UK: Polish rickshaws conquer British market

The streets of London are renowned for their heavy traffic, and this can be especially true as evening falls and theatre-goers and other revellers make their way through the city. One answer to moving around quickly, is the hundreds of environmentally friendly taxis, better known as rickshaws or pedicabs, that take to the streets. Rickshaws are a common site, but recently a rickshaw with a difference is conquering the London market. Just over four years ago, Poles Bartek Miernik and Tomasz Mysko met at a party, and before long they had teamed up to start a company hiring out rickshaws based on Polish design. Their company, "Traditional Rickshaws", rents pedicabs to mostly Polish students, who usually work through the night transporting people around London for a fee. There are hundreds of such pedicabs on the roads every single night, but the Polish design is unique, as passengers sit in front of the driver. Most of their competitors have their passengers behind them. "We wanted to start this business because Poland joined the European Union and we wanted to find room for Polish products," said Mysko. "It happens that this product was the Polish rickshaw, which traditionally, since the Second World War, had passengers in the front. This was apparently a good choice because up to now the rickshaws in London only had passengers in the back. Thanks to this, our company is growing and we are more and more popular," he added. Currently pedicabs in London are not regulated. Chris Smallwood, the trustee of a competing pedicab company, Bugbugs and chairman of the industry body, London Pedicab Operators Association (LPOA) says it is a hazard to allow anyone to operate a rickshaw without regulation. Smallwood was part of the pedicab founders in London in 1998, and since then, has been working closely with and against the authorities to make it a respected and regulated industry. Currently he is awaiting a High Court verdict on the regulation of pedicabs. Smallwood believes the verdict will result in licensing of pedicabs, upping the entry barriers. He says when this happens, the authorities will not allow pedicabs with passengers in the front to operate, because of health and safety concerns. "They feel that, with the passengers in the front of the rider, they are extremely vulnerable and it makes the pedicab unsafe, so if there is some hard breaking, then the passengers will be tipped out and the rider will come up over the top. So there is no question that they are not going to allow those within the regulatory scheme when that comes in," he said. The High Court is to decide whether rickshaws can now be classified as hackney carriages, which refers to taxicabs. If they are hackney carriages, rickshaws can be licensed under current legislation. If not, Transport for London will lobby the government for new legislation. Pedicabs have also been in dispute with London's famous black taxicabs ever since their introduction in 1998. The London Taxi Drivers' Association (LTDA) lost a court case against rickshaws over whether they where designated as hackney carriages and could lawfully apply for hire a few years ago. This has not helped the relationship between the two forms of transport. "Rickshaw drivers in London are causing mayhem," says taxi-owner Dennis Saunders. "They are a danger to other road users, to passengers....There is no restraints. The London Taxi Driver Association crash tested a rickshaw and all three crash tests done has come out with multiple injuries and death. And it is just not acceptable on London's already over congested, congested roads," he added. But the Traditional Rickshaw company says its pedicabs are safe. "We don't think that our rickshaws are dangerous because they have very good brakes and also, the rickshaw is a very slow means of transport. Every other vehicle is faster and if there are any accidents involving a rickshaw, then usually they are from the back. So our passengers can feel very safe and our drivers are very well prepared. We train them to ride in traffic and drive safely, how to attain information about what is going on in the city, where there is traffic and how intense it is," Mysko said. For Polish students in London, driving for Traditional Rickshaws is seen as an ideal part-time job. Margaret Symeryak is studying translation in London and she says she loves the variety of the work and the people she gets to meet. "Every day I meet people from different countries who tell me about their cultures. So this is the best job for me," she says. Traditional Rickshaws has grown from 5 to 60 vehicles in three seasons, and now Mysko and Miernik have grand plans. The partners are ready for new challenges, and banter about expanding to places such as California, Las Vegas and Southern Europe, or creating airborne rickshaws. So far the plans are vague, but the team says with London now under its belt, it is time to take on the rest of the world.

ITN Source | September 14, 2007

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