1404Hmmm, 1976... I've been in this industry for nearly 40 years, its all I know, still love it.. Started on a Honda CB100N as a courier at 16, no gloves, leathers, warm clothing or boots, started in the middle of winter I think the rate then was 25/30pm for a Bike Courier (no such thing as Sameday vans in those days) if it was to cold and snowy you may have used a clapped out car (if you had one, or a license!) or even got on the train ( Red Star! ) to complete your delivery, for a TV company, Advertising agency or a printers, sometimes a solicitor.
No computers, no mobile phones, pagers, faxes, sat nav that was something from a sci-fi movie! I worked with various courier companies in Manchester learning my trade, riding around wet cold streets being abused by Taxi drivers, BBC execs for being late!, avoiding IRA bombs !.. P&O Travel, Interlink, RoadRider, Crossbow Couriers, Comet... were some of my employers over the years. Worked in house for GBM as a courier, leathers, a proper bike, huge top box, shirt and tie!
I then went indoors as a controller for Citylink answering the phones dealing with the most bolshy lot of van drivers who collected parcels through the day around Gtr Manchester brought back to depot for us to route through the network of British Rail! Dealing with BR and Red Star was to say the least difficult in those days, but we managed it and created a Next Day delivery system for the UK second to non! I was heavily involved in a new product I think was called Speed-link with BA, putting courier bags on the carousel at one Airport Mcr and collecting at the other end say London or Glasgow carousel to be collected by courier for sameday delivery! No screening, security checks, nothing at all !!!
Can you imagine being able to access the airport like that now !! The few terrorists must be sat laughing now at what has happened to Airports, but thats another story.
We even pioneered the Mcr to New York sameday using Concourde ! Youve got to remember at this time we didn't have vans, I think maybe Transits and Escort vans but they weren't considered reliable enough to run from one end of the country to another!
Over a period I became the assistant manager at Trafford Park and started to deal with customers who required a Sameday Courier which CityLink had no idea... We used a 3rd party supplier Speed Couriers... Who I think at the time were still owned by the founder of mtvan if i'm not mistaken? After about 2 years I started to get itchy feet, didn't see myself progressing with CityLink and thought I could do this job, Sameday Couriers!
To be continued...