Bike messengers are almost universally contractors (there are some wonderful companies who basically exist to treat their messengers well, but they're a small part of the market). That obviously means they don't provide insurance and don't have to carry workman's comp for those employees. Most messengers I know make dirt pay and could never afford insurance except through their spouses (or parents if they're young). They live and die on being careful and help from the community and the BMEF (which is an awesome organization), and they do it because they can barely imagine life off a bike even in the face of the risks. So Uber isn't unique in this sense at all. That said, they're obviously swinging to cut margins out of an industry that already can barely support its workers. I'm more curious about the rates they pay than anything -- I actually suspect few in the industry would object to outcompeting large dispatchers if they pass some of that on to messengers in the form of better/stable pay. But BMEF donations "with the launch" (they do not say long-term) are no substitute for responsible employment.

On the whole I'm a bit surprised -- the messenger industry has been shrinking a lot as people need fewer actual signatures on documents. I suspect they're doing it more to understand the delivery market and pilot a delivery service than for the traditional document carrying market.