Bicycle couriers at NK exchanged the office chair for the bicycle saddle, in search of meaning and mental tranquility

‘On your marks, get set, go!“It is half past two in the afternoon on the NYMA industrial estate along the Waal in Nijmegen as about sixty bicycle couriers-on the back-shooting delivery bags for the NK bicycle courieren. The one with children in the bicycle trailer, another with a brown sandwich from which a bite is quickly taken from the end.

The annual National Championship is the meeting of the Dutch bicycle courier community. For a remarkably large part, it consists of former officials, consultants and managers who left the stress of the social ‘rat race’ behind. Now they deliver mail for companies, bring medicines to the elderly and deliver documents to courts. The couriers- by far the most are man- often work for the minimum wage, they do not need their HBO or WO diplomas.

Downshifting

The voluntary switch from business to the bicycle is in line with a sociological phenomenon: downshifting. Trade in a well -paid but demanding job for simpler work, often below your level of education, but with more satisfaction or leisure. We don’t know how big this movement is in the Netherlands – hard figures are missing. However, the development fits in the growing need for meaning in the work, and it is known that 18 percent of the Dutch is over -qualified in the work. A tour of bicycle courier companies also shows that more and more highly educated people in recent years. Some combine the work with a different part -time job.

The bicycle couriers in Nijmegen who cross the finish line after three hours exchanged their office chair for a variety of reasons for the bicycle saddle. NRC Speaked with three of those who share one motivation: the need to make a more concrete contribution to society.

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