are IC and they have an internal app used for dispatch. Because they’ve had to grow organically as they carve out their niche, kinks have been worked out one at a time and they’ve been able to make it work. It’s probably not the highest-paying courier gig in the city, but from what their couriers tell me, it’s competitive. They seem to have relatively low turnover, and that probably has a lot to do with the number of couriers they have on shift at any given time. Where Postmates employs hundreds of couriers in many major cities across four time zones, TCB has anywhere between 45 - 60 couriers total, depending on the season. Because they deal with one city and fewer couriers fighting for jobs, dispatch and scheduling can be simpler and more efficient.
The TCB office, a dingy hole-in-the-wall of SF’s infamous Tenderloin is where I sat down to talk with Chas and Trevor, two founders of the scrappy company. They started by telling me a bit about their internal app, which is used to keep the flow of deliveries organized. It’s a proven system, and one that they share with other similarly oriented messenger shops all over North America. They’ve formed partnerships with a number of delivery services in places like LA, Toronto, and Chicago. Other cities are joining the network all the time.
When I ask how much riders take home, answers vary. Trevor and Chas say most of the couriers average around $130 in a five-hour shift, but I asked around and heard numbers closer to $100.
$100 bucks for 35 miles of riding SF hills is a lot closer to livable anyway, but here’s the kicker about IC work: you’re responsible for paying your own local, state and federal taxes as an IC, cutting into that take home pay. And if you get hurt? No worker’s compensation, no insurance coverage (though Postmates recently bought a liability-only policy, covering any damages you may do to others while at work), and no unemployment insurance should you be unable to ride or be laid-off.
A Diverse Picture
I got in touch with longtime courier and writer, Kurt Boone to find out the latest about working in the messenger mecca of New York City. Kurt has spent the better part of 25 years doing deliveries, both for traditional messenger services as well as app-based services like Uber Rush, Ebay Now, and Zipments.
As we rode the bus together, he told me, “Ebay Now was hiring messengers a while back, that was booming. You could make an easy $500 - 800 a week delivering for them. Some people were doing 50 hours a week. They had a uniform and all that. Pay was hourly, no commission. They started scaling it back though. They let go of most of their hires and outsourced the work to Breakaway. That doesn’t seem to be going so well for them, so I think they’re kind of moving away from the delivery business.”
When asked about Uber Rush, he gave me the lowdown on their business model. “Yeah, Uber’s pretty alright. They start the commission at $12, and you can make some cash riding around. They add an extra twenty percent onto your fee, and that’s their cut. Every time you pass into a new zone, you get another $4. It’s alright.”