Rickshaws riding high in Germany

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