i was wondering if anyone here does dispatch rideing for a living,.

few things i need to know !

is there any restrictions in doing this line of work on L plates ?

what sort of rate of pay should i expect to start on ? (no prev experience but i have good knowledge of london)

do i have to do a knowledge kind of thing before i start ?

is there any kind of companys i should avoid "london area" ? (i.e chepo ads in the classified of the paper)

is there a heafty increase on insurence ?

is it better to use own bike of hire 1 from the company ?

is there any advice or other things i should know about working as a motorcycle courier ..

thank you

I would think (but I may be wrong) that u would have to have a full bike licence. I also would imagine the insurance would be expensive too.

Very expensive, you will also need Goods insurance. The total cost to insure yourself properly is about 10 to 20 times your normal insurance rate and I don't think anyone would insure you as a courier on a provisional licence.

Unless it's fast food/pizza delivery which must be a total pain of a job I'd have thought.

I see plenty of L plates on couriers - not sure if they are "proper" courier companies. Riding everything from scooters to 125s.

Suggest you go into a dispatch HQ and ask them. They will give you the best info, unless you can get an actual courier to reply on this site. My insurance covers me as a courier at little or no extra cost. Call Insurance 2000 for info on insurance I reckon, or similar. Good luck.

I phoned a company today i found on 1 of them job center computers,
they did say i can ride on L but its while im doing on-the-job training
after 15mins of selling me a job they turnt out to be a agency offering temp work and theres no current positions available "bollox"

fazer i knoticed most jobs online "inc job description sites" all require a full licence

pizza-boy i cant do coz i speak english lol

Michael, sods law - i seen quiet a few many with proper bibs on "but i was working then"

mike, i know a office pretty close by il pop in and see whats on offer atleast get a direction i need to take.


thank you guys n girls

I'd be surprised if they take learners, you wouldn't be able to do any distance runs because you can't use the motorways and the speed of your bike.
I was a courier 20 years ago and we were doing 1000-1500 miles a week! That was on a company 500. If you use a company bike you won't get paid much and if you use your own bike it probably wont last long. If they still use radios I think you have to hire them. If your knowledge of London is good you could try to become a controller.

despatch riding is a bitch of a job. Ive done five years when i was younger in that london ( plus long haul motorway work) and a week for a mate a few months back. absolute nightmare. dont do it. it aint glamorous its high pressure high risk work with no excuses and you have to be prepared to take stupid risks alll the time or you wont get work coz you wont be fast enough.

Dont do it. If you dont believe me ask womble. He did it for eighteen years and I will be willing to bet youll get the same advice ive given you.

I'm doing door to door deliveries by car at the moment, and believe me it can be one of the most stressful jobs I have ever done. You are always fighting the clock, one address you can't find can put you so far behind you never catch up. You're driving goes to pot as well. If you ever get annoyed at van drivers who double park, suddenly dive down a side road without indicating or park blocking entrances delivery work will soon make you understand why. Seat belt? No time for that, takeing the thing off and putting it on again just adds up to too much time over the course of a day.

On bikes you will find the problems pretty much the same, except half the time you will be cold and wet into the bargain.

I'm thinking of becoming a Traffic Warden, peed off with Cars parking wherever they want and no one doing anything about it. Come Sept need a new job, so Mini Hitler it may be. Complaints and Winges no probs, see the Padre he cares.

thank you very much for your advice guys n girls.

i did manage to find a company but the pay for work load was poor. (they also was a minicab office)

il will take the advice and give it a miss i think


thanks peeps

Have you thought about becoming a Police Comunity Support Officer, there seems to be a few of them about.
I got fed up never being able to find a Policeman when you need one so I tried joining as a special constable a few years ago................they didn't want me

2 reasons for that,

either the misses likes the uniform , or you wanted a stab proof vest to flog on ebay

Wilf,

I could not do the job paid without beating the little scrots on the streets, certainly couldn't manage it unpaid. We don't have PCO's here in Scotland but imagine it would be the same.

Did you see that news item last night about the graveyard? Hear the Dad asking for more police and camera's, not the answer, the only answer is for the Dad to get his mates and give the gangs of scrots a good kicking, when their parents sober up or come down from their drug highs and complain give them the same. The IRA and UDA I hated with a vengenance when I was in the Forces, but they did not (in the 70's80's) stand for scrots on the streets, they sorted their own and I must say we had to deal with everything on the streets but thier was no vandelism from their own people. I am not advocating we go like this but I see it coming and the police will be powerless to stop it. People know who were the ones who desecrated that graveyard, but will not give them up to the ploice, WHY? because the court will give them community service, big deal. The feckers need publicly birched. We should all feel safe to walk the streets day or night.

I didn't see the news item but I bet it involved low life scum either desecracting graves or taking drugs in the churchyard.
I'd want to cause them pain too, I don't know how Police officers, especially Wpcs, deal with the abuse they get every week from drunks and yobs without taking the baton to them.

About 60 graves destroyed and desacrated, mostly kids ones.

Extreme pain is all that would teach them, they take too many drugs for a normal kicking. I would Birch them.

Done a bit of despatch in my time. 15+ years ago. 35p a mile and you only get paid 1 way. I think it has cleaned up its act now as then I didn't have courier insurance and no goods in transit insurance. sh!t job, cold and wet in winter, putting wet gloves on and off, being nearly wiped out by idiots in Manchester centre on an hourly basis. I might be a bit different now as we just had a pager and had to keep calling the office from a phone box to get the jobs. On the up side it will give you very good 360 degree radar.....If you survive.

If you ever stand for election....

I will vote for you

I was going to do some despatch work with a south coast company. I had to have my own bike, full license and my own insurance for delivery which was HUGE! - Plus it's hard to find insurance co's that will cover you, especially at a young age. I was 20 when I did this research and my best quote was £1100 per annum!!

I had my Diversion 600 but I would have killed it doing so much mileage.


... So I changed my mind.

Have a look at last month's bike magazine (think it was last month's) if you can, there was a good feature on a despatch rider, it wouldn't give you much help regarding how to go about things like insurance etc but it does give a good insight into the job and is a great article.