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Neither Rain
nor Snow...
Herald of Everett, December 16, 2002
By Bryan Corliss
For some, bicycling's a healthy lifestyle. Ron Toppi says it's been a real
lifesaver.
About 10 years ago, the Everett man said, he hit bottom. A drinking problem
had cost him both his car and his driver's license. All he had left was a
bike.
But after a while, necessity became the mother of his personal reinvention.
Cycling went from stopgap transportation to something more. "I just fell
in love with it," he said. "It's just become a way of life."
The love of bicycling led him first to seek work by building bikes. And now
he's trying to launch what would be Everett's only bike messenger service.
"It can go in Everett," he said. "Everett's overdue for something like this."
He calls his venture Velo-City Couriers. For between $5 and $20, Toppi or
his one employee will haul your packages anywhere from downtown Everett to
Alderwood Mall.
It's slow going.
Toppi says he knocked on a lot of doors, and picked up a few odd jobs, but
no steady clients. With the economy flat, "people are pretty resistant to
spending money they're not sure about."
His argument? It costs less to use him than to mail a package, and he can
get it there faster -- same-day delivery for sure, under a half-hour if you're
willing to pay extra.
That's faster than sending an office worker in a car to deliver it, Toppi
said. And it's non-polluting.
"We've gotten a few calls. We've gotten some positive feedback," he said.
"Hopefully some of the lawyers in town will catch on, some of the doctors."
Toppi's test-marketing a new idea -- renting out advertising space on the
back of his bag. So far, that's been his biggest success, and the advertising
seems to be working for clients, he said. He recently overheard customers
at a sandwich shop talking about the ad they'd seen for the business on his
bag.
Everett's not a bad place to ride. Unlike downtown Seattle, there are no
steep hills to contend with between most law offices and the courthouse.
But Everett's not a particularly bike-friendly city, Toppi said. "There's
no shoulder, and not a lot of cycling-friendly drivers," he added.
Suburban bike messengers do face an uphill climb, said Jeff Middlewood, a
spokesman for Fleetwood Messenger Service in Seattle.
In downtown Seattle, bike messengers have a clear advantage over car-based
competitors, he said. Traffic's bad, parking's worse. Someone on a bike can
chain up in front of a building and make a delivery while an automobile's
still circling the block.
"You're just more fluid in the city," he said
But traffic and parking problems aren't as severe outside the urban core,
so bikes have less of an edge.
There's also the matter of volume, Middlewood said. Downtown Seattle is filled
with engineering, advertising, real estate, banking and law firms that all
use messengers.
Those businesses all exist in the suburbs, but they're more spread out. That
forces bike messengers to travel farther between deliveries. At some point,
most non-urban services are forced to add cars or motorcycles to their mix
to handle the long trips, Middlewood said.
Still, it's possible, he said. "It's just a matter of being available and
being flexible."
Toppi is competing against ABC Legal Services, which delivers by car in Everett.
But he said he's optimistic.
"It's time for change. Traffic is staring to get bad," he said. "I believe
in bikes as transportation."
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