This is actually how (some) couriers worked in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. They latched on to the back of passing cars/trucks with magnetic harpoons and hitched a free ride until they needed to head another way.
That's how I used to hitch lifts with trucks when doing bike messenger runs that took me down at the docks. Dumb and foolish I was.
Did you use magnetic harpoons? ;).
In a very "Back to the Future meets Cyberpunk" fashion.
Donald Duck also did this once.
Dammit, I hear about that book just about every week. I think I might finally cave and read it.
you know you have to
You should, it's a great book. Published before Stephenson became (apparently) famous enough to ignore his editors and stopped cutting down his material... Both "Snowcrash" and "Diamond Age" are very good.