good when i started around $5500-$6500 gross a month,the work has just died off in the last 6 months,i reckon theres only about 4-5 m/cycle couriers left in the city,and gone are the days of big fast bikes doing it,scooters are the way to go now,faster and can carry bigger items and shitloads less cost/maintenance

[carver]

i finish this friday,was real good when i started around $5500-$6500 gross a month,the work has just died off in the last 6 months,i reckon theres only about 4-5 m/cycle couriers left in the city,and gone are the days of big fast bikes doing it,scooters are the way to go now,faster and can carry bigger items and shitloads less cost/maintenance

whats ya chargeout like though?

[danchop]

whats ya chargeout like though?

we are part of a bigger courier co and are contract workers so we get 60% of what the company charge for each job,so it all matters how many jobs you do and how urgent they were,for example we had a job today from auckland to taupo and the customer paid $600,the courier got 60%gross,or a real urgent job from one office in queen st to another is about $25-the same job ordered at a 3 hour delivery is about $3,so the more real urgent work you get the more money you make....thing is the real urgent work has died

[MarkH]

and can carry bigger items

So, what sort of items are we talking about?

[danchop]

So, what sort of items are we talking about?

generally bikes only get jobs for envelope type stuff,cause you can rest stuff on the floorboards of a scooter you can carry more box type stuff as well as in your top box,and heavier too like 4 sets of car disc rotors,also a car door on one occasion,i can also take 5 x 15 packs of stienlager on my 125 scooter,try that on a gixxer 1000

[MarkH]

generally bikes only get jobs for envelope type stuff,cause you can rest stuff on the floorboards of a scooter you can carry more box type stuff as well as in your top box,and heavier too like 4 sets of car disc rotors,also a car door on one occasion,i can also take 5 x 15 packs of stienlager on my 125 scooter,try that on a gixxer 1000

My 400 doesn't have a flat area in front of the seat (there is a hump between the left & right floorboards. But I reckon I can fit a reasonable amount of stuff on it. I could fit more if I replaced the 35L top box with a 52L one. I have over 60L of storage under the seat too. I would have thought that for a car door or similar the sub60 type couriers with a small hatchback car would be used rather than even thinking of trying to get a bike courier to take it.

At the moment I am struggling financially (but wishing I had spare money for a bike) and am not getting enough work (self employed computer tech). I would consider almost any job including part time (like a couple days a week), weekend work or whatever. It is a pity that so many potential jobs are either slowing down or have thousands of other applicants keen on getting the job.

[Squiggles]

I would consider almost any job including part time (like a couple days a week), weekend work or whatever.

Setup and running costs can be prohibitive to part time work...

[MarkH]

Setup and running costs can be prohibitive to part time work...

Running costs would only be for the amount of time running, so should be not too big a deal. I wouldn't have thought Setup costs would be too bad, though a Givi 52L top box would cost me around $500.

[Squiggles]

Running costs would only be for the amount of time running, so should be not too big a deal. I wouldn't have thought Setup costs would be too bad, though a Givi 52L top box would cost me around $500.

Dont forget Insurance + Gear hirage + ACC levies + all the rest that comes with being a contractor
You've got to do a few hours to be earning more than at mcd's after you've covered expenses... the $$ are in working more than the few.

This is unless its all changed since i went to get in a couple of years back

[Katman]

id love to get paid crap if it ment riding all day

In the whole 5 years I spent as a courier I could never quite get my head around the fact that someone was actually paying me money (and large amounts of it) to ride around on a motorcycle all day.

[Morcs]

You also need commercial insurance for your bike.
Nearly all companies will employ you as a contractor - so you will be self employed so have to do your own tax and shit.
As soon as you have a bin and are injured, the company doesnt want to know you anymore.