They say danger makes work exciting
By Eric Sabo. Eric Sabo is a free-lance writer.
Newsday, October 30, 1994
I HATE BIKING UP THE HILL on Second Avenue. It's steep and I'm in a hurry, so I grab on to a taxi cab near 49th Street. As a messenger, my job is to deliver packages as fast as possible. Hitching on to a car helps, although it's not the smartest way to get around town.
It's a summer afternoon when I reach for the back-wheel fender of the cab. The driver accelerates, then switches lanes, causing me to lose my balance. Knocked off my bike, I slide head first on the pavement, nearly getting run over by a truck. "Hey it's Superman," an onlooker says as I fly past him. Able to get through Midtown traffic faster than a speeding postal worker, bike messengers take over where the fax machine leaves off.
Considered dangerous and insane, messengers run red lights, ride against the traffic flow, and appear to show little regard for their own safety or anyone else's. Two years as a New York City bike messenger has given me lifelong scars and an ambulance trip to the hospital, though not for the taxi incident above; that one just left me scraped and bruised. I've frightened countless pedestrians, been cursed out by old ladies, and more than once threatened with being run down for banging on cars that got in my way. To a number of messengers, the danger is what makes the work exciting.
"I'm a bit of a daredevil," said Tracy Davis, 30. "You have to be to do this job." Davis, who goes by the nickname Buddha, started out in the messenger business as a walker seven years ago. This didn't last long. "I wanted the speed," she said. Bhudda is one of the few women bike messengers, although Davis said it doesn't matter since she can keep up with the guys. Besides, traffic doesn't discriminate. "It's not like, `oh, I'm a female; they're going to watch out,' " Davis said. "Wrong - road kill."
It's virtually guaranteed that a bike messenger will get in an accident at some point. Reckless cab drivers, car doors that open unexpectedly, and pedestrians that cross the street without looking first, top the list of dangers. While experience may prevent some careless mistakes, biking in the city is always hazardous.
The three couriers who died on the job this year were reportedly longtime bike messengers. And, like many messengers these days, at least two of them were wearing helmets. Though messengers would prefer safer streets, they are not about to slow down since they get paid on commission. "If you aren't really quick, you can't make much money," said Dimitri Vellez, a dispatcher for EarlyBird at 207 E. 45th.
Unfortunately that speed is most needed during the winter, when there's more work and fewer messengers. To get through the snow and ice and to survive the canyon-sized potholes year-round, the preferred tool is a mountain bike. There are plenty of diehards, though, who ride a "fix," the bike with one gear and no way of coasting that is meant for racing around a smooth track. The only way to stop is to jam the pedals to a halt and skid.
With deliveries from Wall Street to Harlem, a messenger will take anything that can't be faxed: legal documents, medical supplies, even small animals. "I had to take a baby salamander from Green Street to a pet store on the Upper East Side," said messenger Hodari DePalm. "I put it in my bag like a regular package and made it there fine."
Paul Pagano, in charge of dispatching models' portfolios to potential clients for Company Models in Soho, said bike messengers are essential to the fashion industry. If a model portfolio is delivered late to a magazine, it can cost the agency a multimillion-dollar contract, according to Pagano. "We definitely need that speed," said Pagano. "Messengers are very underrated, but they're our lifeline."
Five or six of the large black portfolios can add up to more than 30 pounds of freight. Often they have to be biked 40 blocks uptown and delivered in under 20 minutes. Couriers, who may log 30 miles a day on their bikes, claim they don't have time to ride with caution or to wait patiently at an intersection. "Running a red light to us is like jaywalking," said messenger Jose Padilla.
Even so, critics of bike messengers, and there are plenty of them, say the job pressures are no excuse to break the law. City Councilman Antonio Pagan said most bike accidents are caused by couriers violating traffic rules. Pagan, a city cyclist himself, is pushing for legislation that would give police the right to seize bicycles owned by messengers who ride on the sidewalk.
"We're talking about abuse of traffic laws," said Pagan. "They might not like it, but they should grow up." Messengers can get in enough trouble already. Running a red light and refusing to pull over for the police sometimes results in a high speed chase. A misunderstanding at a light led a pursuing squad car on me several blocks until I lost them crossing against traffic on Broadway.
The hassles of the job do not end on the road. There are few places to lock up a bike. And once it's locked, there's a good chance the bike will be stolen. Finding a working pay phone to call in for the next job is hard, and finding a bathroom is even harder, since many buildings won't let messengers use the facilities. Other buildings require messengers to use the freight elevators, costing yet more precious time.
Couriers know that they're unpopular. "It's like I might infect an elevator," said Lou Munoz, a bike messenger with Olympic. A cab driver for 20 years, Munoz, at 41, quit after a disagreement with a taxi and limousine inspector. While Munoz enjoys the exercise - in two years as messenger he has lost 60 pounds - mentally it's a drag. "We're treated as garbage," he said. As a former taxi driver, Munoz at least knows how to deal with one of the biker's biggest headaches. "I've never been hit by a cab," he said. "I understand why they ride around as kamikaze pilots."
Like cab drivers, messengers are having to work harder for less money. Several years ago messengers could make $500 to $600 a week. The average is now about $300 to $400, and it's not uncommon to make less than that for five days' work. There are no sick days, no vacation days, no health insurance and no company pension.
Observers say new communication technologies have permanently hurt the messenger industry. Bill Goodman, editor of the Courier Times, a trade publication, estimates that the fax machine has cut business by 20 percent. Also contributing to the downturn, according to A to Z Couriers owner Adam Dally, is a tighter squeeze on costs in the business community.
"Most companies regard us as a luxury instead of a necessity," Dally said. But Joel LeFevre of the Teamsters suspects there are other reasons for the lower pay. "Once these companies started cutting rates and didn't have to prove anything, they could just absorb more and more profits," said LeFevre, who is secretary-treasurer for Local 840.
Since June, Local 840 has been attempting to organize an industry-wide messenger union. The Teamsters report that more than 700 bikers, walkers and van drivers, demanding benefits and better wages, have signed up to join the union. Not everybody agrees that the Teamsters are the answer.
The average career of a messenger is no more than a year, and most tend to be young, making it difficult to organize. While many couriers have a family to support, the business draws its fair share of part-time workers who are only there until something else comes along. Lee Height calls himself a slacker messenger. "The best part of being a biker is that you can disappear whenever you want," said Height, 28. "I'd hate to see this become a real job." A former drummer in a rock band, Height is unsure about what he wants to do with his life.
"Right now I like to ride my bike," Height said.
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