Motoboys Are in a Hurry

G'day Ausmotians,
Hope you find this interesting and enjoy the riding weather.
Ol' fart bike John in Sydney.

You think folks hate motorcycles HERE?


Pedestrians and Drivers Beware! Motoboys Are in a Hurry
By LARRY ROHTER

Published: November 30, 2004
Taken from tne NY Times, 11/30/2004

Ed Viggiani/Arcapress-Redux, for The New York Times
PAULO, Brazil - This is a city with nearly 11 million inhabitants and
0.5 million passenger cars, 32,000 taxis and 15,000 buses. Traffic jams
more than 100 miles long are not uncommon, and even on an ordinary day,
getting from one side of town to the other can take two hours or more.

Only one group here in South America's largest city seems immune to
those frustrations and delays: the daring army of motorcycle messengers
known as "motoboys." Zigzagging among stopped cars, ignoring lane
markers, red lights and stop signs, they regularly menace pedestrians
and infuriate motorists as they zoom their way down gridlocked streets
and highways, armed with the knowledge that without them business would
grind to a halt.

"Nowadays we are so integrated into the economy that São Paulo couldn't
function without us," said Ednaldo Silva, a motoboy who owns an agency
employing nearly 50 messengers. "People don't like us or respect us, but
we are as essential to transport as trucks, and if we were to go on
strike, the city would collapse."

The bulk of the motoboy's work involves rushing contracts and other
legal documents from one business to another, especially for bank loans.
But from car parts to architect's plans, human organs for transplant to
passports or pizza, there is almost nothing he cannot or will not deliver.

"There's no way to do away with them," Gerson Luís Bittencourt, the
muncipal transportation secretary, acknowledged. "They employ a ton of
people and facilitate things for everyone. So what we have to do is find
a way to regulate the phenomenon and restore sociability in traffic."

Though no one is sure of their exact numbers, estimates start at 120,000
and range as high as 200,000. Many work 12 hours a day or more to earn a
salary of $300 a month or less.

According to official figures, São Paulo now has 332 motoboy agencies.
Competition is strong, and they adopt names, often in English, stressing
efficiency: Adrenaline Express, Moto Bullet, Fast Express, Agile Boys,
Motojet, Fly Boy, Motoboy Speed, AeroBoy Express, Fast Boys.

With so much emphasis on speed and so much competition with other
vehicles, the job is often dangerous. Broken bones and wrecked cycles
are an occupational hazard, and according to figures compiled by their
union, on average, at least one motoboy a day dies in a traffic accident.

"The truth is that we're discardable," said Edson Agripino, 38, a
veteran of 15 years as a motoboy. "When a colleague gets hurt or killed,
the first thing the dispatchers ask is 'Did he deliver the document?' "

Nevertheless, many motoboys, especially the younger ones, see themselves
as free spirits or urban cowboys, defying the conventions of society and
envied by stodgy wage-earners stuck in their cars and offices.

"It's great to be out on the street, on your own, watching the girls,
and not in some cubicle with a boss bugging you all the time," said
Fábio César Lopes, who at 29 has nine years' experience as a motoboy. "I
spent five years at an insurance agency, and believe me, not only do I
make better money doing this, but it's a lot more fun."

Ordinary motorists consider motoboys a plague, and hostility between the
two groups is fierce and growing. There are at least 17 online chat
groups devoted to complaining about motoboys, and conflicts in the
street and even fistfights between drivers and motoboys are not unknown.

"I can't stand motoboys," said Flávio Kobayashi, a graphic artist.
"You're sitting there stuck in traffic, on your way home after a long,
hard day, and along they come with their infernal beep-beep-beep,
weaving their way through traffic in complete disregard of everyone else
on the road. They'll break the rear-view mirror of your car if you get
in their way, and any time there is an argument they come to each
other's rescue to beat up on defenseless drivers."

Pedestrians, especially newcomers from small towns in the interior, feel
especially vulnerable. In a notorious incident in 2001, Marcelo Fromer,
a guitarist in the popular rock group Os Titãs, was run over and killed
by a motoboy with an expired license, who fled but was apprehended a
year later, tried and convicted.

To bring the situation under control, the municipal government last year
created an obligatory registry system. The new rules required all
motoboys to pay a $110 tax, prove that they do not have a criminal
record, obtain life insurance, wear a helmet, drive motorcycles less
than 10 years old and carry their cargo in a rear-mounted basket with a
license number on it, so they can be tracked.

But motoboys resisted the system, saying it was devised to banish them
from the streets. Only 40,000 of them registered, and they organized
protests that blocked some main streets. During the campaign leading up
to the mayoral election here in October, some candidates endorsed their
position and obtained judicial restraining orders exempting individual
motoboys from registration, which eventually forced Mayor Marta Suplicy
to rescind the program.

A few years ago, Congress tried a different tack and passed a law that
would have made it essentially illegal for motoboys to practice their
profession, which has begun spreading to other cities in Brazil. But the
president at the time, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who is from São Paulo,
vetoed the bill, tacitly recognizing the indispensability of the motoboy.

"Everybody hates the motoboys except when they need one themselves,"
said Caíto Ortiz, the director of "Motoboys: Crazy Life," a recent
prize-winning documentary. "When he's rushing some document of yours
across town, then he becomes your savior, a hero, and you adore the
guy." ------------------------------