no clever name

2003-12-16T19:09:00.000-05:00

I trained a new biker today. It was the first time that I've done that. I didn't know I was doing it until I got paged into the hub first thing in the morning and they told me that I was training the guy standing there. Neat.

It went fairly well and I think he'll be back tomorrow. I'm surprised each time a new trainee shows up these days. It's pretty inclining weather in which to take up a job as a bike courier.

There is the bike messenger christmas party this Friday, and the company I work for it having it's annual non-denominational dinner-dance on Saturday. Should be a fun weekend.

We're supposed to get freezing rain tonight. I hope it blows over before I start work in the morning.

2003-12-11T17:40:00.000-05:00

I saw a lady today on one of those electric carts. It had a bumper sticker on the back that said "SKYDIVING!" and there was a toll-free number. I guess I should have written down the number.

I have a bike polo picture up on DeviantArt, so go look at it.

2003-12-10T20:25:00.000-05:00

Someone mailed a cat. Seriously. An alive cat. It was outside of their place of business (on York St. in the market) so they put it in a cardboard box, cut a couple of holes in it and mailed it to the Humane Society. That's not cool. You shouldn't mail cats. I'm also guessing that it's not at all legal and that we're not exactly insured for that sort of thing. I didn't handle the cat in case you were wondering. Because it was in a box, it was a car-call.

What I can't figure out is why she was so determined to get rid of a cat outside her place of work? Next time I'm there I'm going to ask.

I think of stuff to put in my blog all the time while I'm working, but when I come home I usually can't think of much. Well, other than the cat.

Here is some funny/odd miscellany:
- One of the organizations we deliver for/to is called the "Military Police Complaints Commission". That's one of the places where the receptionist is behind glass and you have to slide stuff back and forth through a slot. That's not un-common though.
- I got a signature from a woman today named Malboeuf. I believe this is French for "bad beef". That's funny to me.
- If you live in Ottawa you should check out the driveway in front of 161 Laurier. There is some sort of warning sign, presumably for the cars or their passengers. I'm not sure what it is meant to indicate, but if I had to guess I'd say "icy crocodile". I might get a picture of it someday for those who live out of town.
- The UPS couriers carry around these little rugged computer things for scanning their deliveries and uploading signatures, etc... They look like a brown Speak and Spell. They have the following warning on the back: "Do not carry or use device and do not remove or install battery in areas marked as 'potentially explosive atmospheres'. Sparks could cause an explosion or fire. Turn off transmitters in 'blasting areas'." Awesome.

2003-11-11T22:15:00.000-05:00

Today was better than expected. The weather was miserable... snow, hail and lots of rain, but that stuff just doesn`t bother me that much any more.

Because it`s Remembrance Day all of the government offices were closed for the day. The government is by far the largest customer of the company that I work for so we were in for a pretty quiet day. A bunch of guys took the day off, but I worked in hopes of playing a bunch of bike polo. The plan was that there would be bike polo going on all day to help keep us busy. Apparently some polo did take place, but when I had time in the morning it wasn`t happening and I was just barely busy enough in the afternoon that I didn`t have time to get over and play.

As it turns out though, I was pretty lucky with the calls I got. I had 31, but I was only expecting around 10. I lucked out and picked up 13 packages all at once. I arrived at a pickup just as she was adding a whole bunch of calls. I called the dispatch and told him I was taking all of them and waited around until all 13 were ready. This obviously made up a big chunk of my calls for the day. I think that because of this I probably had more calls than anyone else. Bonus.

Oh, for those that don`t know. Bike polo is like horse polo, but we don`t have horses. We have bikes. Our mallets are home-made from broken golf clubs and ski poles. They each have a piece of PVC tube at the bottom (perpendicular to the shaft). We use street hockey balls and play in fenced in tennis courts. The game is 3 on 3. You can`t touch the ground while playing and if you do, you`re out of play until you ride a three-sixty at which point you are allowed to play the ball once again. It tends to be fairly aggressive and there are lots collisions and such. It`s good fun and I recommend that you play it.

2003-11-04T17:40:00.000-05:00

Well, holy crap. I finished early which was nice surprise considering how many riders were "off sick" today.

I think "ice pellets" and "freezing rain" sum it up pretty well. The hail was SuperCrappy (tm). It hurts the face, but really hurts the eyes. I'm sure that it's pretty easy to believe that having sharp little cold things whipped into your eyes continuously (or otherwise) is an unpleasant experience. Glasses might have helped. Well, they certainly would have helped with the cold things, but may have been overly detrimental to visibility. Not many riders were wearing them today, so...

Thanks to the freezing rain I couldn't really change gears from 10am onwards. Luckily I was stuck in a pretty reasonable gear, so it wasn't that big of a deal. My breaks held up surprisingly well. Each time I got on the bike I had to give them a little workout to clear the rims, but having done so they performed pretty much the same as any other rainy day.

My bike is totally covered in ice and looks pretty cool. If my camera weren't in Japan right now, (you'd better be taking some good photos, Eli) then I'd get some pictures of it.

I have to say though, that other than some very frozen, numb feet and a scrape on my knee from falling on the sidewalk, that I came away from the day pretty well. I seriously need to get some booties. These plastic bags just aren't cutting it anymore.

It's supposed to be 15 degrees tomorrow. People kept telling me that today...

2003-11-04T08:17:00.000-05:00

It's snowing. The forecast, however, speaks of "ice pellets" and "freezing rain". Should be an interesting day...

2003-10-27T20:19:00.000-05:00

Alright, I'm back...

I'm still a courier, it's still fun and I'm starting to get good at it.

Today was another one of those days where it rains nonstop. It was never really heavy, but it never let up either... What I've noticed about the weather is that the wind is the only really bad thing. Wet and cold you can dress for, but there's nothing you can do about the wind. It can make riding very difficult.

The first couple of weeks were pretty rough. I was totally exhausted at the end of each day and that's largely why I wasn't updating the blog. I'm quite used to it now though. Near the end of the week my legs start to get a little sore, but not bad.

On average I've been doing between 35 and 60 deliveries a day. My highest so far has been 63. To put those 9 'emergency' deliveries I had on my first day into perspective, the most I've had since then is 4 or 5 in a day. Often I have one or none. One of the guys I work with rides with a spedometer. He says he averages around 55km a day. I haven't been using mine because I'm afraid someone will swipe it. I'll probably just tape it on really well one of these days and start collecting my own data.

When I get paid (twice a month), I get a printout of all of the deliveries that I did each day. Included in this is the price that they charged the customer, and what my commision is. The highest I've received for a single delivery is six dollars and something and the lowest is 60 cents. The 60 cent ones are pretty common as that's what I get paid each time I deliver an ECO (our lowest class of service). I've been tallying some of the information from my pay stubs and once I get a little more I'll put up some averages in terms of $/day and $/delivery...

There are always new people starting, usually one or two a week, but none of them have lasted very long. There is one new guy who I think might stay on, but I've thought that about other people who have disappeared.

On a final note, I'm not happy about this daylight savings deal. It now gets dark before I finish work and I don't like that. Oh well, I'll get used to it.

Oh, and thanks to all of the people who have been bugging me to update my blog. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't likely have bothered with it anymore...

Seeya.

2003-09-23T23:04:00.000-04:00

I was too tired and sore to post last night after my first full day of riding. I pinched a nerve (or something like that) in my lower back right at the end of the day. Luckily I had a chiropractor appointment after work. Following the adjustment, the pain just vanished. I was very happy about that. When I got back on my bike to ride home, it came back in full force. I was much less happy about that. I had a hard time sleeping, and couldn't really stand up this morning. Following the chiro's instructions, I've been putting ice on it. It feels fine now. Oh, I didn't go to work today. Anyways, I'm sure I'll be back on track for tomorrow.

Other than that, and one other mishap at the end of the day I had a great day. I did 40 deliveries, 9 of which were 'emergencies'. Emergency is our fastest (and most profitable) service. They must be delivered within 30 minutes or 45 if they cross the river to/from Quebec. I'll have to wait until my first paycheque to find out how much I make for each type of delivery (I guess I could ask, but whatever). We get a deatiled breakdown of all our work with each pay.

It took me a little while to get all the paperwork figured out and remembering when to make entries on my pager, but by the end of the day I had it down. I learned where a lot of mailrooms were, and that's going to save me a lot of time down the road. (pun) In some places, you'll get there, lock up your bike, dig the package out of your bag and head into the lobby to be greeted by a security guard who informs you that the mailroom is around the block, down the ramp and through the tunnel.

A security guard in Hull looked at me and asked if it was my first day. He said he could tell by looking at me, but wouldn't elaborate...

Oh, and it's amazing how quickly my aversion to riding on the sidewalk went out the window. I don't even think twice about using it when a one-way street doesn't face the same direction as me.

2003-09-18T17:47:00.000-04:00

Day 4. (Still in the mail-room)

I was offered a full time job in the mail room today, but turned it down. I figured that if I was going to spend all day in an office building I could probably do better than $7.50/hr. I got into the courier thing for the sake of riding my bike. The other biker who has been in the mail room a bit this week decided that he liked it, and he did take the job. They said that whenever they were short and needed someone to come in, that they would request that I be the one who is sent in. It's nice to know that I'm going to get a break every now and then and have a chance to work indoors.

I think I also earned some brownie points with my regular manager for deciding to stay with him.

I got my Ortlieb bag today. It's red.

2003-09-17T20:27:00.000-04:00

Day 3.

Well, my first day of working on my own wasn't at all what I expected. I didn't get my pager on the first day so I had to go to the hub first thing yesterday. When I got there, I was told that a mailroom which our company operates was severly short-staffed and that I would be working there for the day. So, I worked in a mail room sorting mail and doing address lookups wearing a jersey, cleats, etc...

They decided that they were going to need someone in there all week, so, I'm there all week. Our company is short on bikers right now, so as their least experience and least effective biker I've been sacraficed.

Rumor has it that the hurricane Isabel is going to dump on Ottawa on Friday, so maybe it's best that I'm not out there. I want to make sure that I'm not in this mail room long term though. I'm sure that if I had been on the road for a while that it would be a welcome change, but when I have myself all worked up for my new job it's a little disappointing. The people I'm working with are nice and the atmosphere couldn't be better. It's very casual and friendly.

The Ortlieb bag that I orded came today when I wasn't home, so I have to go pick it up tomorrow at the post office. I'm eager to get my hands on it. I got my pager on Tuesday, but you can't do much without logging in, and I'm not sure that I should log in when I'm not doing deliveries. Oh well. I'll have to wait until tomorrow and play with my backpack instead.

2003-09-15T16:07:00.000-04:00

Well, my first day is over. I finished up early (2:30) because there wasn't much for me to do. On your first day you shadow another courier and learn how to do everything. You don't get paid on your first day, but the courier showing you around gets a bit of a bonus because you slow them down. I'm paid per delivery and I'll have more details on that when I actually start making some money.

The courier I shadowed (Paul) was a good guy. I was worried that it was going to be somebody who felt the need to initiate me and drive me as hard as they could. He was nice and easy to get along with. It certainly made the day an easy one.

It's going to take a while to get to know where all of the addresses are and where the mailrooms are hidden in each of the buildings.

I got a bit wet, but I'm totally fine with that as long as it's not too cold. I'm going to need some wet weather gear.

I'll be outfitted with a pager tomorrow (a RIM Blackberry). The company I'm working for doesn't use radio's at all, only the pagers. We have to rent them from the courier company. They're about $85/month. Worse than that is that if you break it you have to pay around $140 to replace it. They're easy to break, especially because they don't hold up to water very well at all.

2003-09-15T07:47:00.000-04:00

It's day 1.

The weather forecast:
- Morning: 21 degrees, scattered showers (40%)
- Afternoon: 27 degrees, chance of thunder-showers (60%)

The sun just came out while I'm typing this. At least it won't be cold.

2003-09-11T21:29:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I start work on Monday at Quick Messenger Service here in Ottawa. Getting a job there was pretty easy. I handed in a resume/application at around 3:00pm, and without even looking at it, the receptionist asked me to come back for an interview at 4:15. I think to pass the interview, you need to be able to talk. I think having a face may also have worked to my advantage. I guess I'll never get that half-hour back that I spent writing up a brilliant cover-letter, but I have a job now, and that's what counts.

For those of you who don't know me, I just graduated with a degree in computer science (minor in business (ack!)) and I've wanted to be a bike courier ever since I was a kid. I wanted to start up a courier business when I was a kid, but there's no demand (or need) for it in the small town where I grew up. I did deliver one package for a friend of my parents, but that was charity. Anyways... "Follow your dreams, you can reach your goals. I'm living proof. Beefcake. Beefcake!"

I followed one of my courier friends around for a day while he was working a few weeks ago. It was pretty much what I expected and I enjoyed it.

For those who are curious, my bike is a (1996?) Specialized Stumpjumper. I have some skinny road tires on it and I think it will serve me well at least until winter when I might want to change things up.

My concerns/apprehensions about my new job include:
- making sure I eat enough over the course of the day.
- staying warm/dry on cold rainy days.

I think my daytime food will mostly be sandwiches and fruit in tupperware that I can carry around suplemented with takeout when I have the time. Oh, and energy bars and smoothies (Booster Juice!!).

I'm still trying to figure out the rain thing. As long as it's warm, I don't mind being wet, but it will be getting a little cool outside soon.

(Oh, and I aplogise for spelling/gramatical errors. I'm an awful speller, and probably won't be proof-reading too thoroughly.)

2003-09-11T13:25:00.000-04:00

okay, here is the obligatory 'first post'.

i've just been hired as a bike messenger, and i'm interested in documenting the experience, mainly for the benefit of other newbies and so that i can look back on it some day with fond, fond memories... :)