the fruits of our labor are too sweet to hang low..

What are the hours of your life worth? The time you spend working that you never get back.
Labor is undervalued.

A messengers labor has always been undervalued, and ever since the first messengers were killed upon their delivery of said message, this profession has been taken for granted.

Ever since my entry into the delivery business almost 17 years ago, and ever since entering the workforce at 16 I have known that this is true. The only weapon against this, barring a college degree, is to set a higher standard to constantly improve, and therefore over time, by working sharp angles and building solid relationships, you can incrementally increase your value in the market.

You are after all the ultimate freelancer, and as an independent contractor you can sell yourself to the best company and the best dispatcher in that company and that is incentive to improve. The more skills you have, the more services you offer, the more professional and wide reaching those services the higher price you can command.
This improves the industry and the messengers lot, one courier at a time.
Then came the 2000's and youtube and eco-groovyness, and fixed gears ridden by posers doing tricks and the whole idea of being a messenger turned on it's head. All of a sudden in the young, modern public's eye the value of being a messenger was in the cool points and the whole idea of it being something that you do for a living was lost.
Except for those that are still doing it. For a living.
Clutch Couriers who stick with it know the value of the hours of their life. They will not devalue them by subsidizing their job with social status and charging grossly below the standard to get business. We will up our game so that we can expand into new markets, earning new respect and pushing the profession upward to a more sustainable payscale. We will not participate in a race to the bottom because we are invested in the future of our job in this beautiful place. This is the real shit. A job we love and will fight to protect.