Recently, the Washington Post published an article about the decline of the bicycle courier service in Washington, D.C. In the past, messengers have depended on the delivery of filings and legal papers to maintain the business. A confluence of events including the rise of electronic filings, security increases at government buildings, and the downturn in the economy have created a somewhat bleak future for the service.
The Post reported the number of messengers in D.C. have dropped by over half in the last decade as jobs dried up.
“Those of us left are making a lot less money,” Zalan said. “This last week, I set a personal best for futility: I sat out here for seven hours and made $25.”
To the Austin bike messengers out there, how is business? Are you seeing the same declines in Austin as in D.C.?
Related posts:
- Messenger hang out, Little City, to close doors by January 2011 ...
- Pink: a (love) courier service is back in Austin this April ...
- Local talent agency looking for bike messengers for a national commercial ...
- Bike Industry Profile: Brad Beneski of FlashBak ...
- Bike Industry silliness returns: Cannondale shows off carbon fiber, Di2 “city bike” ...
on Sep 16th, 2009 at 10:18 am
From the sound of things the locals’ favorite coffee shop/hangout is not long for this world: http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2009/09/15/little_city_coffee_shop_may_be.html
Hopefully that doesn’t reflect on the local messenger industry as a whole and just means they’ll have to find a new perch from which to judge regular cyclists as they pass.
on Sep 16th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
the austin messenger business operate on a much smaller scale, but the same things are happening here. both the federal and travis county courts went to mandatory e-filing systems in the last two years, and i expect it’s a matter of time before the various state court houses do as well. the number of messengers on the streets of austin is declining (i’m one of the retired ones…), lately when one person steps aside there just isn’t quite enough work to replace them with another full time courier.
the legal side of the business is on it’s way out, but while i was working downtown i saw food delivery start to blow up. while it’s not at all the same as hustling stacks of legal docs cross town against ridiculous deadlines, it is still nice to see other businesses get wise to fact that they can move their products to the customer much faster on a bicycle than in a car, even out of the downtown area.