Operating a Pedicab Business - Finding Profitable Work
There are basically two ways you can make money operating a rickshaw: 1) Chartering your pedicab for special events, or 2) Getting paid by the trip.
Operating a Chartered Pedicab
When a customer charters your pedicab, you agree to operate your pedicab for a fixed fee for a specified length of time, usually a few hours or perhaps a day or evening. Clients will often charter a pedicab when they're sponsoring a festival or holding a wedding or party.
The advantage of working a chartered event is your income level is assured regardless of how many passengers accept a ride in your vehicle. Depending on the event, you may receive additional income in tips from passengers.
It takes time, however, for you to establish enough of a reputation for customers to call on you to work their event. Advertising is often necessary to keep your name in front of the public, adding to your operating expenses. Even with a strong reputation and advertising, it is rare for a pedicab business to obtain a sufficient number of charters to operate a profitable business on charter income alone. For this reason, nearly all pedicab businesses rely heavily on work where they are paid by the trip.
Trolling for Passengers with a Pedicab
Getting paid by the trip requires "trolling", or riding around finding people willing and able to pay for a ride. This can be very profitable or extremely frustrating, depending on conditions. Three things are required to make trolling for passengers profitable: 1) A crowd of people who 2) have money they're willing to spend for a ride and 3) have to walk a short distance to get somewhere. Let's look at each of these:
- A sufficiently dense crowd of people - only a small proportion of any crowd is willing and able to pay to ride in a pedicab. If they're aren't enough people, its impossible to earn adequate revenue for your time.
- money they're willing to spend - children and young teenagers love to ride in a pedicab, but they usually have little or no money to pay for it. Senior citizens appreciate getting a ride when they need one, but often don't have enough money to spend (or are unwilling to spend very much) for the privilege. Middle-aged people usually don't need a ride or rarely seem interested. Young adults generally are generally the most profitable customers, as they usually are the most liberal with their money.
- have a short distance to walk - people will usually accept a ride if they have to walk more than a few blocks. Shorter than that, they tend to walk. If they need to travel more than a mile, passengers usually aren't willing to pay enough to make it worth your time to carry them that distance.
I have worked many events that didn't meet these criteria and ended up wasting a lot of time. If an event doesn't draw many people and require them to walk a little distance and spend money to enjoy themselves, you likely aren't going to make much money--if any at all.
