Saturday, January 16, 2010
What are you up to Monday?
If you are a messenger, probably not a whole lot, since the 18th is MLK Day, and is a State, City, and Federal holiday. Most messenger companies will be open however, and will be requiring their couriers to be downtown and ready to work. This means a lot of downtime and sitting around in coffee shops, since the Thompson Center will be closed. If you find yourself sitting around and bored at 11:00, you should head over to the CTA headquarters at 567 w Lake and check out this march:
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Damn the Man, 1st January meeting of 2010
The CCU had a meeting this week, and as promised, here is your DTM from that meeting:
The biker who had this week's Damn the Man complained that he had been pin-balled all week by the dispatcher at his company. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of being pin-balled, it means being dispatched from one end of the bike zone to the other. It can be very frustrating and exhausting to have to work in this way. A good dispatcher will try to give you work in sets, which not only gets the jobs done quicker and more efficiently, but also limits the amount of distance a biker has to ride in order to make money. On the other hand, when you get pin-balled from one corner of the bike zone to the other, you quickly rack-up the miles without making the money, and it also wastes a lot of your time.
Lets look at a couple of examples:
Biker A has a skilled dispatcher who cares about her well-being, wants to make her money, and also wants to get the jobs on the board completed on time. This dispatcher knows that he doesn't necessarily have to dispatch the jobs as soon as they come in, but he can hold on to them for a little while and try to make a set. Biker A gets a set of four runs coming out of three buildings in the loop. All four runs are going to buildings on North Michigan Avenue, around Chicago Ave. It takes biker A about fifteen minutes to pick up all four jobs. She then rides 1.5 miles north to the first drop. The other three drops are near by, so after another twenty minutes she is clean and ready for more work. During this time, she has ridden her bike about 2.5 miles and made $14.00 in about 45 minutes.
Biker B, on the other hand has a dispatcher on the other end of the radio who is dispatching runs one at a time as they come in to whichever biker is next in line for work. Biker B gets a run going from the loop to Streeterville. He drops it and calls in clean. After a few minutes his dispatcher sends him a page for a run going from the Loop to the edge of the bike zone in the West Loop. He rides back into the Loop empty-handed and gets his run going out to Racine street. It takes him about ten minutes to ride out there and drop it, after which he calls in clean again. Wouldn't you know it, but the dispatcher has another run coming out of the loop going to the same place he just dropped. The dispatcher could have held on to the first run for a little while to see if he had anything else to go with it. When the second run came in, he could have dispatched them both at the same time to one biker, gotten them both dropped on time, and helped out his crew a little bit. But he didn't. So after a ten-minute ride back into the loop, and another five minutes picking up his third package, biker B is on his way back out to the west Loop. He cleans up fifteen minutes later and calls in for more work. He gets one more run coming from the Merchandise Mart going down to Printers Row in the South Loop. It takes biker B about 25 minutes to pick up and make the drop. Biker B is getting frustrated and a little bit tired by this point. He has completed four runs in just under two hours, ridden just over ten miles, and made about $13.00. In order to complete four runs, biker B has ridden four times the distance that biker A has and worked twice as long. Biker B is making less than minimum wage at this point, and is working very hard.
Biker B has realized that this the kind of situation you find yourself in when you don't have any control over your workplace, so he was sure to make it to the next CCU meeting.
The biker who had this week's Damn the Man complained that he had been pin-balled all week by the dispatcher at his company. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of being pin-balled, it means being dispatched from one end of the bike zone to the other. It can be very frustrating and exhausting to have to work in this way. A good dispatcher will try to give you work in sets, which not only gets the jobs done quicker and more efficiently, but also limits the amount of distance a biker has to ride in order to make money. On the other hand, when you get pin-balled from one corner of the bike zone to the other, you quickly rack-up the miles without making the money, and it also wastes a lot of your time.Lets look at a couple of examples:
Biker A has a skilled dispatcher who cares about her well-being, wants to make her money, and also wants to get the jobs on the board completed on time. This dispatcher knows that he doesn't necessarily have to dispatch the jobs as soon as they come in, but he can hold on to them for a little while and try to make a set. Biker A gets a set of four runs coming out of three buildings in the loop. All four runs are going to buildings on North Michigan Avenue, around Chicago Ave. It takes biker A about fifteen minutes to pick up all four jobs. She then rides 1.5 miles north to the first drop. The other three drops are near by, so after another twenty minutes she is clean and ready for more work. During this time, she has ridden her bike about 2.5 miles and made $14.00 in about 45 minutes.
Biker B, on the other hand has a dispatcher on the other end of the radio who is dispatching runs one at a time as they come in to whichever biker is next in line for work. Biker B gets a run going from the loop to Streeterville. He drops it and calls in clean. After a few minutes his dispatcher sends him a page for a run going from the Loop to the edge of the bike zone in the West Loop. He rides back into the Loop empty-handed and gets his run going out to Racine street. It takes him about ten minutes to ride out there and drop it, after which he calls in clean again. Wouldn't you know it, but the dispatcher has another run coming out of the loop going to the same place he just dropped. The dispatcher could have held on to the first run for a little while to see if he had anything else to go with it. When the second run came in, he could have dispatched them both at the same time to one biker, gotten them both dropped on time, and helped out his crew a little bit. But he didn't. So after a ten-minute ride back into the loop, and another five minutes picking up his third package, biker B is on his way back out to the west Loop. He cleans up fifteen minutes later and calls in for more work. He gets one more run coming from the Merchandise Mart going down to Printers Row in the South Loop. It takes biker B about 25 minutes to pick up and make the drop. Biker B is getting frustrated and a little bit tired by this point. He has completed four runs in just under two hours, ridden just over ten miles, and made about $13.00. In order to complete four runs, biker B has ridden four times the distance that biker A has and worked twice as long. Biker B is making less than minimum wage at this point, and is working very hard.
Biker B has realized that this the kind of situation you find yourself in when you don't have any control over your workplace, so he was sure to make it to the next CCU meeting.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Happy New Year
Well, it is a few days into the new year, and this is the first post on this site for 2010. Looking back over the posts for 2009, I realize that a lot of them had a negative tone. I don't feel there is really anything wrong with that, as the main purpose of this site is to highlight the struggles of messengers in Chicago. However, I would like to start off 2010 on a good note, and recognize some of the things that made being a messenger in Chicago great over the past year.
35E Wacker
A lot of time is spent on this site and at CCU meetings talking about how we are treated by different buildings throughout the city. A lot of the buildings treat messengers pretty bad, but there are also quite a few who treat messengers with dignity and respect. My personal favorite building in Chicago is 35E Wacker. It is one of the older skyscrapers in downtown, and this building harkens back to a time when architects cared about making beautiful buildings rather that glass-and-steel cubes. If you are a messenger, you can walk right into the front door like a real person and take the regular elevators up to whichever floor you need to go. The only time the security guard will talk to you is if you look lost, or are looking at the building directory. And they will try to help you get where you need to go. Another similar building is 225W Wacker. Messengers actually get treated better than business people in this building. I have walked up several times and had a guard slide me a keycard across the counter while a frustrated business man who feels entitled fumbles for his ID. And this only makes sense. I have seen these guards almost every day for the past four years. Why wouldn't we be friendly and have mutual respect for each other?
There are a few other people who brighten up a messengers day. The most important I can think of is Gina "the Pizza Lady". Even if I don't stop for a slice, it warms me up to see her smile and wave as I ride up Madison Street on a cold winter day. I don't think anyone in downtown Chicago cares about bike messengers as much as Gina. In a weird way, I always look foreward to seeing the guy that runs the sundries shop at the Thompson Center also.Whenever I buy a bag of chips or a soda, he asks how things are going and seems genuinely interested.
Going to the CMWC in Tokyo was probably the best part of being a messenger in 2009.It was pretty amazing to go to the other side of the world to celebrate being a part of the global messenger community.
There are a few other random things that come to mind when I think about being happy as a messenger in 2009. One is during the summer when it is slow, and I would clean up on the Hill. Often times I would go across Randolph Street to sit in Millenium Park to wait for more work. I never really knew what the schedule was, but sometimes on weekdays the Chicago Symphony Orchestra practices in the band shell at the park. It was always a pleasant surprise to find them practicing and lie down in the grass using my bag as a pillow, close my eyes, and listen to them until I got a call. Another fun thing about messengering in Chicago is bombing down Randolph Street off the hill across Michigan. Sometimes the light changes and you get the red as you are coming into the intersection. With a little skill and the knowledge of how the turn arrows are timed, you can easily and safely cut this light in front of about a hundred tourists, and feel like a bad-ass for a minute. Another little thing that made me happy over the past year was getting the high-paying, super-rush job from 222N LaSalle to 200N LaSalle. I was getting that run a couple of times a month last summer.
If you think of anything that made you really happy in 2009, feel free to leave a comment about it.
35E Wacker
There are a few other people who brighten up a messengers day. The most important I can think of is Gina "the Pizza Lady". Even if I don't stop for a slice, it warms me up to see her smile and wave as I ride up Madison Street on a cold winter day. I don't think anyone in downtown Chicago cares about bike messengers as much as Gina. In a weird way, I always look foreward to seeing the guy that runs the sundries shop at the Thompson Center also.Whenever I buy a bag of chips or a soda, he asks how things are going and seems genuinely interested.
Going to the CMWC in Tokyo was probably the best part of being a messenger in 2009.It was pretty amazing to go to the other side of the world to celebrate being a part of the global messenger community.
There are a few other random things that come to mind when I think about being happy as a messenger in 2009. One is during the summer when it is slow, and I would clean up on the Hill. Often times I would go across Randolph Street to sit in Millenium Park to wait for more work. I never really knew what the schedule was, but sometimes on weekdays the Chicago Symphony Orchestra practices in the band shell at the park. It was always a pleasant surprise to find them practicing and lie down in the grass using my bag as a pillow, close my eyes, and listen to them until I got a call. Another fun thing about messengering in Chicago is bombing down Randolph Street off the hill across Michigan. Sometimes the light changes and you get the red as you are coming into the intersection. With a little skill and the knowledge of how the turn arrows are timed, you can easily and safely cut this light in front of about a hundred tourists, and feel like a bad-ass for a minute. Another little thing that made me happy over the past year was getting the high-paying, super-rush job from 222N LaSalle to 200N LaSalle. I was getting that run a couple of times a month last summer.
If you think of anything that made you really happy in 2009, feel free to leave a comment about it.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
guest post
We have a guest-post for you today:
Written by BTB (Bottom Tax-Bracket)
Biker Hit and Killed by Moron
Tragically, a cyclist was struck and killed by two numbskulls playing Windy City brand street style bumper cars on Diversey Avenue last month. The story can be found here (http://www.
Getting in the middle of a car accident is something that has almost happened to me a couple of times and is in my Top 3 Biking Fears. There is no way to prevent it, prepare for it, see it coming, or stop it, and it seems like the consequences would be extreme, as they were in this case. And not only was this an incident where a collision between cars inadvertently caused a cyclist’s death, the cause of the “accident” was a couple of road-raging hotheads using their vans as weapons to ram one another. People can yell and scream about how bikers are a menace to society, but I dare someone to use their bike as a battering ram. I’m thinking it would turn out poorly for everyone involved.
But besides highlighting the unforeseen dangers of urban cycling, like weapon-grade Aerostar vans, there is another issue here. Picking up the Redeye to read the story, I immediately noticed that they made the victim out to be less than an ideal gentleman. The author for some reason made sure to mention the cyclist’s previous drug use and the fact that he was unemployed. Here are some excerpts from the story since it isn’t online-
“…an easy going 32-year-old who’d been trying to turn his life around”
“Livingstone, who grew up in Logan Square, had struggled with drugs…”
“‘He was down on his luck,’ said his aunt…”
Now this raised an eyebrow for me, because back in September, a bike messenger in Toronto was struck and killed by a former Canadian attorney general, and after the story broke, the media began to subtly smear the victim by bringing up his rocky past, which included drug and alcohol use.
In this instance, not all papers are reporting the fact that the victim used drugs in the past. The Sun-Times reported the story with no mention of drug or alcohol use because uhhhh duhhhhh Redeye, they didn’t play any kind of factor in the accident.
So this leaves me the question of why the Redeye felt it was necessary to bring up totally irrelevant information of drug use. That aspect isn’t relevant to anything, and does nothing more than to cast a less than favorable light on the person that just had a terrible tragedy occur to them. Now, in a perfect world, I would be okay with brutally honest reporting. Make the person out for what they were, what happened to them, and be one hundred percent truthful. Unfortunately, none of that applies to 2009 America. The media creates narratives for the average person to grasp, and sloppy and biased reporting plays into pre-existing prejudices and common perceptions of the way people think the world is.
And that is where I am coming from in objecting to the Redeye, and their parent company, the Tribune, report of this incident. According to the mainstream mentality, cyclists don’t have the best reputation. In the suburbs I have been pulled over by the police just riding my bicycle a couple of blocks. Because out in the unenlightened boonies, people commonly think that anyone riding a bicycle for a form of transportation is either a criminal, too poor to afford a car, or an alcoholic that lost their license. Similarly, last year I visited a good friend while he was going to school in Puerto Rico. He had just set up the university’s first cycling club to encourage biking in an increasingly car-orientated culture. Unfortunately, he was having a hell of time convincing the locals to ride their bikes, because in Puerto Rico, popular opinion was that only destitute people and crack heads rode their bicycles. Down there in those humid, up in coming suburban sprawls, it was more respectable to gallop your horse around town than pedal to the bodega. Just back here at home, the common perceptions of things were getting in the way of progressive ideas.
But let’s not just point the finger at the media and start crying like little babies. Ask yourself, “What am I doing to help the image of cyclists?” Do you really care enough about cycling to make yourself an example to others, or do you just want to revel in the “rebellious” atmosphere, looking cool to freshman Columbia co-eds? How are you helping the cause? Are you destroying prejudices against messengers, or helping to proliferate them? Because the corporations would love nothing more than to keep using us as cheap and expendable labor, throwing us crumbs from their overflowing tables of profit margins. And by making cyclists, and to a further extent messengers, unsympathetic characters, the powers that be have an easier job perpetrating their exploitation of us. So like they say, if you can’t join them, beat ‘em, by being smarter, faster, stronger, and generally superior to the opposition.
Our sympathies go out to the loved ones of Mr. Livingston. An injury to one is an injury to all.
Written by BTB (Bottom Tax-Bracket)
Tokyo Fundraiser Cup Final
Well, we tried our best, but came up a little short. Congratulations to Stockholm for winning the Tokyo Fundraiser Cup. Chicago took an early lead in the contest, and battled Zurich for the majority of the two months long contest. Many cities around the world decided to hold fundraising events during the month of December. Despite taking the lead back due to the proceeds from the Season's Beatings alleycat, Chicago lost the contest to Stockhlm by a mere $100.00 right at the last minute.
You can't really be bitter when you look at the big picture, though. The contest raised over $10,600.00, which will help the Tokyo Bicycle Messenger Association re-pay the debt that they incurred by hosting the 2009 Cycle Messenger World Championship. Two Stockholm messengers will be flying to the 2010 CMWC in Guatemala as a result of that city winning the Fundraiser Cup. I guess we will see them down there, and can congratulate them in person.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Damn the Man!
If you have ever attended a CCU meeting, you know that we have a little tradition at the beginning of our meetings called "Damn the Man". The concept of Damn the Man is pretty simple. Messengers like to complain, and when you get a bunch of messengers together they could spend hours bitching about the demeaning, degrading, infuriating, and unjust things that we have to put up with on a daily basis. In the interest of running efficient and productive meetings, the CCU established "Damn the Man", and made it a permanent part of the agenda for all CCU meetings. The way it works is at the beginning of each meeting, every person is given the opportunity to Damn the Man for one thing, and vent about that thing for a minute or two. We then move forward with the rest of the meeting, and the meetings tend to be more productive once we get the complaining out of the way. Most of the Damn the Man's are the same old thing; the taxi that tried to hit you, or the weather, or the bike part that broke, or flat tires. But at least once a meeting, someone comes up with a good one, and we have decided to share the best Damn the Man on the blog after every meeting.
So here is your Damn the Man for the week of December 16th:
A messenger walked into 400 S. LaSalle and tried to walk up to the elevators without dropping his bag. The security guard yelled at him to drop his bag. The messenger replied that he doesn't come into the building very often and didn't remember that he was supposed to drop his bag, so there is no reason to yell at him. The guard tried to tell the messenger that he has to drop his bag in every building in downtown Chicago. The messenger said "What are you talking about? Every building is different. Sometimes we have to drop our bags, sometimes we don't."
The Guard replied "That's what my union said. My union says that messengers have to drop their bags in every building."
The messenger was flustered at this point and yelled back at the guard "Yeah, well my union says that I don't have to drop my bag!"
They glared at each other for a few seconds before the messenger finally gave in because he had work to do and couldn't waste any more time arguing with this fool.
So here is your Damn the Man for the week of December 16th:
A messenger walked into 400 S. LaSalle and tried to walk up to the elevators without dropping his bag. The security guard yelled at him to drop his bag. The messenger replied that he doesn't come into the building very often and didn't remember that he was supposed to drop his bag, so there is no reason to yell at him. The guard tried to tell the messenger that he has to drop his bag in every building in downtown Chicago. The messenger said "What are you talking about? Every building is different. Sometimes we have to drop our bags, sometimes we don't."
The Guard replied "That's what my union said. My union says that messengers have to drop their bags in every building."
The messenger was flustered at this point and yelled back at the guard "Yeah, well my union says that I don't have to drop my bag!"
They glared at each other for a few seconds before the messenger finally gave in because he had work to do and couldn't waste any more time arguing with this fool.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Ten Nine radio
So, I subscribe to the messengers email list, and saw an interesting post about something people might want to check out. A big part of what the Chicago Couriers Union is about is solidarity and building a community among hard working people. A guy named Biker Bill Thain just launched the 10-9 bicycle messenger radio station, and I am pretty excited about it. Here is an excerpt from an email that Biker Bill sent out a while ago:
I like where this guy is coming from, so be sure to check out his site, and it sounds like he is looking for submissions in order to really turn this into a community project.
I believe there may be hope for all of us. Our community as a whole is proving resilient and is surviving well through the years however many potholes it must dodge and occasionally hit. Be inspired to be inspired and believe in the greater good. Our strength is the community, so a hearty friday thanks and cheers to all of you who get it!
"CLINK"
I should start more days with a Baily's...
BikerBill Thain
Edmonton
NACCC01,CMWC04I like where this guy is coming from, so be sure to check out his site, and it sounds like he is looking for submissions in order to really turn this into a community project.
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