It’s not every day that practitioners of an entry-level, minimum wage, service industry profession become fodder for major motion picture action thrillers or speak of their daily routine in terms of pride, competition and creativity.

Then again, Chicago’s bike messengers are not your everyday delivery service.

“Bike messengers get attention because there is something very romantic about the job,” said Jeffrey Kidder, a former bike messenger who has studied them. “It’s fast-paced, it’s physical, and it’s risky.”

The Chicago Department of Transportation’s most recent estimate figured 300 bike messengers are operating in the city, completing more than 1.1 million deliveries annually. And while those numbers may have declined since the recession and the advent of email, Chicago’s streets are still teeming with these daredevil bikers — third only, industry veterans say, to New York and Washington, D.C.

“When contrasted with other types of service workers, bike messengers are granted a rather large amount of cultural capital,” said Kidder, an urban sociology professor at Northern Illinois University and author of the book, Urban Flow: Bike Messengers and the City.

As with many service jobs, bike messengers operate largely behind the scenes. Ferrying legal forms, architectural blueprints, bank documents and, in increasing cases, food to downtown buildings and beyond, they provide an on-demand service on a timeline and consistency level that no car could hope to compete with.

“The bike messenger service plays a critical part in the success of our business,” said Jacqueline Carlis, an account manager with the law firm McDermott, Will and Emery, at Monroe and Franklin. “Without them, someone would have to go back and forth to have our documents signed. With bike messengers, we can focus on the clients.”

For bike messenging to flourish, Kidder contends, a city must have an international finance focus and a dense downtown core.

It’s only natural, then, that the very environment that necessitates the need of bike couriers is the one in which they thrive the most.

Big business and heavy traffic congestion are a bike messenger’s two best friends.

“The access to businesses and information in the Loop is constantly being re-evaluated,” said Charlie Short, program manager of Chicago’s Bike Safety and Education program. “Biking is just without a doubt the way to get around.”

Many bike messengers speak of their job in terms of reverence and gratefulness — as if they just can’t believe someone is paying them to do what they love for a living: ride their bike, their way.

Tom Willett is the general manager of Service First Courier, which employs four full-time messengers. Demand is down, said Willett. More than a decade ago, he managed twice the bikers he has now. But judging from the non-stop crackling over his dispatch radio, business seems steady.

“There is a romantic style to it,” Willett said. “But it is a nasty, cold job.”