Liability Putting Brakes on Messengers

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Angelenos may rely on cell phones and BlackBerrys to conduct business amid the traffic and sprawl, but some unlikely throwbacks to an earlier time hang on:


Bike messengers.


A hardy bunch of about 100, mostly male 20-somethings, they pedal downtown and in Century City where parking for car-based messengers is scarce. Dodging potholes and evading cars, they deliver legal documents and other papers, offering speed that the postal service can’t match when faxes and e-mails just won’t do.


It’s a dangerous occupation, but also an irresistible draw.


“I just love riding so much,” said Gary Stillson, who works for United Express Messengers in Century City. “I am tough, and I am a resilient guy.”


Fewer than a dozen of the hundreds of messenger services in Los Angeles even employ bike messengers, given the danger of the job and the high cost to insure them against injuries.


Express Network, a large messenger service that employed bike messengers, folded in 2001, and ProCourier in Los Angeles and Le Courier in Burbank have shifted away from using bikers. Some of the remaining firms only employ them as independent contractors.


“The biggest problem with bikes is every guy we hired always, always it is just matter a time gets run over,” he said,” said Art Ruben, owner of Action Messenger Service in Hollywood, who occasionally has items delivered by bicycle but generally seeks to avoid the liability.



Vibrant subculture


Downtown, bike messengers cover an area with about a three-mile radius, bounded by the L.A. River, Western Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, USC and Chinatown.


In the Century City area, the area is bounded by La Cienega Boulevard, Pico Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard and Century Park West.


Bike messengers first drew attention in the 1970s when San Francisco’s subculture of peddling daredevils sprouted Mohawks as part of their rebellious image. A 1986 move, “Quicksilver,” starring Kevin Bacon, further popularized the messengers. Bike messenger fashion typified by the bike messenger bag has hit the mainstream with The Gap Inc. and other brands making them.


These days, it’s still an occupation where students and other free spirits reign. “This is what they fall back to,” said Ed Luis, a dispatcher at First Legal Support Services, who was a messenger for 13 years.


Most bikers prefer street bikes, while some use mountain-riding models. Some even use velodrome-type racing bikes that don’t have brakes, requiring the messengers to stop with their feet.


Stillson has taken more than his share of spills, which have kept him off his bike for three to four days. He also had his leg punctured at a construction site.


Douglas Forrest, a bike messenger for First Legal, said that he will do 20 to 25 jobs or “tags” on a good day. If he makes that many tags, he can pocket about $150 daily working from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.


Forrest also must pay for his own health insurance, since he’s an independent contractor. That’s something not all messengers want to do, said Luis, who picked up Kaiser Permanente coverage on his own. “There are some bikers that don’t want the insurance. It is $60. That is a lot of beer to buy,” he said.


To cut down on benefits and taxes, courier businesses have been moving to classify their workers as independent contractors rather than full-time employees.


A few years ago, First Legal paid its messengers by the hour; now, they’re all on commission. In Los Angeles, it’s estimated that about half the city’s 100 bike messengers are classified as independent contractors, the norm for the courier profession as a whole in the state, according to the California Delivery Association, an industry trade association.


The independent contractors get paid on commission that ranges from 26 percent to 33 percent for each job that amounts to around $6 on a $20 pick-up. Other bike messengers are paid hourly, usually a bit more than the state’s $6.75 minimum wage.


The California Employment Development Department began conducting a widespread audit last year to determine if delivery companies are wrongfully classifying full-time employees as independent contractors.


“There is a lot of scrutiny right now,” admitted Ron Broberg, executive director of the Delivery Association. “By and large, there will be findings that at least some of the workers will be employees.”


In San Francisco, the messengers are unionized under a 1998 affiliation between the San Francisco Bike Messenger Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.


Kevin Callori, a spokesman for the California Employment Development Department, said regulators are still in the midst of their probe but declined to offer details. “They have done quite an extensive outreach to the industry. Now, they are going to try to ensure that everyone is complying, and that the playing field is leveled for everyone,” he said.


For all the economic uncertainties, there is still constant demand. On any given day, First Legal, one of the biggest companies, may dispatch more than 20 bike messengers (though it also has more than 80 vehicle drivers.) Most companies have a smaller number of bike messengers, anywhere from two to 10.


Law firms are where much of the money is made as messengers serve subpoenas and shuttle documents that they file in the courts. “The court isn’t too far away from our office. You can almost get there quicker on a bike,” said Kyle Gray who works at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, a downtown law firm.


Law firms have another advantage for messenger companies they still do work that can’t be handled solely over e-mail or fax.


“About every five years, a new technology comes and dares to threaten our livelihood,” Forrest said, “and every time they seem to fail because nothing really beats something in your hand.”

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