Heat doesn't faze bike couriers
by Jeremy Moore
Philadelphia Daily News, July 22,1998
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| Bikemessenger Mike McCann, 22, with Philadelphia Express pedals at 16th andMarket. (Daily News / Steven M. Falk) |
Stifling heat can't stop bicycle courier Dave Williams.
Even as the city slows down and chills out to survive temperatures inthe 90s this week, Williams delivers 30 to 40 packages every day throughPhiladelphia traffic from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
"The object is to move as many as you can in the course of a daybefore you lose energy and interest," said Williams, who goes homeafter his day job to take care of his furniture business in Germantown.
And the higher temperatures don't seem to have slowed the downtown courierbusiness in general, many bikers say.
"This is the time of year we wait for," said courier BrianRay. "I'm not thrilled to be out here in the winter at all."
The number of couriers actually multiplies in the summer.
Williams, 38, said that about 150 couriers can be found riding in thesummer, but in the winter that number drops to about 40.
Besides the temperature, couriers say they have to contend with heat-aggravateddrivers this time of year.
"Folks are in a hurry to get where they want to go," saidWilliams. "They squeeze you out and the next thing you know you'reeating somebody's door."
Williams said last year he got hit by someone's car door on the BenFranklin Parkway.
"It pushed me out into the road, if there had been traffic at thatpoint I would have been smashed."
And Stephen Reingold, 29, a courier from Spring Garden, said couriersget into traffic accidents every day.
"We ride around and risk our lives. Sometimes you get lucky andsometimes your number comes up." Reingold's number came up on Mondaywhen he collided with a government vehicle on Chestnut Street.
Williams and other couriers call themselves private contractors. Williamsworks for Rapid Delivery, 13th and Chestnut streets, and gets 50 percentof the rate Rapid charges. Their charge is based on how heavy a packageis, how far and how fast it goes. Williams said during the summer he averagesa little more than $200 per week, but during the winter that amount morethan doubles.
Despite lugging packages as heavy as 40 pounds under the hot, humidsky, couriers who congregate at 16th Street and JFK Boulevard say they'drather be outside than cooped up inside an office.
"It's about being on my bike. Being out there in the street andgetting to do what I want to do when I want to do it," Reingold said.
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