Can Agents Work?

Jobs / Office and administrative support / 43-5021.00

Couriers and Messengers

Pick up and deliver messages, documents, packages, and other items between offices or departments within an establishment or directly to other business concerns, traveling by foot, bicycle, motorcycle, automobile, or public conveyance.

US jobs
68,640
Median wage
$39,200 a year
Job family
Office and administrative support

Can agents do the work of couriers and messengers?

We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Office and administrative support:

  • Task levelStrongOn computer-use and office-task benchmarks, top agents pass most tasks: 90.2% on OSWorld-Verified (humans: 72.4%), 83.1% on SpreadsheetBench, and 63.3% on WorkArena L1 under the standard protocol. Limits: many top entries are self-submitted and not re-run by the maintainers, and on TheAgentCompany's multi-step workplace tasks the best agent resolves 42.9%.
  • Project levelPartialOnly adjacent evidence. OpenAI reports that GPT-5.5's GDPval deliverables won or tied against professionals' work in 84.9% of comparisons, but GDPval tasks are one-shot and fully specified. No benchmark in our collection tests multi-day administrative work, such as running a calendar or a purchasing process.

Benchmarks for the job family

These cover work in office and administrative support, not always this occupation's tasks.

Typical tasks

From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.

  • Deliver and pick up medical records, lab specimens, and medications to and from hospitals and other medical facilities.
  • Walk, ride bicycles, drive vehicles, or use public conveyances to reach destinations to deliver messages or materials.
  • Load vehicles with listed goods, ensuring goods are loaded correctly and taking precautions with hazardous goods.
  • Receive messages or materials to be delivered, and information on recipients, such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, and delivery instructions, communicated via telephone, two-way radio, or in person.
  • Deliver messages and items, such as newspapers, documents, and packages, between establishment departments and to other establishments and private homes.
  • Record information, such as items received and delivered and recipients' responses to messages.
  • Unload and sort items collected along delivery routes.
  • Sort items to be delivered according to the delivery route.
  • Plan and follow the most efficient routes for delivering goods.
  • Perform routine maintenance on delivery vehicles, such as monitoring fluid levels and replenishing fuel.
  • Obtain signatures and payments, or arrange for recipients to make payments.
  • Unload goods from large trucks, and load them onto smaller delivery vehicles.
Other job titles for this occupation (52)

Courier · Delivery Driver · Driver · Lab Courier (Laboratory Courier) · Mail Carrier · Mailroom Courier · Messenger · Security Messenger · Transporter · Vehicle Delivery Worker · Bank Courier · Bank Messenger · Bicycle Messenger · Call Person · Call Worker Person · Caller · Circular Distributor · Copy Messenger · Courier Delivery Driver · Court Messenger · Crew Caller · Deliverer · Delivery Clerk · Delivery Courier · Delivery Person · Diplomatic Courier · DOT Courier (Department of Transportation Courier) · Driver Messenger · Food Courier · Freight Caller · General Runner · Mail Messenger · Medical Courier · Merchandise Deliverer · Message Clerk · Messenger Floorperson · Newspaper Delivery Person · Office Messenger · Office Runner · Outside Deliverer · Package Delivery Room Service Runner · Pick Up Man · Pick Up Worker · Proof Carrier · Sample Distributor · Service Runner · Singing Messenger · Swing Driver · Telegraph Messenger · Telegraph Office Route Aide · Telephone Messenger · Transfer Specialist