Take the tuk-tuk to Hove

Brighton borrows from Bangkok - but its tuk-tuk taxis “are much greener”

Tuk-tuks, the three-wheeled taxis so familiar in cities across Asia, are proving a big hit in… Brighton. Carrying up to three people, they are offering a bus-type service along a five-mile route. The entrepreneur behind it, Dominic Ponniah, claims this is “Europe’s first tuk-tuk service”. He’s looking to launch something similar in London next May, then expand to other cities, too.

TucTuc Limited’s 12-strong fleet of custom-decorated vehicles, with names like the Chavrolet and the Strawberry, took to the streets of the seaside town this summer. “Every week it gets busier,” says Ponniah, who got the idea for his new business venture during a gap year trip. Unlike the notoriously polluting tuk-tuks of Bangkok, his Indian-made versions run on compressed natural gas (CNG), which he describes somewhat airily as “virtually zero-emission”.

Ponniah estimates the total start-up cost at around £200,000. This includes building a CNG filling station, which is open to other road users too. His tuk-tuks run out at around £5,000 each, once he has added safety measures such as seat belts and side impact protection. Running costs are kept low: “CNG is about one-third less than petrol,” explains Ponniah, but each tank goes “five times as far”.

The city’s taxi drivers have threatened legal action against their upstart rival, but Brighton and Hove Business Forum is more positive. “[These] novel, fun vehicles will add to the city's tourism package and help to put it on the map as a city willing to embrace new and innovative ideas.” - Alison Winward

10 October 2006

Alison Winward