Welcome to Clutch Couriers

the Central Coast's professional courier service. My name is Rick Graves and I have been a professional legal courier since 1994 in both New York City and Santa Cruz. I have been a Certified Process Server since 2003.

When I moved back to Santa Cruz after a decade in New York City, I realized that my formerly small hometown had become urbanized to the point where businesses could increase their productivity and streamline their day by hiring a trusted courier service to get important packages across town quickly. Any attempt to travel the city by car during one of our three rush hours will confirm this.

After six years as part owner of the only bike messenger service in town at the time, I decided to start a company based upon my own area of expertise: providing professional courier services while making excellent customer care my highest priority. What makes Clutch Couriers unique is our array of professional services for the business and legal communities, and our sincere commitment to your satisfaction.

We never take our clients for granted, and they rely upon our promise to provide:

• Professional attention to detail and expert accuracy
• Prompt follow-up to their questions or concerns
• Non-judgmental confidentiality
• Instant information regarding the status of their documents

Also as owner, I will work with you personally to make sure your needs are met with the utmost of expediency. Our regular clients love the way Clutch Couriers gets them in gear by taking the worry out of their day. Read our testimonials (above) to see what they have to say.

Thank you for visiting my site, I look forward to the opportunity of working with you and your organization.

It's all about the ride; Clutch Couriers expands into Monterey

SANTA CRUZ -- Rick Graves and the other riders at Clutch Couriers, which recently announced an expansion into Monterey County, have nimbly maneuvered the economic downturn as if they were swerving around a suddenly stopped delivery van on Ocean Street.

"I really didn't expect the market to be as open and diverse as it is," Graves said this week amid the clutter of his one-room office where a handful of riders carefully step over stacks of promotional posters covering the floor. Bicycles lean against wall of the foyer and the outside wall.

"The only thing to take a dip was entertainment and that's come back full force."

In late morning on a weekday, the phone rings every few minutes.

The nearly 4-year-old company, which includes Graves, 40, and four other riders, managed to grow 35 percent in 2009. In the first quarter of 2010 business picked up and Graves expects to grow at the same rate this year.

"I didn't expect us to be where we were in terms of revenues," Graves said. "There are new markets emerging all the time."

The company provides courier services such as court filing, mobile notary services and service of processes as well as rush and same-day court filing in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. A print and promotion division posts fliers and posters throughout the Santa Cruz area.

Another local company, Pedalers Express, provides the same services but Graves said the biggest competition is from companies that use motorized vehicles, in part because the community doesn't always "get" that bike messengers are the most reliable way to get through congested streets.

In big cities, business relies on bicycle couriers to wind their way through rush hour traffic jams. But, in a small community like Santa Cruz, bike messengers are often pegged as a green alternative rather than the norm. It is an image Graves strives to change by focusing on professional service rather than conservation.

"The point is not about being green," he said. "It's about selling a service. Honestly, for most of these markets, that's the quickest way to get there."

He counts on expansion into Watsonville and Monterey County. Clutch Couriers, he says, is going to be well-positioned to take on more business.

"It's just a matter of people realizing that we're here," he said. "We're on the road every day, anywhere."

Just outside the Clutch Couriers office, riders check over their street bicycles before heading out on runs that would take them to the courthouses in Santa Cruz and Watsonville, between clinics and to businesses and government offices throughout the county.

On an average day, they travel 40-50 miles per day, rain or shine, with big black Chrome messenger bags slung across their backs. There are longer days, however, including regular runs to and from Watsonville. Graves has a Honda Civic hybrid for small freight and out-of-county service.

To save on fuel, cost and staff time, Santa Cruz Metro switched last year to Clutch Couriers for the distribution of interoffice mail and board agendas.

"It has been cost-effective," said Tony Tapiz, acting administrative services coordinator for the bus agency.

Every morning, a courier runs a mail circuit between various offices in Santa Cruz to Soquel and back. A rider also carries board agendas between Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley, Capitola and Watsonville.

Tapiz admitted that initially he was surprised they could make the haul, especially in inclement weather but, now, "I just respect they get the job done."

Graves, who grew up in New Zealand and moved back to Santa Cruz for middle school, spent most of his 20s in New York City, working as a bike messenger. By the time he moved back to Santa Cruz in 2000, the roads were more congested and bicycle travel "was a no-brainer." He worked in retail and at Pedalers Express, a Santa Cruz-based worker-owned and operated messenger service that operates throughout the county on non-motorized transportation exclusively. Graves launched his own company at the end of 2006.

"They are awesome," said Michelle Harper, a paralegal for the Law Office of Heidi Simonson, which specializes in family law. The firm has been relying on the bike service for about a year and a half. "They're always here right on time. He rides his bike, even when it's raining."

Other customers include the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District, Bosso Williams, UC Santa Cruz, Non-Profits Insurance Alliance of California, Santa Cruz Hells Angels Motorcycle Club and Niemann Capital Management.

Rain storms and requests to meet tight deadlines while navigating busy rush hour traffic -- those are the best days, said Graves, who claims to have carried a restraining order about 20 miles from Watsonville to the top of Mission Hill in Santa Cruz -- obeying all traffic laws -- in just 52 minutes. The winter rains were actually fun, he said.

"I take the long runs to Watsonville. That's what my love is, riding," said Graves.

The funkiest delivery? That would be getting a call to deliver organic catnip to Sneakers, a cat who had been left alone on Christmas Eve.

"I thought it was the neatest thing," said Graves, a cat lover, who added that he was tipped well. "And, the cat was nice too, of course."

Graves envisions a bicycle messenger office every 40 miles across the state but is focusing on growing "at a rate that's sustainable.

"Now we need to expand into new markets like Monterey and pick up on plans to increase rides to South County," he said. "There's a lot more economic activity this year. I think we're well-positioned for growth as long as we ride that wave."

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Clutch Couriers

• WHAT: A privately owned full service courier company providing rush and same day delivery via bicycle throughout Santa Cruz County and parts of Monterey County.
• BACKGROUND: Founded in 2006.
• LEADERSHIP: Richard Graves, owner & founder.
• EMPLOYEES: Five employees.
• AVERAGE MILES PER DAY: The couriers average 40-50 miles of riding each day.
• INFORMATION: 466-0560; www.clutchcouriers.com

By JENNIFER PITTMAN - jrpittman@comcast.net
Posted: 06/06/2010 01:30:58 AM PDT
Originally posted here: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/business/ci_15238288

As a young boy growing up in New Zealand, Rick Graves used to ride to school on the back of his older brothers bike, holding on for dear life as his brother would tear down gravelly roads in an attempt to knock off the pint-sized passenger. At the age of 10 his family moved to Santa Cruz and, now, with those early recreational bike days and a stint as a professional bike messenger in New York City under his belt, the 39-year-old is the one tearing down local roads on two wheels. Transplanting the cut-throat tradition of the Big Apple's urban bike messenger system to Santa Cruz since starting Clutch Couriers in 2006, Graves helms a model green business that's seeing the rewards of putting the pedal to the pavement.

Initially a one-man operation founded with a $1,000 investment and operating out of Graves' home, Clutch Couriers has grown into a six-person crew that can service businesses, personal deliveries and legal filing from Monterey to over the hill, and also provides in-house print jobs. Aside from the occasional use of his Honda Civic Hybrid (for access to the furthest spots), the company has built itself up by going back to the basics: high quality delivery at a low cost via bicycles. The ultimate low-emissions approach that also means less parking hassles, less mechanical maintenance and less insurance fees, the company's overhead is also less so that the price for the consumer is cheaper. It's not just a green alternative, Graves says, it's the best alternative.

"I don't know how many times you've been sitting in traffic and watched a bicyclist pass you, but if you really want something across town quickly that's the way to go," he states, sitting in bike attire in his new but modest office, band posters printed on 100 percent recycled paper laid out on the floor ready to be plastered around the county by his team, his phone ringing non-stop. "Whether it's for increasing the efficiency of your business or for the environment, it's the best option for social change and it's also the best option for good business."

With a clientele you're unlikely to find mingling in the same room, Clutch Couriers caters to the flyering needs of the Museum of Art and History, the Watsonville Brown Berets, Santa Cruz's Hell's Angels, Moe's Alley and Temple Beth El, to name a few. Major daily accounts include handling the full-service banking for a local raw-foods company, delivering the mail for the Nonprofit Insurance Alliance of California and the Santa Cruz Metro Transit District, along with constant court filings from top Bay Area law firms. Establishing a route between Santa Cruz and Watsonville since last April, Clutch Couriers has hooked up the two regions so that commerce can now go back and forth in a sustainable way. In addition, Graves is a certified process server and notary. Just because he's on a bike doesn't mean he can't answer the call of the white-collared conservatives.

"Ultimate change for the planet is going to come from the business community, because those are the people making what we consume and what we put out into the environment," he says of his inclination to work for lawyers and corporate clients just as much as your local grandma sending cookies or your local rock band advertising a gig. "If you're only promoting yourself to like-minded individuals, you're not expanding your reach into conservative markets and you're doing the environment a disservice."

Covering important ground philosophically and physically, Graves rides up to 60 miles on his bike each day, and together his team racks up approximately 700 miles each week. His commitment to exceed customer expectations and prove that you can make a career out of something that's a win-win situation for everyone and the environment, is what keeps his wheels turning.

The other reason he toils past you in traffic each day? Good old-fashioned fun.

"The personal aspect to it is, I won't lie, it's absolutely the most fun physical labor I've ever done and that's why I've been addicted to it and worked so hard at it for over 15 years," Graves explains matter-of-factly. He then muses in a softened tone, "At the end of the day, doing what you love just adds to your soul."