Rickshaws riding high in Germany

Christina Schott, Contributor/Berlin

When springtime starts and the air slowly becomes warmer in Central Europe, they suddenly sprout at every corner.

They are the Velotaxis and Rikschataxis -- the German answer to Indonesian becak and Asian rickshaws.

The rickshaw boom in Germany started 1997, when inventor Ludger Matusczewski had the idea to develop an alternative form of environmentally friendly transportation that also could provide a place for advertising.

An industrial design firm realized his idea in the Velotaxi.

"Since we could not trust its success as a transportation vehicle, we counted from the beginning on the money from advertising sponsors," the firm's PR manager Christoph Tophincke.

"And that works extraordinarily (well): People who see these vehicles for the first time don't close their mouth quickly."

Crowded destinations, like Brandenburger Tor or Potsdamer Platz, are the hangout spot of Velotaxi driver Amad -- even if he has to wait for his next ride. On this cloudy day, however, he was only number three in the row of rickshaws waiting in front of the National Gallery of Berlin.

"Today I got only 25 euros, but on good days I earn 100 euros and more," the student of economics said, in the meantime reading a novel.

The Velotaxi looks a little bit like a fusion of a racing bike and a rally car with a roll bar that just drove out of a science fiction movie.

For an easier start, it has a small motor that stops working at the speed of eight kilometers per hour. Thus, it does not have much similarity to an Asian human-powered rickshaw (although bentor motorized pedicabs are found in cities in Sumatra and Sulawesi).

But others have since jumped on the bandwagon by including original rickshaws from China or India.

Kai Lubeck starts his working day every morning at a garage below the metro railway at Berlin-Moabit. Here the 24 year old has his hub, with around 10 Chinese rickshaws and German-produced velocabs, lovingly decorated with artificial sunflowers.

"This is our spring decoration, but in summer and autumn it will change," said Lubeck, who employs about 25 drivers.

He was a driver for Velotaxi before he started his own business, Rikschataxi, with original rickshaws in early 2003.

"I love this job -- independent, always outside and meeting a lot of people," the fit, suntanned young man said. "But we are really dependent on the weather, since we earn money for the whole year in only six months."

Most important to him is keeping the customer satisfied, not always a given in German's service sector.

"As drivers we always have to be also a city-guide or communicator," Lubeck said. "But it's quite easy, since our passengers usually enter the vehicle in a good, relaxed mood."

While a rickshaw in Asia functions as the simplest and cheapest way for transportation for people who cannot afford a taxi, the Rikschataxi in Berlin is mainly used by tourists and costs more than an automobile taxi: four euros for the first kilometer, with every following kilometer an additional two euros.

The Velotaxi can afford to be almost 50 percent cheaper, since the company has around 80 vehicles going alone around the German capital and finances itself mainly through ad sales.

While Indonesian becak drivers are in a daily struggle for survival, rickshaw drivers all over Germany mainly choose to take the job as an additional source of income during their studies, or simply enjoy riding a bicycle.

Both reasons are why Tove Pils, a student from Sweden, is riding a rickshaw.

"I needed to earn some money besides going to university -- and I found it much better to do this in fresh air among a nice team than in an office, where you don't move at all," Pils said.

Like Pils, half of the Rikschataxi-Team are women, while Velotaxi claims to have an elderly driver aged 65 years. The lively spirit of the drivers might dispel doubts of potential passengers, even though rickhaws to Germans have long been the ultimate symbol of exploitation.

But while Kai Lubeck and his colleagues still struggle to get acceptance at the local level, the Velotaxi has already gone international.

After providing the unique vehicles to partners in most of the bigger German cities, the tricycle made its way to London, Barcelona, Vienna, Paris and Athens. Nowadays Velotaxis are even found in the United States, Saudi Arabia and Japan.

"It is most funny that even a country that has a long tradition of rickshaws as Japan now buys the German model," Tophincke said.

Incidentally, the Indian rickshaws -- the same model as Indonesian becak -- have never succeeded in Germany. Besides the fact that two European backsides feel rather squashed together in the small Asian seat-size, security-loving Germans obviously do not really trust a driver they cannot see sitting behind them.

On the Net: www.velotaxi.com, www.rikschataxi.de