In the last few years, a new-app based
service economy has emerged and
companies like Caviar, Grubhub, Postmates,
and even Uber now give anyone the
opportunity to be couriers. Like this
guy: Frankie Gallderizzi. He's a
full-time bike messenger in New York
City. "I started about two years ago, I
was looking for a job and I was like,
'Well I'm riding all the time anyway,' so I
looked into some pizzerias and stuff but
no one was hiring except for really
late nights. So then a buddy told me about
Grubhub." To be clear,
Frank doesn't technically work for Grubhub.
He's officially an independent
contractor who just uses Grubhub to get
work. He also juggles a handful of other
apps: Postmates, UberRush, Caviar, and Doordash.
Each of these companies has a
different business structure and pay
scale. Although Grubhub wouldn't share
any pay info with me, I found out that
through Doordash, couriers generally get
five dollars per delivery and keep the
full tip. The commission through Uberrush is
up to eighty percent of a five to seven
dollar merchant fee. All of these apps,
including Caviar and Postmates, factor
in variables like distance and peak
hours. "Usually I work evenings, that's
when you make the most money, like during
dinnertime.
I sign into an app, which everyone I'm
working for that day, and just kind of
wait for the deliveries. Get a delivery,
If it has too much or it has like, two
soft drinks that you don't want to carry,
you reject it. If it looks good, you
accept it.
Head over to the restaurant, make sure
all the items are in there, pop it in your bag,
head over to the diner and drop it off.
And do that over and over and
over. I usually end when I'm getting
tired, but sometimes you gotta push
through it there. If I haven't made a lot
of money that week I just have to ride
while my legs are hurting." Caviar and
Doordash claim on their websites that a
messenger can make up to $25 an hour but
in reality that's a pretty ambitious
figure. Just to make minimum wage, which
is nine dollars in New York City,
Frankie has to make at least two
deliveries an hour. To pull off minimum
wage!
He has to rush. "If you want to get paid you
have to sort of not be in the bike lanes
and be with traffic, because they're
really slow and there's constantly
people turning into them, double parking
in them. When you have like three drinks
you have to carry and soup and the
restaurant took a really long time to
get all the stuff together and your
delivery time is coming up real soon and
you you gotta go three miles, that's when
it starts to get really stressful."
Most companies don't offer health care
or workers compensation in the event of an
accident.
"I'd say just take it real slow at the
beginning until you get used to it.
Stop it all the red lights, stay in the
bike lane, and just be super careful.
That's all you really can do. Most of the
time when people are getting hurt
it's because they think that they can
just do what they see everyone else
doing and it's not necessarily true."
Because most delivery startups bill
themselves as tech companies and not
transportation companies, this gap can be
a big deal, when most riders tend to
share the road with cars. Over 4,000
cyclists were injured last year in New
York City, 14 died. But despite this,
Frankie sees plenty of upsides. "First of
all you get to make your own schedule,
which is amazing. It's really exciting
especially during rush hour. Sometimes
work is more fun than just riding around
for fun. I was going through some like
anxiety problems at one point and riding
my bike through traffic is sort of the
one thing
that keeps me completely in the moment. I
can't think about anything else so it
was actually helping out my
anxiety. I'd say most people can't afford
to do this as a career or they fear the
risks or just don't really like riding
that much but there's always been a
niche group that do it for the lifestyle.
I've only been doing it for two years
but that's not a long time at al. I see
dudes all the time, I see the same dudes too,
they've probably been doing it for 20
years. I think it takes a special kind of
person to be able to do it for that long.
It's like any other job that's really
physical." If you like this video and you
want to see more, click here.