History of the Messenger Industry

The messenger industry, like other kinds of cycling, first hit its stride in the 1970s. A workable balance emerged: messenger companies could make a profit by hiring bike riders “off the books” as independent contractors. Messengers received a low per-package piece-wage and no benefits, but anyone with a bicycle could get hired, even with no skills or credentials, and could earn a decent living by signing on and working hard. Bob McGlynn, a veteran messenger and co-founder of the Independent Courier Association (ICA), aptly describes the early messenger industry as resembling 19th-century capitalism.

Toward the end of the 1980s, three things changed. First, in 1987, the Koch administration fed on growing anti-messenger sentiment by attempting to ban all daytime bicycling in midtown and impose a strict set of licensing procedures on messengers. An organized protest by the bicycling community (led by bicycle messengers themselves), coupled with administrative ineptitude in promulgating the ban, stopped both measures in their tracks.

A year or so later, the state and federal governments began cracking down on messenger companies, charging that messengers were not contractors but employees. Companies were required to take withhold taxes and also pay back taxes.

Finally, as the 1980s ended, the recession hit, along with the proliferation of fax machines, making it difficult for the companies to pass these extra costs on to customers. This led to a significant shake-out, with many small companies going out of business or merging. (There is little data available on current numbers of companies and individual bicycle messengers. [1])

Despite a perception that bike messengers are becoming obsolete, the industry has stabilized somewhat in the early 1990s, but with incomes and profits significantly lower than during the boom times of the 1980s. “Three or four years ago you could make $500 to $700 a week, but most make more like $200 to $400,” says J.P. Lund, a messenger for the past five years. (The going rate for an average run is around $7, of which the messenger receives about half, with higher rates for rush and oversized packages. Messengers also earn bonuses for working in bad weather, and messenger company dispatchers often favor senior riders with more lucrative runs.)

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