In 1894 there was a train strike between San Francisco and Fresno, California. This strike meant that there was no possibility of either business or personal communication on this route, with the result that business simply ground to a halt. Arthur C. Banta formed Victor Bicycles - a new and totally innovative idea. He sought to help build the transportation and communication links between the cities, the distance between which is around 340 km. Each courier rode around 25-50 km before giving his pack to another courier. They printed a special stamp for it, so that it would be easy to check the progress of the packs along the route. A pack from SF arrived in Fresno on the same day. It was thus proven that the idea worked in practice. During the strike (which lasted from 7th-18th July, 1894) 400 letters were transported by bicycle. The result was that people saw for the first time something that is as true today as it was in 1894: bicycles are perfectly suited to fast and safe transportation.
The real home of the bicycle is the bigger city, especially capitals. Bikes are fast and are not slowed down by traffic jams. They are safe, economical, and environmentally friendly. Bicycle couriers do not use any gasoline, just food and drink - allowing them to move fast with packages. Bikes do not need parking spaces, saving even more time. These days in New York City, more than 200 bicycle courier companies are in business and 2500 bicycle couriers help to keep all kinds of New York-based companies working at maximum levels of efficiency every day.
In Europe, the courier's life started with the first bikes. At the start of the 20th century came the first 'newspaper' couriers. And soon after that came the real bike couriers, transporting architectural drafts, cheques, money and so on. Nowadays, you will find hundreds of couriers on the streets of London, Berlin, Paris, Oslo, Budapest, Sofia, Prague, Warsaw, Kiev, Munich, Bern and Zurich, amongst many other major cities. |