Exclusive | NYC bike messengers reveal their surprisingly busiest time of year—and the best parts of the job

The models may have worked the runways during New York Fashion Week, but the couriers did the work.

The bike messengers who swarm around NYC, offering designer models at shows and star-studded photo shoots, said the city’s biennial celebration of style, held earlier this month, is their busiest but also most profitable season. – and they account for up to five times more.

Victor “VR” Ramirez, 30, a native New Yorker who works for Mess Kollective, told The Post that he and his fellow pro-rollers find themselves making the most dough during NYFW, which generates reported revenue. $900 million for Big. Apple.

“Fashion week is the best time of the year for us,” said Ramirez, of Bushwick. He usually carries batons for top fashion houses, such as Stella McCartney, during the bash, doing releases at “frighteningly fast” speeds between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., but the pay is well worth it. the pain.

“You can easily make $500 a day,” said the millennial.

In off-peak seasons, riders make about $100 a day — and, for most workhorses, that doesn’t include tips.

“People think it’s an easy job,” Ramirez said. “But it isn’t.”

“We’re taking expensive things to beautiful buildings, businesses, models, studios and we have to make sure everything gets there,” he added. “But I love knowing that I’m helping great brands and designers by making things easier for them.”

Still, pedaling parcels around Gotham, whether it’s glamorous new footage or mail delivered between moguls, is no walk in the park.

Come high-water floods or diabolical heat waves, the boys and girls in the mud can walk up to 100 miles a day, moving goods across busy bridges and through dangerous Midtown traffic.

Still, the job comes with an emotion that Kevin Bolger can’t shake.

“I like being part of the city, riding my bike and getting important packages to their destinations as quickly as possible,” says Bolger, 52, a Bed-Stuy resident who was born in Queens. , for The Post. “As a bike messenger, you become an integral part of big business.”

For Bolger, co-owner of bicycle delivery service Cyclehawk, hauling goods since 1992 has not only helped out of town, but also helped him shed an extra 30 pounds.

“I became a bike messenger at 21 and was a little self-conscious about my physique,” said Bolger, who can ride over 50 miles a day around the neighborhood during busy shifts. When he’s not sweating it out on his single-speed fixed gear, the father of two teenagers serves NYC as a Department of Sanitation employee.

“My bike has helped me take care of my health and make money,” Bolger said. “I love him.”

But there are times when the often-overlooked and unacknowledged workers feel they aren’t given due respect for the good they do—both for Gotham’s citizens and its environment.

A staggering 90% of NYC’s freight is moved in and around the city on large, gas-guzzling trucks by the Department of Transportation. But recent studies have found that sustainable delivery methods, such as the use of bicycle couriers, can curb toxic air pollution and reduce road congestion problems.

Alex Marte, a Brooklyn-based bike messenger since 2018, prides his high-speed ride on its many benefits.

And now that the lights of NYFW 2024 have dimmed, ending his shipments to luxuries like Louis Vuitton, the veteran horseman is gearing up for NYC’s next big money-making events — Black Friday and Christmas.

“Holidays can be even more intense [and lucrative] than Fashion Week,” said Marte, 30, a dog dad to 11 Yorkshire Terriers. “Sometimes, I have so many packages and boxes that I have to put things in my backpack and it puts so much weight on my back and shoulders.”

In winters past, he rode his cargo bike over the Queensborough, Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges — sometimes back and forth four times in a row, totaling 97 miles — in knee-deep snow in 12-hour shifts.

An average day in the life of a bike messenger in NYC

• 7:00am – Wake up, shower, eat breakfast (either homemade or food trucks)
• 8:30 am – By bike to the city
• 9:00 a.m. – Check-in at work online, request the first delivery of the day
• 9:30 a.m. – Pick up packages in Midtown to drop them off around Soho by 10:00 a.m.
• 10:00 a.m. – Pick up “rush” jobs downtown to deliver upstairs
• 10:45 a.m. – Emergency pickup from East 81st Street to East 20th Street
• 11 a.m. – Claim a “three-hour” job from Long Island City to Ozone Park, Queens commute
• 2:00pm – Head back to Midtown, stop for a slice of pizza or another on-the-go lunch
• 2:30pm – Quick pick-ups and drop-offs around Midtown
• 4:30 p.m. — Emergency “end of day” deliveries to executive clientele during rush hour traffic
• 6:00 pm — Leave work, bike home to Brooklyn

But for the handsome salary and his undying devotion to the metropolis, Marte, who moved to the Big Apple a decade ago, is happy to get the job done.

“I get paid to do what I love.” he exploded. “But it’s hard work that few people in town are skilled enough to do.”

“And we should be a little more appreciative.”