Driving a pedicab is a fun way to make a living or to earn extra money as a part time job.
Making money as a pedicab driver works much the same way as driving a taxi, or renting a chair in a hair salon. Pedicab drivers are self employed and paid by their passengers. Pedicab drivers rent equipment from a pedicab company. After paying the pedicab company their rental fee, all money left over is the drivers to keep.
Pedicab drivers are required to know and follow the State of Texas rules of the road, City of Austin for-hire vehicle rules, Austin Police Department 6th street pedicab operation rules, work according to the pedicab community standards, follow all company rules and standards of practice for safe pedicab operation, be a positive representative of the pedicab community, treat their customers well, and charge a fair price for the services rendered.
Special skills and experiences that can be helpful, but not required, for making better tips faster include:
- Service industry experience. (Bartender, Waiter, Waitress, Valet, hotel, etc.)
- Moderate to high levels of physical fitness.
- Being able to comfortably and safely ride a bicycle in busy traffic.
- Knowledge of Downtown Austin.
- Sassiness, Gumption, Savvy, and Fortitude
- Good and thorough training.
- Support from your pedicab company and fellow riders.
The City of Austin places a few requirements on pedicab drivers that must be met. These requirements are the same as are placed on other “for-hire” drivers such as taxi, limo, and shuttle van drivers.
To become a pedicab driver you must do / have the following:
- Must have a current and valid Texas drivers license.
- Must provide a Certified Abstract Type AR or Certified Type 3A copy of Texas driving history. (Get it online here. $22 Type AR is preferred to avoid problems.)
- Must provide a CERTIFIED copy of Texas criminal history. (Get it here. 108 Dension Dr, Austin TX 78752 9AM to 5PM. $25)
- Fill out City of Austin pedicab driver application (Download here: New pedicab application)
The following items and steps may be required depending on individual circumstance:
- If you have any moving violations on your driving history record(s) with in the last 3 years, you must provide proof of completion of a Defensive Driving course. This can be in the form of a official certificate, or as a screen shot showing you successfully completed the corse. (Take it online or in person here. $30)
- If you have had a “Non-Texas” drivers license within the last 3 years, you must also provide certified copies of your out-of-state driving history, and criminal history. You will need to contact your previous state of residence to get this. (example: Colorado Bureau of Investigation, New York D.M.V. etc.)
- If you are a new Texas licensee, and do not yet have your plastic drivers license card, your paper copy will not have an audit number on it. With out this you will not be able to download your Texas driving history. You will either want to wait until they mail you the hard copy (up to 6 weeks from date of issuance), or download and mail in the DR-1 form to get your driving history via mail. This may take 1 to 2 weeks.
- Come to the pedicab shop for an interview, application review, tour and Q&A Session. (We are located here. 1710 E. Second St Austin, TX 78702 M-Th 11 AM to 4 PM or by appointment)
- Sign a pedicab rental contract. Sign up on the Facebook private discussion page. We will then need to sign your application.
- Go to the City Ground Transportation Office, turn in your documents, take a very simple knowledge test based Texas road rules, City of Austin for-hire vehicle rules, and local landmarks that a pedicab might transport passengers to. Read this article if want to study.
- Pay them $20 for the license. (Located here: 1111 Rio grande Austin TX 78701. Monday to Friday 8 AM to 11 AM)
- Schedule a training session to learn correct operation and maintenance of a pedicab, review rules of the road, and get a tour of the city. (Sessions are individually scheduled Monday to Thursday starting 4 PM to 9 PM. Plan for session taking up to 5 hours. Additional training may be required based on individual drivers needs.)
Why Movemint Bike Cab is a better pedicab company to work for:
- Movemint is a rider owned company. Company owners, David Knipp has been making his living in the pedicab industry for more than 6 years each. We know what it takes to be a professional pedicab driver.
- Movemint has a new spacious facility to comfortably house equipment and provide creature comforts to the pedicab drivers. These comforts include, rider lounge, public bathroom, wifi internet connection, and kitchen.
- Movemint Bike Cab has their own Machine shop where we modify, improve, upgrade, and occasionally build from scratch our own pedicabs. The owners of Movemint have skills in Welding, machining, metal fabrication, bicycle bicycle frame building, and bicycle mechanics. We are constantly working to improve our pedicabs. We push the state of the art to make our pedicabs faster, lighter, safer, more reliable,and less strenuous to operate.
- All of our pedicabs are American made tricycles with 26″ or 29″ wheels. If a pedicab company you are considering working for tells you that you must provide your own mountain bike, they are going make you pull a trailer adapted to be a pedicab with your own bike. There are several problems with trailer style pedicabs. Trailers have smaller 20″ wheels and thus have higher, rolling resistance. Trailers also tend to not have any additional brakes to cope the added weight of the passengers making them harder to operate safely. Our American made trikes are significantly lighter weight than many of our competitors Chinese import trikes. Because our bikes also have full sized 26″ or 29″ wheels and weight less, this makes driving our pedicabs far less strenuous. This gives the rider extra energy to have a better attitude, take more rides, and complete the rides they take more quickly, thus helping the rider make more money.
It is Movemint’s belief that our pedicab drivers are charismatic professional athletes. As such they should have the best equipment that we can reasonably provide to help them make a comfortable living. The company owners work constantly to provide opportunities for our riders to make money. We know that the pedicab business has seasonal fluctuations in rider income, so we work very hard to provide our riders a steady income year round. In doing these things we try to help our drivers earn a “middle class” income to be able to take care of themselves and their families.
To become a Movemint pedicab rider, please text or phone or David Knipp (3PM to Midnight 512-665-2454) or email us at:
newrider@austinpedicab.org