Couriers and Messengers
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Couriers and Messengers Earnings
Couriers and Messengers Nature of Work
Couriers and messengers move and distribute information, documents, and small packages for businesses, institutions, and government agencies. They pick up and deliver letters, important business documents, or packages that need to be sent or received quickly within a local area. Trucks and vans are used for larger deliveries, such as legal caseloads and conference materials. By sending an item by courier or messenger, the sender ensures that it reaches its destination the same day or even within the hour. Couriers and messengers also deliver items that the sender is unwilling to entrust to other means of delivery, such as important legal or financial documents, passports, airline tickets, or medical samples to be tested.
Couriers and messengers receive their instructions either in person—by reporting to their office—or by telephone, two-way radio, or wireless data service. Then they pick up the item and carry it to its destination. After each pickup or delivery, they check in with their dispatcher to receive instructions. Sometimes the dispatcher will contact them while they are between stops, and they may be routed to go past a stop that recently called in a delivery. Because most couriers and messengers work on commission, they are carrying more than one package at any given time of the day. Consequently, most couriers and messengers spend much of their time outdoors or in their vehicle. They usually maintain records of deliveries and often obtain signatures from the persons receiving the items.
Most couriers and messengers deliver items within a limited geographic area, such as a city or metropolitan area. Items that need to go longer distances usually are sent by mail or by an overnight delivery service. Some couriers and messengers carry items only for their employer, which typically might be a law firm, bank, or financial institution. Others may act as part of an organization's internal mail system and carry items mainly within the organization's buildings or entirely within one building. Many couriers and messengers work for messenger or courier services; for a fee, they pick up items from anyone and deliver them to specified destinations within a local area. Most are paid on a commission basis.
Couriers and messengers reach their destination by several methods. Many drive vans or cars or ride motorcycles. A few travel by foot, especially in urban areas or when making deliveries nearby. In congested urban areas, messengers often use bicycles to make deliveries. Bicycle messengers usually are employed by messenger or courier services. Although e-mail and fax machines can deliver information faster than couriers and messengers can, and although a great deal of information is available over the Internet, an electronic copy cannot substitute for the original document in many types of business transactions.
.Couriers and Messengers Job Outlook
Employment of couriers and messengers is expected to grow more slowly than average through 2012, despite an increasing volume of parcels, business documents, promotional materials, and other written information that must be handled and delivered as the economy expands. However, some jobs will arise out of the need to replace couriers and messengers who leave the occupation.
Employment of couriers and messengers will continue to be adversely affected by the more widespread use of electronic information-handling technology, such as e-mail and fax. Many documents, forms, and other materials that people used to have delivered by hand are now downloaded from the Internet. Many legal and financial documents, which used to be delivered by hand because they required a handwritten signature, can now be delivered electronically with online signatures. However, couriers and messengers still will be needed to transport materials that cannot be sent electronically—such as blueprints and other oversized materials, securities, and passports. Also, they still will be required by medical and dental laboratories to pick up and deliver medical samples, specimens, and other materials.
.Couriers and Messengers Significant Points
Couriers and Messengers Training
Couriers and Messengers Employment
Couriers and Messengers Related Occupations
Messengers and couriers deliver letters, parcels, and other items. They also keep accurate records of their work. Others who do similar work are postal Service workers; truck drivers and driver/sales workers; shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks; and cargo and freight agents.
Couriers and Messengers Additional Sources
Information about job opportunities may be obtained from local employers and local offices of the State employment service. Persons interested in courier and messenger jobs also may contact messenger and courier services, mail-order firms, banks, printing and publishing firms, utility companies, retail stores, or other large companies.
(See the introduction to the section on material recording, scheduling, dispatching, and distributing occupations for information on working conditions, training requirements, and earnings.)
Couriers and Messengers Summaries of Related Webpages
Like other business services such as parking and building maintenance, courier services have been outsourced more and more frequently over the last 15 years. At bottom are the people who do the work-messengers on foot, bicycles, mopeds and motorcycles and in cars and trucks. Universities, public agencies and non-profits use their services as well. Some 300-350 work as bike messengers, and around 1,000 as car couriers. Most bikers make between $250 and $400 each week.
Summary of: http://www.ahalenia.com/sfbma/whitepaper.html
They pick up and deliver letters, important business documents, or packages that need to be sent or received quickly within a local area. After each pickup or delivery, they check in with their dispatcher to receive instructions. Because most couriers and messengers work on commission, they are carrying more than one package at any given time of the day. They usually maintain records of deliveries and often obtain signatures from the persons receiving the items. Many couriers and messengers work for messenger or courier services; for a fee, they pick up items from anyone and deliver them to specified destinations within a local area.
Summary of: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos136.htm
Messengers employed in large businesses have much the same duties as those in government. Couriers are employed by delivery businesses providing letter and package pickup and delivery services on short notice and pre-scheduled runs. Working Conditions Messengers and couriers generally use pagers, radio dispatch or cellular communication systems to keep in touch with dispatchers. Since they are not under constant supervision, messengers must be conscientious and responsible. Employment and Advancement section revised JANUARY 2005Messengers and couriers are employed by large businesses, governments and private courier companies.
Summary of: http://www.alis.gov.ab.ca/occinfo/Content/RequestAction.asp?aspAction=GetHTMLProfile&format=html&OCCPRO_ID=71001811
It also represents a challenge and, at the same time, new opportunities for the Canadian Couriers and Messengers industry and its partners. E-commerce overview Couriers and messengers service providers have not yet found the way to become full fledge users of e-commerce. Few of them have web sites and only 13% are selling over the Internet (see Chart A). Those firms that are Internet ready widely use collaboration and visibility tools. More than 67% of the web sites offer interactivity with their clients, such as parcel status and customer relationship management capabilities.
Summary of: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/indsib-logi.nsf/en/pj00096e.html
They pick up and deliver letters, important business documents, or packages that need to be sent or received quickly within a local area. Trucks and vans are used for larger deliveries, such as legal caseloads and conference materials. Couriers and messengers receive their instructions either by reporting to their office in person, by telephone, by two-way radio, or wireless data service. Since most couriers and messengers work on commission, they are carrying more than one package at any given time of the day. They usually maintain records of deliveries and often obtain signatures from the persons receiving the items.
Summary of: http://www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/ooh20022003/ocos136.htm
They often travel by bike with a backpack slung over their shoulders, a beeper strapped to their belts and a cell phone tucked into their back pockets. Local messengers-whether they travel by car, foot, bike, moped, cargo van or box truck-are competing for an ever-shrinking parcel business. In addition, many overnight delivery services actually cost less than couriers. Messengers working for courier services sometimes decide to strike out on their own to start their own service. Those working in New York typically make between $3 and $10 per delivery, depending on where and for whom they work.
Summary of: http://www3.ccps.virginia.edu/career_prospects/briefs/A-D/Couriers.shtml
The symbols >, >>, and >>> are explained in the Notes section. For example, adding numbers of hours worked, kilometres travelled or deliveries and pickups made; counting flyers or writing parcel identification numbers. For example, measuring the dimensions of parcels using fractions of an inch. For example, using percent when calculating taxes on shipments or calculating commissions on the day's receipts. For example, calculating the cubic footage of large packages which weigh little but take up considerable space in order to add a surcharge.
Summary of: http://www15.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/english/profiles/17.asp
Government workers were staying home, afraid of their own buildings, their own cubes. Like couriers, they seemed to know that the ensuing weeks would be lean. I rode down L St. A messenger from Bonn, Germany informed the messenger list that Germans were laying wreaths and candles at the American Embassy there. I'm a New Yorker, upstate, but a New Yorker all the same.
Summary of: http://www.sfcall.com/issues%202002/3.18.02/reilly_wtc_(1)_3_22_02.htm