Bicycle messenger

Bicycle couriers ( Switzerland: Velo couriers ) lead courier services in the range of vans by using bicycles. The main application are medium and large cities where the bicycle is one of the fastest means of transport ( below 5 km distance cyclists are generally from door to door 30% faster than car users).

• 3.2.1 Switzerland

Basics

Mostly received several independent bicycle messengers of one or more Central their jobs, but there are also traditional employment relationships. This bicycle couriers retained by the value of the contract is usually between 20% and 35 % on office organization and billing.

The documents and small packages with an average weight of usually than two kilograms are usually transported in a large volume waterproof back pocket or special courier backpacks. But cargo bikes and bikes with trailers are in use in some cities. Many couriers ride bicycles, they have optimized their own ideas for the city. Some have a Eingangrad or fixie, others have normal road bikes or mountain bikes with slick tires. In addition, are also quite "ordinary" bicycles in use.

Working conditions

A full-time bike messenger sets at 10 back to more than 35 orders per day between 50 and more than 200 kilometers. The energy demand is on average about 6,000 kcal and, depending on the constitution of the driver in the winter to over 12,000 kcal. increase. Full-time bike messengers ride in often over 20,000 km and therefore have a very high recovery needs.

Meanwhile, there are hardly any pure bicycle courier services. Most companies use motor vehicles and the networks of the Over -night service as a supplement and extension of its offer.

In Germany bicycle couriers are usually self-employed entrepreneurs. You work as a subcontractor for one or more courier centers, of which they are supplied with orders. Also own invoice or cash is accepted in some customer relationships. More rarely, there are also classic employment relationship between courier and messenger service.

In Switzerland, an independent bicycle couriers are rare, most are employed by small and medium sized local courier companies.

History

While in the years after the turn of the century to the 20th century, the messenger service was largely usual by bicycle, he was more and more replaced by motorized messengers over time. It was not until the mid-1980s and in the wake of increasing road congestion, the increasing cost of energy and the resulting ecological awareness bike couriers were interesting again for business.

Before the start of the growing motorization

Probably the first bike messenger in German history was Johann Baptist Ruhdorfer of Hohenlinden. He drove his 1896 self-built penny farthing daily to Munich and Rosenheim to get there spare parts for its customers.

An even earlier report there from San Francisco, where on July 7, 1894, the " pullman rail strike" took place, a railway strike which prevented the delivery of postal items. Through the idea of ​​a bicycle manufacturer was divided into eight sections with a bike courier transport chain, the entire railway line, over which the couriers transported the goods. This event can be considered as the birth of the American "bicycle messengers ."

Red cyclists

As an example of German Radkurierdienste the first hour, the company can serve Red cyclist from Munich, Stuttgart, Freiburg and Regensburg, with three wheels deliver up to 1910 programs and were well known. Even today, long-established Munich remember the kind cyclists who were known for their courageous driving style. The Red cyclists there are today, but they have evolved over the years to moving companies that employ no more bike couriers. The deep roots of these couriers at the Munich culture is evidenced by their presence in the story A Munich in the sky of the writer Ludwig Thoma.

The couriers of modern times

While the bike messenger in New York were out already in the 1970s, the first European bicycle courier company was founded in the newer sense in Munich in 1985. It was the company Munich bike messenger by Kurt tungsten. In the following period emerged in nearly all major German cities bicycle courier services. The possibility to combine short-haul faster and more flexible bike by train as a fast and ecological alternative between cities was attempted mid-1990s with the company Ökourier in Cologne and failed after a few years. In 1996, the Federation of bicycle couriers founded with the aim to link the individual bicycle couriers in Germany.

In the 1980s and 1990s then a certain food and clothing style influenced the urban bike culture and the scene developed within the courier scene, increasingly, to leisure scene and subculture could be. Starting from cities like New York, San Francisco and London spread to major cities worldwide clearly to be recognized courier style, as well as in German cities like Berlin, Hamburg or Munich. For example, practical bicycle sportswear and weatherproof jackets with short military trousers (with practical side pockets ), mixed Football Socks and various elements of skater, punk and hip hop culture. Regarding the wheels got more and more stressed a minimalist style that originally stemmed from the need to minimize costs in the wearing parts of the wheels, but soon constituted a separate aesthetic dogma for many couriers. So spread throughout the scene, the use of input gears, or even track bikes with fixed gear and no brakes. Driving without brakes is however illegal, as shall be provided in accordance with the German road traffic regulations bikes with at least two independent brakes. Moreover, dealing with such wheels takes some practice. Nevertheless, minimalist equipped wheels turn in the long term as more cost effective than conventional circuits road and mountain bikes and are considered by many couriers as " proper style ". Thus, many couriers have their wheels individually customize and / or build them yourself to, in many cities, some bike shops to have specialized couriers as customers, often such stores whose owners have once worked himself as couriers. In the context of these stores to meet regularly couriers, also the scene takes place in joint leisure activities such as bicycle polo and Alleycat races, as well as international courier Championships (see below) together.

Meanwhile, this style is also encountered among non couriers and recreational riders on wide imitation, so that there train wheels and the typical courier clothes belong to the usual street scene in cities like New York and London.

Switzerland

Also in Switzerland include bicycle couriers for years the street scene. First bike messenger services were established 1988-1989 in Lucerne, Bern, Basel and Zurich. Their success led to a rapid expansion into smaller cities. Today, bike messengers are in around 30 cities daily go. Most bicycle courier services in Switzerland are networked on the common logistic company Swiss Connect, and in cooperation with SBB and lead as well as deliveries between different cities.

Championships

Courier Championships serve to maintain contact between the couriers, but are primarily sporting occasions when the couriers measure in different disciplines. The disciplines are based on the daily work of the bicycle couriers. The main race (main races ) usually resemble a orienteering and are held on a closed course. In addition, there are also other forms of competition: Standing on the bike balance ( Trackstand; discharged with bikes with rigid transition, so-called Fixies ) as long as possible skid marks on the asphalt cart ( Trackskid, is discharged with Fixies ) or nocturnal scavenger hunts in urban environments ( Alleycat Racing ).

• German championships, the German Cycle Messenger Championships ( CISS ) have been organized since 1995.

• European Championships, the European Championships Cycle Messenger ( ECMC ) has been around since 1996.

• Swiss Championships Suisse Cycle Messenger Championships ( SUICMC ) find since 1993 with the exception of 2010, every year.

• World Championships ( Cycle Messenger World Championships, CMWC ) are held every year since 1993.