How the humble tuk-tuk conquered Southeast Asia.
How the humble tuk-tuk conquered Southeast Asia.
Southeast Asia Globe
16th January 2020
Mr Thai is a true gentleman, which is not the usual view people have of the average tuk-tuk driver. He is the ebullient, English-speaking one in the team of patiently waiting tuk-tuk and motodop drivers outside California 2 on Sisowath Quay in Phnom Penh.
“I know you are poor, Mr Clive. Pay me what you can,” has been his end-of-journey mantra from my first day riding with him in 2003 to today [2007], when I had to abandon ship after the prop shaft on his tuk-tuk gave up.
Which is a shame, because Mr T’s new steed is one of the most venerable machines anyone could wish to have the pleasure of riding in. He says it was built in 1999, although it looks older than that. Its age to one side, though, it is indisputably the Rolls-Royce of tuk-tuks, a smooth-as-silk ride during which gear changes are seldom felt and the fillings stay in your teeth however rough the road surface.
A tuk-tuk scoots along as a man rides through fog past India Gate in New Delhi in 2007. The widespread use of the vehicles in New Delhi was instrumental in popularising the humble tuk-tuk worldwide. Photo: Manan Vatsyana
Mr T recently travelled to the Cambodian border with Thailand to buy his handsome three-cylinder, 660cc Suzuki-engined machine, which boasts five forward and a reverse gear and cost him $1,800, plus an import fee he will not discuss.
It is also an example of an early Formula One-style monocoque construction, in which the motorcycle and trailer are a rigid one-piece unit with the power delivered to the rear wheels by a drive shaft and converted by a differential to spin the rear wheels.
Humble origins
A man sits his Piaggio Ape during a rally for the vehicle’s 70th anniversary in 2017 in Aosta, northern Italy. Some claim the Ape was the first modern-day tuk-tuk. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP
While many offer compelling claims, the origins of the first tuk-tuk remains disputed. In 1886 a group of Germans placed a patent for a three-wheeled vehicle closely resembling the modern-day tuk-tuk minus the engine, while some claim the Italians created the first tuk-tuk in 1947 with the Piaggio Ape. The Ape (meaning The Bee in English) was designed by the same inventor of the iconic Vespa scooter, and intended to power Italy’s post-World War II recovery efforts.
Another origin story emanates with the Japanese, who first started exporting three-wheelers resembling tuk-tuks to Thailand in 1934. And indeed, the Japanese-made Daihatsu Midget is likely the mother of all tuk-tuks in the region, having first arrived in many Southeast Asian nations in 1959 and becoming the model on which future iterations of the three-wheeler grew from.
But what is certain is that the contemporary variation of the auto-rickshaw rose to great prominence – and numbers – in India. Autos, as tuk-tuks are often known in the country, quickly established themselves as the most common form of cheap, reliable public transport in the capital New Delhi and were prized for their practicality and economy, making them an instant success and a symbol of the nation.
The auto-rickshaw mobility habit has since spread outwards and are now ubiquitous on the streets of Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia as well as other parts of Asia, Africa and Europe. They are mainly used for public transport and for small-business deliveries because of their practicality and relatively large load capacity.
While tuk-tuk – the onomatopoeic Thai word that has been popularised worldwide for the auto-rickshaw, named after the sound its two-stroke engine makes when idling – is arguably most common today, at least among foreigners, the machine has adopted several colloquial monikers.
In Indonesia, they are known as Bajaj, named after Indian company that has become synonymous with tuk-tuk production globally. While in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, they have earned the name ‘Skylab’ or ‘Jumbo’. And in Nigeria’s largest city Lagos, where tuk-tuks first arrived in the late 1990s, they are colloquially known as ‘keke’.
Remorques, Cambodian iterations of the tuk-tuk, take tourists on a tour of the Angkor temples complex in Siem Reap in 2007. Photo: Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP
EDITOR’S NOTE
As of 2020, Indian company Bajaj Auto is the largest producer of tuk-tuks globally. Based in Pune, Maharashtra, they sold 780,000 of the three-wheeled vehicles in the 2019 fiscal year, commanding a 97% market share for three-wheelers in ASEAN. Bajaj’s popularity has not come without casualties, and in Cambodia, it has all but usurped the traditional variation, the remorque. As of January 2019, there were 22 Bajaj dealers in Cambodia, selling some 2,000 tuk-tuks monthly at an average price of $3,600 to $4,000.
Size is everything when talking about the tuk-tuk’s advantages over other vehicles.
During its early days in New Dehli, it was painted yellow and black and predominantly used as a taxi. It was powered by a watercooled, two-stroke 175cc motorcycle/scooter engine capable of relatively pedestrian speeds for its driver and three, rear-seat passengers.
Its soft-top roof kept passengers dry and the vehicles were blessed with minimal running costs and a fuel consumption figure in the high 70km/litre. A developing world dream-machine for its economy.
Many of the original vehicles had a painted, sheet steel body and drop-down sides with, ornamental hammerings or carvings for decoration. They were highly manoeuvrable and could easily turn around in one lane of traffic with room to spare.
Eventually the machine evolved into the modern-day tuk-tuk, with its low gearing gave it a high torque-to-weight ratio, which meant it was a nimble machine that could accelerate quickly and scythe through the heaviest traffic.
In Bangkok, now home to legions of the three-wheelers, there is a maximum fee [as of 2007] that drivers may not exceed, which has tended to become the default fee for barangs (foreigners). Drivers also make money on the side, F1-style, by having advertising posters and placards on their tuk-tuks.
Drivers can also earn fuel vouchers or other commissions by taking passengers to jewellery manufacturers, hotel and guesthouse owners – so establish where you want to go, agree the cost and explain that detours are not part of your agenda.
Most drivers decorate their tuk-tuks with religious charms and small Buddha images which, based on the way many of them drive, is probably a good idea.
A driver sits in his tuk-tuk as he waits in a queue for his turn to get a refill with Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) outside a gas station in New Delhi in 2001. Photo: Arko Data/AFP
In Cambodia, the tuk-tuk, also known locally as the remorque, is commonly a motorcycle with a cabin attached to the rear via a ball-joint coupling. The country’s cities have a much lower volume of car, van and truck traffic than Thai cities, so tuk-tuks are still the most common form of urban transport.
In Siem Reap they follow a similar configuration, with the power transferred by chain to an axle mounted to the modified rear fork, which drives the rear wheels. This arrangement allows for six passengers and their luggage – or 25 sacks of salt, a pyramid of dead pigs, 100 live chickens or, as witnessed recently, a dead relative laid on the floor for his last journey to the pagoda.
A street vendor walks past a row of tuk-tuks in downtown Vientiane in 2003. Tuk-tuk are the most popular means of transport for the majority of Vientiane’s residents. Photo: Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP
But the tuk-tuk is not limited to the Global South, with the three-wheelers making appearances in Europe too.
Of course, in Italy, the iconic Piaggio Ape remains ubiquitous. And even in Paris, the ultra-chique world capital of fashion and culture, there is a small army of tuk-tuks numbering some 50.
England had until recently [2007] also played host to the tuk-tuk, with the first ones introduced in 2004.
Over a period of two years, 12 were in service in the southern seaside town of Brighton, running a sightseeing service along the seafront and neighbouring Hove. Unfortunately, transport legislation outlawed them because their image didn’t fit in with the mayor’s view of his 21st-century city and they were banished from the streets.
Fortunately for Mr Thai, however, is that in Southeast Asia the tuk-tuk continues to be an all-too-familiar conveyance that shows little sign of going anywhere.
He says his debt from buying his pride and joy is paid off now and the tuk-tuk is his – protected by the insurance he has taken out to cover his passengers and his investment.
So now, as Mr Thai sets off to the mechanic to get that drive shaft fixed, he is hoping to get the Rolls-Royce of tuk-tuks purring again in no time.
https://southeastasiaglobe.com/it-came-it-conquered/#
"That was probably Londo...He is always shitty." - Marvin
Full of mistakes.
Wasn’t there a 440 story a few years back about some company setting up a facility in Cambodia to make solar powered tuk tuks?
Did that come to anything?
Did that come to anything?
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viewtopic.php?t=36848Bertie Wooster wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 6:39 pmWasn’t there a 440 story a few years back about some company setting up a facility in Cambodia to make solar powered tuk tuks?
Did that come to anything?
then viewtopic.php?f=14&t=33098
A decade later, nothing in Cambodia, but in 2018 there was a trip across Oz23 September 2013 The Phnom Penh Post Economy and commerce / Energy / Foreign investors / Generation and distribution facilities / Industries / Investment / Labor / Manufacturing Australian aid / Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDIEA) / Jacob Maimon / Star 8 company / Vorn Pao
Solar-powered tuk-tuks could be rolling off the assembly lines in Phnom Penh as early as March next year, allowing local tuk-tuk drivers a cost-effective and greener alternative to using petrol, according to the company manufacturing the vehicle.
Star 8, the Australia-based alternative energy firm behind the “SolarTuk”, is building a factory with a local partner in Dangkor district on the western outskirts of the city.
The firm’s managing director Jacob Maimon expects to hire 200 to 300 local staff once production goes live.
Maimon said his version of Southeast Asia’s ubiquitous motor-driven carriage will come in four different styles and cost between A$2,000 (US$1,880) and A$3,000. …
The SolarTuk has sparked interest among Phnom Penh’s drivers who would normally pay close to $2,000 for a brand new petrol-powered motorbike and carriage. The SolarTuk combines the carriage and motorbike in one. …
Bringing the news. You stay classy, nas, Cambodia.
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It’s pretty rare to be in direct sunlight in PP. Might do better in the provinces.
Godforsaken things, it's all good fun until one meets a car. Lost two neighbours in separate incidents in minor collisions where a car, or even a motorbike passenger wearing a helmet would have survived, instead of being crushed in cheap metal bars.
They also drive like morons. /rant.
They also drive like morons. /rant.
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Meum est propositum in taberna mori,
ut sint Guinness proxima morientis ori.
tunc cantabunt letius angelorum chori:
"Sit Deus propitius huic potatori."
ut sint Guinness proxima morientis ori.
tunc cantabunt letius angelorum chori:
"Sit Deus propitius huic potatori."
Mate I don’t think they need to be in direct sunlight to keep going. It’s not as if they would come to a grinding halt if they went into a shaded area.nerdlinger wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 8:56 pmIt’s pretty rare to be in direct sunlight in PP. Might do better in the provinces.
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No, but they’re drawing on a reserve that needs charging at some stage. If you’re only getting between 0 to 1 hours of direct sunlight a day it’s not going to be enough to keep you powered through to 1am.Bertie Wooster wrote: ↑Tue May 30, 2023 1:41 pm
Mate I don’t think they need to be in direct sunlight to keep going. It’s not as if they would come to a grinding halt if they went into a shaded area.
Which means you’re going to need to recharge somewhere, which in turn then begs the question why bother lugging around a bunch of solar panels all day when you’d might as well just pack a slightly bigger battery…
Modern solar panels work pretty effectively in all kinds of daylight, even rain. Of course they generate more energy in sunlight but it’s not necessary.
And a good battery to store the energy created during direct sunlight will ensure ongoing performance, even at night.
And a good battery to store the energy created during direct sunlight will ensure ongoing performance, even at night.
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