Cheap travel as courier

On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 03:57:02 +0000 (UTC), rdadams.RemoveThis@panix.com (Dick
Adams) wrote in <fi5j2e$klf$1@reader1.panix.com> :

>kangaroo16 <kangaroo16.RemoveThis@invalid.com> wrote:
>
>> <snip)
>
>Once upon a time I looked into air courier services and
>found them to be a worthless a damnyankee expat. Or as
>Eric Bogle wrote "a stranger there and an exile here?.

Thanks for the input on the air courier services, Dick. As to
the "expat" comment, there are a lot of Yank expats in Oz, and a
lot of Oz expats in the USA.

Individuals are individuals, whatever their country of birth.

>Why would I be so harsh? The courier services I contacted
>wanted me to PAY to register with them and to PAY them on
>a trip by trip basis. This was at a time when I could fly
>from Chicago to New York on United for $80 if I left on the
>8pm flight on Friday and returned before 8pm on any Sunday.
>So I wanted to spend a few days in England, Portugal, Spain,
>or France. But they wanted cash up front without any
>guarantees.

You may well be correct, the whole idea may be a scam. OTOH,
perhaps the ones you were contacted were especially tough, or
perhaps times have changed.

I did hesitate a bit about posting the site, mainly based on
their bad spelling. Still, I considered it an interesting
possibility that some readers on this group might want
to evaluate on their own.

As with anything these days, it is still a matter of
"Let the buyer beware!" whether discussing goods or services.

From a business point of view, I can understand why
courier services might be pretty careful about who they
were willing to trust as a courier.

After all, if documents are so sensitive that a company feels
the need for a "courier" to convey them, they would run the
risk that the "courier" could betray them and sell the documents
to one of their competitors.

Or that one of the baggage handlers might. These days, what
documents would have to be carried? If they dealt with
sensitive company plans, wouldn't the companies convey the
information by the highest available secure computer links, with
the highest available encryptation?

Or even multiple levels of encryptation? After all, most
potential competitors might find it hard to break them, and if it
took them more than a couple of months, the info would probably
be useless to them anyway.

Then too, there is nothing stopping them from using the same
encryption methods to send the text of a randomly chosen online
book, or even complete gibberish.

Codes might be even better than cyphers, if can protect the
codebooks. Codes are even more secure than cyphers.

>I had a mate who took one of these deals and figured it
>took them two years to break even.

A good warning!

One of the things I wondered about was how useful it would
be to travelers. After all, there is no particular point in
getting low cost travel from L.A. to Sydney if have to return
within a few days or a weeks.

>
>Anyone needing a courier from Perth to somewhere along
>the Nullarbor, I'm you man. My fee is $60 which should
>cover lunch for two on the Nullarbor. LoL
>
>Dick

That sounds eminently fair, even if only involves carrying a
parcel or a box of freight. However, you and your "significant
other" would actually have to travel from Perth to, say,
Adelaide.

However, suppose the "freight" weighed 300 kg or so?
Would your price change?

If you are willing and able to move that much "cargo" from Perth
to Adelaide, why not human "cargo"? How much would you charge
to carry a human, or humans, for the same journey?

If you offered to do this, you might be deluged by applications.

Am sure that someone in Perth who wanted to travel east would
jump at the chance to travel east for, say, half of the normal
fare, even if they had to pay for their own meals and other
incidental expenses, even if they had to sleep in your vehicle if
you made rest stops along the way.

Easy enough to find out, of course. Give the readers of this a
group a weight limit, state your conditions and price.

After all, you need not make an actual offer, you can merely say
you are exploring the possibility and trying to evaluate
interest.

Alternatively, use a travel agent. Offer him or her your best
offer, and they will add the usual 10 or 15 percent and market it
for you.

Legal restrictions? They will know about them, or you could
check.

Come to think of it, why should I give you or others on this
group such an idea? I could probably make money offering a
similar service from Sydney.

....Because, basically, am not personally interested, and am a
nice enough guy, even though an expat Yank, so am willing to
share ideas with others on this group who might want to look into
them.

Incidentally, am not at all offended by your reference to Yank
expats or tourists. In my decades of life in Australia, have met
a few of them. Some impressed me, some didn't.

OTOH, I seem to get along with most Aussies.

My fellow Yanks often offend me with their incredible
"nosiness". Within five minutes of meeting me some of them want
to know my name, , what I do for a living, how much money I make,
my net worth, if I am married or not, whether I have kids, their
names, what pets we own, names of pets, and so on.

Incredibly intrusive, by my standards. Most Aussies don't ask
such questions. Nor would I even think of asking them such
questions.

I notice that your full header doesn't reveal all that much about
you either.

Perhaps you are a fellow realist?

I wonder if we can expect many posts from Yanks today? [Aussie
time]

As write these lines, 5:41 PM Friday in Sydney. 1:41 AM Friday
in New York. Los Angeles Thu 10:41 PM.

Perhaps they are all sleeping off the effects of their
Thanksgiving Holiday?

Please note that I have avoided posting anything today that might
upset them, such as currency movements, economic news, and so on.

Thanks again for your reply!

Cheers,
Kangaroo16
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