Moving Target,Volume 3, Issue 2, Spring 1992
London, 1992, all of the city has been conquered by Ceaser leader theGlorious West 1 legions except one small corner of Berwick St. where indomitable,indpendccs still hold out against the might of the ROCS empire.
Lisa Byrne is managing director, senior controller and saleswoman ofCreative Couriers. She and her partner Jay Edge started Creative Courierafter working at On Yer Bike for a while as riders: I was crap!".They started with 300 quid.
"We rented a room in Wardour St, we had two weeks rent on it 70quid, we had one phone line, one desk, and I think we had two chairs anda lot of enthusiasm and about 4 clients. We grew very slowly because wedidn't have any money. We couldn't borrow any. The banks laughed at us;not only did they not really know what pedal bike despatch ,I mean, twowomen doing pedal bike despatch, that's even more stupid. At this timeRobin Willis of OYB was been given money like it was going out of fashionby Lloyd's Bank to do whatever and we couldn't even get a 100 quid over-draftbut we survived. We took on clients very slowly because of that."
Lisa has a well deserved reputation for being a woman who knows herown mind, and when she felt that Creative needed something to set it apartfrom the other lags in the market-place she went for it: "the uniformwas the only way we were going to survive frankly. The deal is that ifyou work here you buy and wear a uniform. That's taken off at somethinglike 2.5/week up to the cost which is 22.50. The t-shirts in the summerare a quid each, ‘cos people tend to have 6 or 7. We ask people to wearblack cycling shorts with the t-shirt and the mad coloured jacket. Thistime of year is worse because you can't enforce that sort of uniform whenit’s so cold and wet
MT's interest in Creative stems from the fact that they are one of twocc companies who are still true to the gospel of pedal bike despatch aspreached by Robin Willis (On Yer Bike's originator) and practised by ClairNielsen (possibly the greatest cc controller ever to cough down the box).All the rest, MegaCycles, Top Security, Pedal Pushers, et al have beenswallowed and the big daddy, OYB, has gone as reported elsewhere this ish.
Creative has been described as 'a trip back in time: remember paperdockets?’ Creative doesn't have telephonists only controllers. Lisa isn'ta big fan of the mega-despatch co. It’s faceless, it's americanised, it’scomputerised. You can't have Macdonald’s on every corner. ROCS (for thefew of you that don't know, it's Real Time Operations Control System computers,the 'industry standard') gets a blast, too."It rips the guts out ofreal controlling, I believe in grass roots controlling. " She hasstrong views on the courier business, generally: "I really do thinkthat a lot of the people that were big and important in the business havebottled out. They've been forced to compete merely on price and I don'tthink that's good for anybody. They've got everybody up against the wall.The pedal bikes are having a bloody tough time and I really resent that.What’s the next move? Down? Again? Our guys are struggling to earn thesame as they were 2 years ago, How bad does it have to be? This has happenedbecause the people who own despatch companies allowed it to happen.
MT says amen, sister to that but wonders why Creative has held out whenothers have just keeled over:"what I think happens is that the directorsdon't wort We workin a very hands-on situation. I do a 5-day week, I mean,I know how, many pens we use on control. I wonder how many directors knowthat [laughter]."
The big boys want her, I've been courted by Paul Stoney [gone and soonto be forgotten MD of OYB -see Gutter Press] and Michael Man of West 1,they regularly ring me. At the moment they approach me in the way of: wouldyou like to come and see our mega organisation and wouldn't you like theopportunity to be part of it? Basically they want to asset-strip they wantthe client list and they want nothing else. They don't want the controllers,they don't want the riders and I wouldn't be interested in that" MTsuggested that Creative could be seen as one of the last minnows in a shark-infestedsea and wondered how she felt about that "A mixture of being deadterrified and thinking that's alright anyway cos we're different. I actuallyfeel completely isolated, I think well why is everybody else selling outand I calm myself with the thought that when OYB first set up there wereonly big faceless motor-cycle companies and the reason it worked is becauseOYB weren’t, so if that’s what’s happening again then we're going full-circle.I fully intend to be 60 and still controlling." The only cloud is:‘If the financial squeeze goes on for too much longer financial directorsin companies will become more important than people that order the joband produce the goods. They won't give a damn that Creative Courier isa really good service, they'll’ wanna know whether the invoice looks right,what the price is and then the column that says discount."
Having heard the story about the guy who ended up with Lisa's chainwrapped around his neck when he tried to grab a hold of her bristols ata set of lights, MT reckons she will continue to repel the boarders withease.
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