SPOKES

by Fur

Mercury Rising #5, Moon Season, 1992

HERE'S THE SCOOP: bikers are NOT the main source of upward pressure on Workers’ Comp rates in the messenger industry. Interviews with Hank Newman of COMPRO Insurance Services and Robert Mollman, General Counsel of the California Workers Compensation Institute, reveal the culprits to be (oddly enough) long-haul truckers and armored car drivers.

Much of the press coverage of the issue leads one to believe that there is a rate for bike messengers, but in fact we're just one little corner of rate classification #7198, "parcel delivery", along with UPS, Fed-X and practically everybody who moves anything you could call a "parcel." People are often killed or permanently disabled in accidents involving big rigs, and armored car drivers get robbed and shot at, as well as having more serious accidents than drivers of smaller vehicles.

The figure we saw in the January 8th Chronicle, $17.80 per $100 of payroll is the base rate, reflecting the average for #7198. The actual rate a company pays is further determined by experience modification, a calculation of the company's record over the past 3 years, which boils down to a number. Says CWCI's Mollman, "a 1.6 mod, for instance, means you'll pay 60%more than the base rate."

The net rate may be further affected by a dividend insurers pay back to some clients annually if their record for the year was good, and if their account is large.

The Association of Messenger and Courier Services (AMCS, pronounced Amsis, or, if you prefer, abcess) wants out of good ol’ #7198. COMPRO will be representing AMCS before the Classification and Rating committee of the Rating Bureau in its bid to create a separate rate classification for messenger/courier services. According to Hank Newman, the companies feel their interests would be better served by having their own rate group, and the industry is now large enough to make this practical. A classification for bikes alone is not in the cards however, says Newman, because "the payroll base is not broad (meaning large) enough."

AMCS’ move to secede from its rate class is significant, for we can infer from it that most companies" experience mods" are low. If they didn't think they could get a lower base rate out on their own, they could not have agreed to press for this new deal. This doesn't mean bikes are cheap to keep, though. One problem we have is that experience modification is calculated not just on the basis of dollar losses, but also on the frequency of incidents, regardless of fault. The vast majority of bikers’ WC claims are quite small, and many are paid back when settlements are reached with the insurers of motorists who were at fault. But even if you're doored, and you settle, and there’s no net loss to the comp carrier, it's still going to drive up your company’s "mod" The fallout is that we and our employers, are paying for the brutality of our car-clogged environment, and for an insurance game that's rigged against us. Being safe goes beyond how we ride. The struggles of Bay Area Bicyclists' Action, SF Bike Coalition, and the City's Bicycle Advisory Committee to change transportation policy are our struggles, too. If we want to stay on two wheels, we’ve got to "party for our right to bike."

A note to our inside contacts: if you liked the old Executive bike service, you'll love King Courier, a new cooperatively-run company of alumni of the Exec school of hard knocks. They’re insured, bonded and rolling. Call 543-6269 for royal service!

Reporter Carl T. Hall took me to lunch on the Chronicle’s nickel to hear about aspects of the Exec layoff story we felt he missed. He was glad to see that we’re getting organized and contrite about the less-than-com-plete product of his admittedly hasty effort. Really, he did a pretty good job considering the misleading info he had to work wilh, but if I see the phrase "derring-do" in one more article on messengers, I’ll...I don't know what I'll do.

If you have comments or suggestions, email me at messvilleto@yahoo.com