Find your new Love

Sometimes people ask how we got into importing and selling Piaggio Ape/auto rickshaw trucks from Italy.  Let me go back to the beginning.  My grandmother on my mom’s side , called “Nonna” was from Florence, Italy. Her name was Titiana Tafani. My Grandfather Roger French was stationed in North Africa  then Italy during WWII. When he was in Italy he met Titiana, she mended and washed the soldiers' uniforms. Titiana and my grandfather Roger French started dating and eventually married in Italy. Titiana then traveled to USA, New York. She came into the country through Ellis Island with all the other WWII war brides where they stayed for one month. She made her way to Texas. 

The couple married again in Texas.  I have relatives in Italy and we have visit them in Italy

many times and experience the culture, social attitudes, and the familia.  During  the summer of 1995 after I graduated high school and went on a trip to Italy with my Nonna. It was on this trip that I fell in love with Vespa scooters. I thought to myself man these little scooters are so cool. Why don’t we have them in the states? When I got back to Texas I just had to have a cool Vespa scooter. I was working for my dad that summer and as fate would have it I stumbled across a

Vespa Ciao moped at a garage sale for $40.00. I was so excited. I knew nothing about mechanics but I slowly learned to work on it, got it running and drove that moped all around the college campus. 

While in college I met the Love of my life Leah Lawless. We were both art majors. I was studying ceramics and she studied sculpture. After graduation, I went to graduate school in East Texas with Leah. I bought my first brand new scooter. We got married, got teaching art jobs.  We moved back to the Dallas Motorplex. Leah got her first scooter at this time.  Eventually I was able to buy a vintage Vespa and a year later sold it for a pretty good profit. That sparked the idea I could make some money with a hobby I love, VESPAS. For the next 20+ years I would buy, sell, trade, collect, and work on vintage Vespa scooters.

  The knowledge and love for Vespa naturally led me to Piaggio Ape/auto rickshaw trucks as they are built by the same company who invented and built Vespa scooters. I actually acquired my first ape taxi by trading a Vespa scooter for it. I quickly started renting it to weddings and events, which is great fun. My wife loves weddings and being a part  of the bride and groom's special day.  I would find the odd and rare 3-wheel ape or tuk tuk in the USA to buy and resale. It was during this I was approached by a company in Texas that was building mobile bars. It was from this encounter that I realized there was a need for APE trucks in USA for people that want to build food

trucks and mobile bars.

 I began buying Apes/Auto Rickshaw in Italy, and Importing them for sale in the USA. Both my wife and myself enjoy using our creativity to help others in their business.  We have been doing this now for 5 years. It has been a joy to import an Ape and give it  a second life of service in another country. We are essentially extending the usefulness of these awesome work trucks. They are so rare in USA and not many people have the ability or know how to buy and Import them from Europe. We are filling a very small and radical need in the states.

Hope you enjoyed this story.