Moving Target,
Volume 3, Issue 2, Spring 1992
London, 1992, all of the city has been conquered by Ceaser leader the Glorious West 1 legions except one small corner of Berwick St. where indomitable,indpend ccs still hold out against the might of the ROCS empire.
Lisa Byrne is managing director, senior controller and saleswoman of Creative Couriers. She and her partner Jay Edge started Creative Courier after working at On Yer Bike for a while as riders: I was crap!". They started with 300 quid.
"We rented a room in Wardour St, we had two weeks rent on it 70 quid, we had one phone line, one desk, and I think we had two chairs and a lot of enthusiasm and about 4 clients. We grew very slowly because we didn't have any money. We couldn't borrow any. The banks laughed at us; not only did they not really know what pedal bike despatch ,I mean, two women doing pedal bike despatch, that's even more stupid. At this time Robin Willis of OYB was been given money like it was going out of fashion by Lloyd's Bank to do whatever and we couldn't even get a 100 quid over-draft but we survived. We took on clients very slowly because of that."
Lisa has a well deserved reputation for being a woman who knows her own mind, and when she felt that Creative needed something to set it apart from the other lags in the market-place she went for it: "the uniform was the only way we were going to survive frankly. The deal is that if you work here you buy and wear a uniform. That's taken off at something like 2.5/week up to the cost which is 22.50. The t-shirts in the summer are a quid each, ‘cos people tend to have 6 or 7. We ask people to wear black cycling shorts with the t-shirt and the mad coloured jacket. This time of year is worse because you can't enforce that sort of uniform when it’s so cold and wet
MT's interest in Creative stems from the fact that they are one of two cc companies who are still true to the gospel of pedal bike despatch as preached by Robin Willis (On Yer Bike's originator) and practised by Clair Nielsen (possibly the greatest cc controller ever to cough down the box). All the rest, MegaCycles, Top Security, Pedal Pushers, et al have been swallowed and the big daddy, OYB, has gone as reported elsewhere this ish.
Creative has been described as 'a trip back in time: remember paper dockets?’ Creative doesn't have telephonists only controllers. Lisa isn't a big fan of the mega-despatch co. It’s faceless, it's americanised, it’s computerised. You can't have Macdonald’s on every corner. ROCS (for the few of you that don't know, it's Real Time Operations Control System computers, the 'industry standard') gets a blast, too."It rips the guts out of real controlling, I believe in grass roots controlling. " She has strong views on the courier business, generally: "I really do think that a lot of the people that were big and important in the business have bottled out. They've been forced to compete merely on price and I don't think that's good for anybody. They've got everybody up against the wall. The pedal bikes are having a bloody tough time and I really resent that. What’s the next move? Down? Again? Our guys are struggling to earn the same as they were 2 years ago, How bad does it have to be? This has happened because the people who own despatch companies allowed it to happen.
MT says amen, sister to that but wonders why Creative has held out when others have just keeled over:"what I think happens is that the directors don't wort We workin a very hands-on situation. I do a 5-day week, I mean, I know how, many pens we use on control. I wonder how many directors know that [laughter]."
The big boys want her, I've been courted by Paul Stoney [gone and soon to be forgotten MD of OYB -see Gutter Press] and Michael Man of West 1, they regularly ring me. At the moment they approach me in the way of: would you like to come and see our mega organisation and wouldn't you like the opportunity to be part of it? Basically they want to asset-strip they want the client list and they want nothing else. They don't want the controllers, they don't want the riders and I wouldn't be interested in that" MT suggested that Creative could be seen as one of the last minnows in a shark-infested sea and wondered how she felt about that "A mixture of being dead terrified and thinking that's alright anyway cos we're different. I actually feel completely isolated, I think well why is everybody else selling out and I calm myself with the thought that when OYB first set up there were only big faceless motor-cycle companies and the reason it worked is because OYB weren’t, so if that’s what’s happening again then we're going full-circle. I fully intend to be 60 and still controlling." The only cloud is: ‘If the financial squeeze goes on for too much longer financial directors in companies will become more important than people that order the job and produce the goods. They won't give a damn that Creative Courier is a really good service, they'll’ wanna know whether the invoice looks right, what the price is and then the column that says discount."
Having heard the story about the guy who ended up with Lisa's chain wrapped around his neck when he tried to grab a hold of her bristols at a set of lights, MT reckons she will continue to repel the boarders with ease.
| main | articles | laws | zines | report | 10-9 day |
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at messvilleto@yahoo.com