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Cycle
couriers saddled with drop in custom
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Note: Some of the numbers are wrong in
this article. See Moving Target's analysis
By David Fickling
Financial Times, March 21 2009
The credit crunch has thrown a spoke in the wheels of bicycle couriers,
who are suffering as the economic downturn cuts the movement of goods
and documents round city centres.
Volumes of work in London, Europe’s largest market for cycle courier
work, have dropped about 20 per cent since last autumn. Prices are
being squeezed still further as cash-strapped clients seek to trim
costs.
“The only time I can remember it being like this was for a few days
after September 11,” says Bill Childley, a 23-year veteran of the
industry and editor of Moving Target, a cycle courier magazine. “In my
experience this is unprecedented.”
The industry has already fallen from the heady days of the 1990s, when
Lycra-suited dispatch riders could expect to make £1,000 ($1,442)
a week weaving between slow-moving city traffic.
But as the rise of e-mail moved the bulk of document traffic online,
the best cycle couriers nowadays rarely make much more than £400
a week.
Courier companies fear that the recession may exacerbate the downward
trend.
“Everyone’s hanging on to their money longer,” says Lisa Byrne of
Creative Couriers. “Debtor days are up and we’ve seen a 30 per cent
increase in bad debts in the first quarter of this year. Ultimately, if
enough of your companies fail, they take you with them.”
Premier Despatch – one of the larger London-based couriers, run by
Kevin Jenkins, the husband of former EastEnders star Danniella
Westbrook – went into administration this year before being bought by
Addison Lee, the taxi company.
Ian Draude of Clockwork Despatch said couriers were being forced to cut
prices to retain custom.
“Clients are coming along and saying, ‘We’re being squeezed, can we
pass this on to you?’ There are very few long-term contracts in place,
so you’re only as good as your last job.”
In response to the downturn, some companies are treating cycle couriers
as loss leaders to tempt clients to use their more profitable motorbike
and van-based courier networks, according to Mr Chidley.
But Andrew Bernard, chief executive of City Sprint, which operates
London’s largest network of cycle couriers, says even profitable prices
have reached rock-bottom.
“The price per package is the same as a cup of coffee now,” he says.
“You’re talking about £2 a transaction for something like [the
three-mile trip from] WC1 to EC2.”
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