Three wheels of fortune

From where I stand Jonathan Titley is the director of the tut-tuk dealership, Amatuktuk and spent 13 years in the 6th Gurkhas.

Jon athan Titley's company uses imported tuk-tuks to take tourists on trips around Knysna, in South Africa's Western Cape.

Jonathan Titley, a director of the tut-tuk dealership, Amatuktuk. When I let my flat in London and bought a house at the seaside in Knysna in the Western Cape in 2003, I was thinking ahead. I moved here with my girlfriend, Lisa - now my wife - because we love the climate and can afford life here. I'm 58 and didn't feel ready to retire. Previously, I'd spent 13 years in the 6th Gurkhas, another three on contract to the Northern Frontier Regiment in Oman and six in Nepal, where I recruited ex-Gurkhas for security work and de-mining operations in former war-zones. In truth, I needed a fresh direction that was fun and not too stressful.

At Nepal's World Elephant Polo Championships in Nepal three years ago, I met a man who was importing tuk-tuks to Europe. I'd also just read Tuk-Tuk to the Road by Joanna Huxster and Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent, two English gap-year girls who had driven a bright pink one from Bangkok to Brighton. I was hooked - I hadn't seen any tuk-tuks in South Africa and felt they would go down a storm with visitors in Knysna.

On the way back, I broke my journey in Thailand for a meeting with the owner of the factory where tuk-tuks are built. His are the top export models and I was offered the sole dealership for the whole of Africa. Some months later, two three-seaters and one six-seater arrived in a container at the docks. I had to jump through several hoops - I needed to register as an importer and they also had to undergo a stringent vehicle inspection by the South African bureau of standards. officials were wary and imagined they were the noisy beasts that are often seen spewing out fumes in some Asian cities. In fact, they were pleasantly surprised and our vehicles were approved.

My tuk-tuks have a 660cc Daihatsu engine, which is a four-stroke that can be converted to run on liquefied petroleum gas, giving you an economical 14kms per litre with a top speed of 110km/h. The steering is like a motorcycle with a twist grip throttle, but the brake and clutch are on the floor like a car so it only takes a few minutes to crack it. Last year, we were licensed as Amatuktuk Safaris just in time for the Christmas-and-New-Year tourist season. We fitted stereos and painted them in a smart livery that really stands out. I recruited a more mature team of drivers, most of them semi-retired, as I wasn't looking for boy racers. Including myself, there are now seven pilots, which is how we like to describe ourselves - we're not drivers, we're definitely pilots. They are self-employed. I pay them a salary and they keep their tips.

How we look is important. We wear khaki shorts and shirt with a winged tuk-tuk logo above the breast pocket and a bush hat. Trips are between half an hour and two hours, for which we charge 30 rand (about Dh10) per person per half-hour. We start the day at 9am, when the designated pilots get the tuk-tuks out of their hangar, check the fuel, oil and tyres before driving them to our terminus at the Knysna Watefront. We work on a first-come-first-served basis and will be out and about until late evening.

I'm widely travelled. Although I love driving local South Africans, I really enjoy meeting people from far-flung places. I once really surprised a Saudi couple who were on their honeymoon when I spoke to them in Arabic. They insisted that I was their driver for the entire day. I recently picked up a very jolly elderly couple on holiday from the UK. They were from Somerset. Asked if they had any special requests from my iPod, which I connect to a set of speakers, they said, "I bet you've nothing by The Wurzels." They were very surprised when, in fact, I did.

The business has been a roaring success. We've carried hundreds of tourists over the last few weeks, including TV stars and the ex-Springbok rugby captain Bob Skinstad, who is thinking of buying some for staff and customer transport for his gastro pub, The Toad, in Noordhoek, Cape Town. But as Knysna is a seasonal town I hope to sell more vehicles to new operators in other areas. I can see visitors taking a tuk-tuk from the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront to Camp's Bay, carrying surfers and their surfboards along the Durban beach front, being used by commuters in Johannesburg and Pretoria when the Gautrain starts to operate or even by shoppers between malls.

When it comes to short journeys in and around towns, tuk-tuks have to be the way forward. They're fun too - everyone smiles and waves when they see them and there's never any road-rage.