|
Bike messenger
dispatcher doesn't need GPS
|
|
By Nobuyuki Konno
The Asahi Shimbun, July22,2006
'Tell me your present position ... right. Go straight toward the corner
of the Nishi-Shinbashi crossing with the golden statue. Hand over the
parcel for Roppongi and receive the one addressed to Otemachi."
From the dispatching room of T-serv Co., a cycle courier company based
in Tokyo's Minato Ward, Takahiro Nanyo communicates via radio the
drop-off point of a parcel to a messenger on the road. The 30-year-old
dispatcher is there to check the addresses of the sender and recipient
on the computer and create an efficient delivery route.
If a client requests the express delivery service that aims to complete
pickup and delivery within Tokyo's four central wards in 60 minutes or
less, the parcel must be picked up around 15 minutes after the order
has been placed. Minute-by-minute instructions from the dispatcher are
crucial.
T-serv was founded in 1989 as Japan's first company specializing in
bicycle delivery.
A decade later, the company served as inspiration for the 1999 film
"Messengers."
While the company still stands by its bikes as the preferred mode of
transport for central Tokyo's busy streets, it has also brought in
delivery by scooter for longer distances.
Focusing on efficiency as well as economy, T-serv's sales in fiscal
2005 exceeded 1 billion yen.
Yusuke Yamaoka, 33, a manager in charge of T-serv's public relations,
was one of firm's first part-timers.
After graduating from college, he gave up his wheels to join an
overseas-based insurance company, only to return to T-serv in 2001 as a
regular employee.
Though no longer pedaling, he still works as a dispatcher two or three
times a week.
"I like bicycles and I like the people here, so I wanted to work with
them again," he says. "Things are always lively at our company."
Each day, about 10 duty dispatchers assign around 3,500 packages to the
roughly 170 messengers on T-serv's schedule.
All dispatchers--there are 27 in total--have worked as messengers at
some point.
Nanyo was so good he was making nearly 500,000 yen a month under the
company's former percentage pay system.
He started out part-time at the end of 1997, when he was a college
senior.
"When I rode my bicycle to school, I would see messengers zooming
through the heart of Tokyo. They looked so cool," says the native of
Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. He bought a 200,000-yen bicycle and
applied for a position at T-serv.
It wasn't long after that he decided to pass on the full-time position
he had secured at a manufacturing company for the following spring and
stay on with the bicycle messenger service.
While delivering parcels five days a week, he also underwent a training
course for dispatchers.
In September 2001, he was hired as a regular employee.
Around that time, T-serv switched its pay system from percentage pay to
an hourly rate, then a rarity in the industry.
The system of delivery was also changed from the self-contained lone
messenger method to a team system aimed at maximizing efficiency by
having the messengers switch parcels at relay points. Consequently, the
role of dispatchers, who each direct 20 messengers, became even more
essential.
Surprisingly, the dispatch room at the company has no monitors
displaying the messengers' positions.
Dispatchers determine their position only through radio communication
and instinct.
To work out the positions of his 20 messengers at any given time, Nanyo
creates a map in his mind.
"I can see which crossing they have passed or which direction they are
heading. This is not just guesswork."
Through radio contact, he constantly updates their positions in his
head.
He also takes into account each messenger's skill or the weather
conditions of the day.
"To pick up a parcel in 15 minutes, you must instantly figure out where
they are. To dispatch the messengers efficiently, you must have
imagination as well as experience," Nanyo says.
Saburo Morita, 31, has worked alongside Nanyo for more than eight years.
He says of the ace dispatcher: "He has no doubts when making a decision
because he knows the exact positions. Sometimes he even knows the
whereabouts of messengers he is not in charge of."
There is one downside to the job, though: traffic accidents.
"I get depressed when accidents occur. Our job as professionals is to
observe the rules, pedal safely and deliver the parcels punctually."
|
|
