Why?

The idea of all this comes from a few places. The urge to write strikes me very once in a while, and some people have said that I should put something out there that perhaps people would enjoy. Recently I've been writing a post or two for NO BRAKES . In that format there is only so much that I'm capable of, things have to keep people positively interested in our services, products and events. If I am to write more I realized it had to be in an independent forum.
Recently I've been reading Dispatch 101 and that was a secondary and not all positive motivation for this(no personal animosity intended). Dispatchers and couriers have always had a love hate relationship, and a testament to the skill of the authors abilities he communicates it in such a familiar way that I can almost imagine that my own dispatcher is behind it. I have to resist writing nasty things on his comment board the same way I have to resist coming back on the radio with a 10-4uck-you!

The bicycle courier has had many cartoonish nemesis' in our sordid history, dispatchers, drug dealers trying to run Kevin Bacon over, and the elvators at 600 are just a few. But coming in near the top of the list, and particularly relevant for the last week is the car courier.. Whom we couriers simply call "some driver". Ex. I'm waiting on "some driver" to pick up his package that was all ready late when i got the page. Typical responses upon chirping a driver consist of, what?, where is peachtree?, something spoken in a foreign dialect, I don't know anything about it, where dat?, dead silence, and I'm busy right now. Now I can't fault somebody for being an idiot, or speaking one more language than I can, but your job as a courier is not to be lost, and we are both quite likely busy at any given moment on a monday through friday 9-5 so spare me the attitude. I can also guarantee that I didn't ask to do your job for you. If it was up to me I would never circumvent you as a car driver dealing with all the traffic between you and your destination. Believe me when I say me even talking to you is 100percent at the request of our mutual employers. Not only am I performing my job and on these particular two weeks the job of my fellow bike messenger(he covered for me when I got married so the least I can do is return the favor, congrats matt and valerie!)but now I am also picking up slack for you and your fellow drivers, doing multiple peoples jobs with little hope of actually making any more money(the pitfalls of the guarantee to be covered in later posts). The grumpiness and sloth exhibited by a driver when you pick a package up for them seems even more extreme when in contrast with the speed and urgency of a driver unloading all of their 20 pound packages on you at once with their children in the back and girlfriend/wife/older daughter in the seat next to them. However "inaccessible" a location you were at while trying to get them to come pick up the 50 pound box you grabed for them the day before, they can find you within a minute flat when they need to throw every one of their packages on you and head for the hills to either produce more children or have a nice family dinner at chilli's depending again upon how old that woman in the passenger seat is. They can find you anywhere and instantly make you realize that the whole being lost thing is only a ruse. Occasionally a driver will come along who is competent and can communicate with fluency and ease. A week or so will pass, then dispatch learns of this and makes sure that you are never allowed to speak with them ever again.