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250 miles a week: bicycle messenger
specializes in speedy service
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Jacksonville Daily Record, August 17, 2007
by Max Marbut
In cities like New York, Chicago and Seattle you see hundreds of them
every day but Jacksonville has just one bicycle messenger, Specialty
Freight & Courier’s Chuck Lysaght. He’s a familiar and easily
recognizable sight in his bright red shirt, black beret and backpack.
Lysaght and his bike have been part of the Downtown scene for several
years beginning when he was a member of Downtown Vision, Inc.’s first
group of Downtown Ambassadors.
“I used to ride bike patrol for DVI Downtown and in San Marco. Back
then I worked on safety issues with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office,”
he said.
Lysaght’s appreciation for two-wheeled travel began at an early age but
he admits it could have gone the other way.
“When I was five years old, I climbed on a bike that was too big for
me. I had a bad crash and fractured my skull and broke my shoulder, but
I’ve been on a bike ever since,” he said.
During his diverse career, Lysaght said he has worked as a commercial
fisherman and a lifeguard and spent a few years playing guitar in a
band and touring Florida’s nightclubs. He also spent some time in
sales, but was never truly content until he found a way to make a
living on his bike.
“Before I became an Ambassador, I had worked in a cubicle for a while,
but I got tired of being inside all the time. When I got the job at DVI
riding my bike all day, I knew that was my calling. Now I do basically
the same thing but I’ve traded a bright orange shirt for a red one.
“When I’m on my bike, I enjoy working every day. It’s more fun than
work, but I take the job seriously,” said Lysaght.
Having a messenger on a bicycle who knows every address on every street
in the urban core makes his entire operation run smoother according to
Walker Allen, president of Specialty Freight & Courier.
“Chuck makes our motorized couriers’ jobs much easier because they
don’t have to come into Downtown and navigate the streets then find a
place to park to make a delivery,“ said Allen.
Allen said if a delivery headed Downtown begins its journey in the
suburbs – or as far away as Daytona Beach or Tallahassee – Lysaght
meets the courier on the outskirts of Downtown, then pedals it to its
destination. Or, he can pick up a package Downtown and hand it off to a
motorized courier when it’s bound for an outlying area.
Lysaght said as Specialty Freight & Courier’s amount of business
grows, so has his territory. Lately he has been logging as many as 250
miles a week.
“Our business in Riverside is growing all the time and now I’m going to
Springfield on a regular basis. It’s nice to be a part of Downtown’s
revival and I get to watch it happen at street level,” said Lysaght.
While his company takes advantage of technology to provide the fastest
service possible and the Internet has improved some aspects of the
courier and delivery business, Allen doesn’t believe any amount of
high-tech will ever replace messengers picking up and delivering
packages in person.
“Some types of documents will always need to be hand-delivered, like
legal documents that have to be filed or recorded and you can’t get an
authentic signature on the Internet. Our clients can input orders for
pickups and even track the status of their deliveries on the Internet,
but this is a people business.
“For our Downtown customers, Chuck’s face is our company’s face,” he
said.
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