THE BICYCLE COURIERS

Összefoglaló a cikkről: A cikk a budapesti Hajtás Pajtás kerékpáros futárszolgálat indulását és működését mutatja be, amelyet 1993-ban alapított két zenész testvér egy svájci példa nyomán. A vállalkozás nehezen indult, de később napi több száz kézbesítéssel és jelentős ügyfélkörrel stabil szereplővé vált a fővárosi piacon. Különlegességük az egyórás „Előzd meg a Piroshetest!” szolgáltatás, amely a dugókat kikerülve gyors és megbízható alternatívát kínál az autós futárszolgálatokkal szemben.

THE BICYCLE COURIERS
„Overtake the Red 7 Bus”

Going uphill with a car in Budapest doesn’t usually cause a major problem for most people. You can enjoy the changing landscape of villas and vistas and breathe somewhat better air. Doing the same with a bicycle, well, that’s not everybody’s cup of tea anymore. Can you imagine doing it every day as a profession?

That’s exactly what the guys of Hajtás Pajtás – which translates very roughly as „come on, buddy” – do every day. Working for a bicycle courier service. No matter what the weather is like, making an uphill session on the bike for delivering or picking up a parcel is nothing but routine.

The idea of making a bicycle courier service within Budapest came from the brothers Tóth (33) and Géresi (23), both also performers in the independent music scene. In 1993, Zoltán and László heard it from their Swiss friend that this kind of environmentally friendly business was doing pretty well in EU states. They didn’t hesitate and by the end of 1993, business was already going on. Not too well, of course, as is the case for most starting small enterprises: there was only a little work for months, as Géresi, the younger biker, recalls. At that time, there were only the two of them, with just enough capital to make some leaflets in a country that didn’t care too much for environmentalism.

That has changed, however. Not the environmentalism of Hungarians, that’s still the same, as Géresi classifies client motivation. Thinking green is still mostly lagging behind the West. Today, however, Hajtás Pajtás can’t complain. They have around 30 workers cycling for them, making around 300 deliveries a day, says Géresi. The clientele reaches from advertising giant McCann Ericsson over the Phare representation to Hungarian small business, accounting together for a HUF 20 million turnover in 1997.

Delivering parcels and packages is a confidential business, says Géresi. Clients entrust them usually with important materials that have to get from destination A to B within a given time. And in that business, they are competing with lots of other services from motorbike delivery services to taxis, all equipped with engines that outpower human strength. Still, Hajtás Pajtás even has a service called „Overtake the Red 7 Bus” where delivery is done within an hour from the call to most parts of Budapest. A bicycle doesn’t get stuck in a traffic jam and can sometimes even be faster than a motorbike. Hajtás clients seem to prefer this, along with their reliability. And isn’t it cool anyway to use a bicycle delivery service? The message is spreading mostly by word of mouth, says Géresi. But this is the best way, he admits. Better than any other advertisement. I.H.

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