October 6, 1987 By Jean Sorenson
When John Macrae became a bicycle courier 3 and 1/2 years ago, he tossed over a career as a chef, lost 25 pounds in the first three months, and became hooked on one of the most competitive businesses on the street.
Freshly assigned to a desk job as dispatcher and gunning to move into junior manager with IPX Couriers Ltd., Vancouver, Macrae is a cycle courier who has stayed longer than most who use this job to pay for education or travel.
"We usually have a 100% turnover a year with the bicycle couriers. We are consistently retraining," says company owner Heidi Kim, who claims to be the first Vancouver courier service to use a cycle-fleet starting in 1978.
Macrae is also a courier who cultivated a financial appreciation of the industry's cost components and became adept at making money. When Macrae first started, he bought a 10-speed from a retiring courier for $125, but other couriers advised him to spend the $600 or $700 needed for a good mountain bike. But the 10-speed did the same job over the 25 miles a courier averages a day and Macrae soon found there was a good supply of closeted 10-speeds that he could buy from new mountain bike owners for $15 to $30. In 3 and 1/2 years my total expenses for five bikes (including repairs) was $600," he says.
A courier's other major expense in his radio, a vital link to the company dispatcher. Rental and insurance is $60 per month - or in courier's terms two daily deliveries. "The average downtown delivery is $3," says Macrae, adding couriers operate mainly on a commission basis which starts at 57% and rises a point each year a courier stays.
It took Macrae about 4 months to learn the company's roster of accounts and become proficient at trouble-shooting. He developed his own contacts book of accounts. "I wouldn't call the dispatcher if there was a problem. I would deal with the company.
I essence he became what couriers call a "hiballer" - someone with the knack of constantly monitoring calls, scooping up the more lucrative rush items and ensuring he's leading the rest of the company's cycle couriers in the number of daily drops.
A good day is 60 deliveries earning $90 to $100 from 8 am to 6 pm.
The challenge Macrae faced was "keeping a rhythm" uninterrupted by flat tire or mechanical breakdown. That hurried pace, though, not only burns up to 3,000 calories a day (couriers are constantly hungry, confides Macrae) but is one riddled with financial pitfalls. A good portion of a day's pay can be wiped out by a bent wheel while jostling rush hour traffic or encountering the hiballer's nemesis - a traffic cop.
"It's really discouraging starting your day off with a ticket. You know you are going to work the whole day just to pay it off," he says.
The growing number of cycle couriers - Macrae estimates there are now 150 in downtown Vancouver- has caused Police ti crack down on traffic violators. Fines have risen from $15 to $75 in the past three years. Macrae, who went two years without a ticket, has even been a recipient of what couriers dub the Nobel Prize - a $15 fine for "no bell".
His years on the street have given Macrae a unique perspective on Vancouver's business life. The main users of bicycle couriers are lawyers, banks and accountants in the downtown core. Macrae plays the stock market - he's not privy to any confidential information, but he does watch where deliveries go. "You might have five companies in one office and then you are delivering to a new office for one of those companies. That probably means the company is doing pretty well", he says.
Today, Macrae, 30, and a bachelor is content to "take my $1500 mountain bike and pound up Grouse Mountain". He also races competitively with other couriers who use their job as a means of keeping in shape.
"Meeting all those beautiful receptionists wasn't all that bad for my social life either," he says.
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at messvilleto@yahoo.com