Find out how to apply below…
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The real name for the tricycle above is a pedicab. A pedicab rider is self-employed and will collect and keep their own fares throughout the night. Riders make the most money between 9 pm and 4 am on Friday and Saturday nights.
The rider will need to be trained in accordance with city hall guidelines and will have to obtain a pedicab license from city hall. Our training involves leaning about pedicabs, passing a theory and practical exam, and signing a rental agreement. When you pass our training course, we will give you a certificate to take to city hall, you cannot get the license without our certificate. B.C bylaws state that pedicab riders must be 19 years or older, and must have a B.C. I.D. that shows their name, age and current address. (Health card or Driver’s license are fine/they must not be expired). A pedicab license cannot be obtained without this, so please don’t apply for the job if you don’t have one. The rider will then be expected to rent the pedicab (payable after you ride).
Good riders have an in-depth knowledge of Vancouver and love to meet new people; they ask everybody around them if they want to ride on the cab, they don’t stand around and wait for passengers to hop in, otherwise they would make no money. Bike taxis operate as a bar-to-bar late night service for locals, we are not really a tour company. The best drivers know all the down town crossroads, they know which bars play which music, they know what’s on at each nightclub, they know where all the restaurants are, and they even know the location of every down town hotel. Do you know these things? The best drivers know which events are happening and when they finish, they know how to get around the hills, what the weather is going to do, and they can recommend places for people to go and see.
Good riders can expect to make around $25+ an hour; the best make a lot more.
Applicants must be fit, courteous and willing to ask people for rides. Applicants must have a working cell phone to communicate any problems to management.
We are looking for people who know how to change gears on a bike without crunching the gears. We prefer people with a grasp of how the traffic works on the road. We are looking for people who can smoothly transition across three lanes of traffic while holding a polite conversation and shifting the derailleur, without busting up the tuning.
Drivers need to make passengers feel safe and comfortable. We are looking for responsible, intelligent individuals who like to be free-spirits. If you feel this is you, come and join us.
- $200
Average Take
- 6hrs
Shift Length
- $20
Most Fares
- 40km
Per Shift
In theory, pedicabbing is all upside. For the passengers, it’s transportainment; a fun way to see the city, and also a practical way to get from here to there. For the driver, it keeps you in shape while it keeps you in food and rent. You get to work outdoors and you can be your own boss. You spend the day meeting new people, and a discouraging hour brings the consolation of the pedicab fraternity, whose healthy camaraderie salves the flagging spirits of its members.
In practice, pedicabbing is the most frustrating, exhilarating, depressing, uplifting, soul-crushing, maddening job you’ll ever have. It’s never boring; in a typical day giving rides, you’ll careen through a ride of your own on an emotional roller-coaster, veering from cool confidence, to grim determination, to abject hopelessness, to grateful relief, to manic jubilation and back again. By turns the work reaffirms your faith in humanity and reduces you to a steely-eyed misanthrope.
It’s hard to describe the realities of the pedicabbing life to the uninitiated. A bike messenger knows what it is to zoom through the canyons of mid-town, jousting with traffic and pedalling their heart out; but pedicabbers do it on a 200-pound trike with a smile on their face. A taxi driver knows the loneliness of a long shift spent cruising the streets for fares; but his pick ups are effortless and frequent, while a pedicabber must wheedle and cajole their sparse customers in a never-ending series of street hassles.
The people who know best what it is to pedicab are probably telemarketers. Anyone who works in an industry where 9/10ths of one’s sales attempts are met with rejection, if not outright hostility, knows the score. Passengers often assume that the hardest part of the job is the physical rigour, but that’s the least of a pedicabbers concerns. Sure, you may spend the first couple of weeks icing your knees, but the body quickly adjusts to its new demands. The occasional runner’s high and the bone-deep weariness after a hard day at physical labour are two of the job’s rewards.
The hardest part of the job is repeatedly summoning the effort to persuade pedestrians to “hop on!”
Not ready for an office job? After you’ve read the above, fill out the form below to become a pedicab driver.
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