Why I work as a bicycle courier

 At the start of September I was unceremoniously dismissed from my permanent full time job. This came after months of tensions between me and several people at the company. For context on this, I had been warned by the person who hired me that people at the company had “strong personalities” and “made up their mind about people very quickly”. I dismissed this because I wanted the job and I ignored the tensions because the pay was very good. Despite my best efforts that wasn’t good enough so at the start of September I was shafted. 

I spent all of September applying for regular jobs and then I had a brainwave. As a regular customer of Uber Eats myself I thought I should buy a bike so that I could generate an income while I job searched. Within a couple of days I had bought a road bike and I started delivering around my local area and eventually I was able to generate a full time equivalent wage through working as a bicycle courier. I was however sick of the inconsistent nature of it though and so after deciding to stop job hunting I started again and wound up getting a job offer on New Year’s Eve and started that job in early January. That company was incredibly toxic. There had been red flags from before I received the offer but I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt  but after two weeks in the role the red flags were too much and I quit. For more context on that job, two people were fired five days after starting and a further two quit on the second week before I quit. I have no idea if more people quit after I did. What I do however know though is that the management at that company did not truly care about performance and my performance was good. Based on my sales results I was in the top 35% of the group I had started with. Instead they cared about silly things like what someone wears to work and they expected staff to start before they officially started getting paid, therefore offering their services for free and it also didn’t fit in with my acting studies which I’ve been doing for the last seven years and am very close to finishing.

When I quit that job I knew that I could always go back to the food delivery apps and that’s exactly what I did. I’d never stopped but I only did a few deliveries each day and was extremely selective. While I had the full time job I just did it for extra money because having had a number of dodgy employers I don’t think it’s smart to rely on one source of income. I think it’s way smarter to have multiple income streams so that you have a back up if something happens to your main income source.

On Monday the 26th of January, Australia Day I went back to the delivery apps with the intention of it being full time again. As it would happen I was having an excellent night with deliveries and was on track to earn my minimum daily target but unfortunately that did not happen because when I was picking up a couple of orders my bike was stolen. I had left it locked to a pole near the restaurants and in the time I was inside - all of five minutes, yes only five minutes it was stolen. When I went outside it wasn’t there and I had a moment where I was like “what? Where’s my bike?” I looked around but couldn’t see it and then I realised that my worst fear had been realised and that it had in fact been stolen so although I will not recover the bike because bike theft is so common and stolen bikes are near impossible to recover, I wanted the police to have a record on the off chance that they catch the bike thief so they don’t steal anymore bikes.

Luckily I had money coming in the next day so I was able to replace the bike and while some people downgrade when their bike is stolen to reduce the likelihood it would be stolen I decided to upgrade. I had to upgrade because I use my bike for 20-40 hours a week and so I needed something that has the ability to deal with that kind of usage. 

I did look into insurance as well but by the time you factor in the insurance premiums and the excess also known as out of pocket expenses it just isn’t worth it and in the long run you could actually end up paying more than the cost of a replacement bike.

So anyway, the purpose of today’s Podcast is to share with you the reasons I work as a bicycle courier.

1 - Get paid to exercise

I have a road bike so I get paid to exercise. When I started I had had to suspend my gym membership but still needed a way to exercise so working as a bicycle courier would combine making money with exercise. I opted to get a road bike because I don’t like e-bikes and see it as cheating. On a side note I especially hate ride share bikes. I would much rather have my own bike than use a ride share bike and I see hiring a bike as many food couriers do to be a waste of money. At the end of it you have nothing left. Yes, bikes depreciate and get wear and tear but it’s still yours and you can do whatever you want with it. I also don’t want to eat into my profits by adding an expense that I don’t need. As a general rule I try to keep my costs to a minimum though the reality is you will have unexpected expenses. When I had the first bike I had to replace the tyres (including just a few weeks before it was stolen), the brakes a couple of times and I’d had a couple of flat tyres. That bike had tyres that had an inner tube, as my new one does too. Getting back to the point, if you can’t afford a gym membership, it’s a great way to exercise. I did however reactivate my gym membership a couple of weeks ago when I had that toxic job because the gym actually complements the work as a bicycle courier because I can get fit which makes me more efficient when I am on delivery jobs.

2 - You have total freedom

Anyone who knows me knows how much I value freedom. That was the worst thing about the bike being stolen, aside from the fact that someone actually thought it would be okay to take someone’s means of earning money, I had to walk home and given how much I cycle now it felt weird to not be able to cycle, even though it was only for about 14 hours. As a bicycle courier you are self employed so you can work as little or as much as you like (though there are faults with the apps but I’ll get into that in another podcast) when you want. If you want to work at 7am you can. If you want to work at midnight you can. If you only want to work a couple of hours each day you can. You’re in total control of how much you work. You are also in control of what you wear. I generally work in shorts and a t shirt which is normal exercise gear or a skirt and a t shirt. It really depends on my mood. You can’t wear what you want when you work in a traditional job because you have a manager breathing down your neck about how there’s men in the workplace and wearing skirts isn’t appropriate. Along with that freedom you don’t have to answer to anyone. As long as you deliver the orders that’s all that actually matters rather than a bunch of silly stuff that micromanagers tend to obsess over.

You can also choose the orders that you accept and those that you decline. There are certain areas that I won’t go to because by the time I go out there I would have to return to my area where there’s a lot of restaurants and shops. That could lead to losing possible income through lost orders so it’s just not smart to take those orders. If you were in a traditional employment situation you would have to do the work that you don’t particularly want to do.

3 - You get rewarded for your efforts

Most people know that if you are in a traditional job with a boss you don’t get rewarded for your efforts but when you work as a bicycle courier you do. You directly see that reflected in your earnings, so the more you work the more you earn. I’m currently working on working smarter not harder to increase my earnings. Although there are of course time limitations you aren’t restricted by how a manager wants to reward you. You’re very much in control of things and with every delivery you do you can see your earnings increase. On the topic of earnings, in some instances you can earn more than what you would in a traditional job.

4 - You can work on your schedule to fit in with your life

Although this is similar to the total freedom point, you can work on your schedule. I study acting and need a role that fits around that but that doesn’t restrict my earnings so working as a bicycle courier works well because I don’t have to operate according to someone else’s schedule. That means that I can still work 40 hours a week if I want to and I’m not restricted by most companies expecting their staff to work 9-5pm. 

5 - There’s a community of bicycle couriers

The community is not just for bicycle couriers. It is for any food couriers. There are multiple Facebook groups where you can get to know how others operate. On the odd occasion you may also strike up a convo with someone while you’re picking up food. That can sometimes be good. Although you’re unlikely to ever see them again it’s still a cool thing.

Of course it’s not all fun. There are some things I absolutely hate about being a bicycle courier but I’ll save that for another podcast. For this one I wanted to focus on the things that I do enjoy about it.