GLASGOW'S only rickshaw driver will never forget one very heavy customer. At 18 stones, he made a lasting impression on Tom Brown and his rickshaw.

Almost literally, in the case of the rickshaw.

Tom smiles as he recalls the hire. TIMES FILE: RICKSHAWS RICKSHAWS have been a common sight on the streets of many Asian cities for generations. In overcrowded city centres, clogged with traffic and pedestrians, they were often the most efficient way to get around. Travel guides are full of references to rickshaw drivers. The travellers' book Lonely Planet, in its entry on rural Mymensingh, Bangladesh, mentions "the zillions of rickshaw-wallahs ... in fierce competition to see who can create the most colourfully decorated fleet." For many British tourists to Asian cities, a rickshaw drive through the traffic is still a must-do part of the holiday experience - even if the proximity to hundreds of cars and lorries, and the exhaust fumes, can be hard on the nerves ... and the lungs. Rickshaws gradually spread to the west, cropping up in America, Canada, Germany, and in London and Edinburgh.

"The gentleman says to me, Can you take me and my girlfriend to the Barras?' He was rather large, about 18st.

"I told him, No problem. Where's your girlfriend?' He laughed and said his girlfriend was bigger than him. She was about 19 stone.

"So the two of them got into the back. Luckily, it was flat all the way to the Barras. I know that if there had been any gradients ... well, forget it."

Tom and his rickshaw have been taking passengers round the city centre for the last three years.

As befits someone who cycles for a living - 10am to 5pm, seven days a week - Tom is remarkably lean.

There is not a scrap of fat on him and how many 44-year-olds can you say that about?

You can see why he is also in demand as a life model at two colleges and the city's WASP studios.

As for the job itself, he says: "It's like an addiction, I can't explain it."

He has lost count of the number of people who have hired him.

"I have had everybody from your booze-swilling ned to your businessman or director, not to mention lots of families. I have had wheelchairs, dogs, prams and suitcases in the back - you name it, it has been there."

For most of his working life Tom was a joiner in the building trade, but he was also a skilled artist, showing his work at exhibitions and galleries (alongside such luminaries as Peter Howson, Ken Currie and Andy Warhol) and even having his own studio at one point, next door to Howson.

How did he get involved with a form of transport that we normally associate with such distant countries as India and Thailand?

Part of the reason, Tom says, can be traced back to May 2006, when he was evicted from his Maryhill tenement home of 32 years amid a dispute with the GHA about the future of the building.

Deciding he badly needed to get his life back on track, he began scouting for a job, and he read a Barrhead Travel advert saying Rickshaw driver required'.

The travel firm pay him to be a mobile advert for them and customers get their rides for free.

"I went down to the offices that day, got the job two days later, and was on the streets by the third day. I didn't realise I would still be doing it three years later because I didn't know the love and enthusiasm I would develop for it.

"Plus, being the only rickshaw driver in Glasgow, I feel it is a service that has to be supplied.

"The success I have had has been amazing. The rickshaw is an iconic sight on Glasgow's streets.

It is so visible that, even when I don't have it with me, people recognise me and say, Where's the rickshaw, big man?'"

His rickshaw, not to be outdone, will be on stage at the King's Theatre between March 31 and April 4, during the song One Night In Bangkok' in Paisley Musical & Operatic Society's version of Chess.

Virtually the only trouble Tom has ever had, he says, came from hackney cab drivers in his early months.

"I am not saying all taxi drivers are the same, but I got physical and verbal abuse. It made me angry because they seemed to think I was taking business away from them, or that I should not even be on the road.

"One rolled down his window and tried to punch me. Another pushed me to the side with his front bumper because, in his eyes, I was in his way.

"But that sort of thing just made me stronger, more adamant that I was not going to be intimidated off the streets."

The summer months, with their festivals, better weather and steady influx of tourists, are Tom's busiest of the entire year.

He says: "I'm under pressure, especially when I am doing some place like Glasgow Green or George Square if there's a big event on.

"I don't count the numbers, but I feel it by three, four or five in the afternoon - that is when I know it has been a hard day.

"But the thing I enjoy the most is the smile on someone's face as soon as they come off the rickshaw. It is a sense of excitement - I would love to put it on the NHS for people with depression or mental health issues.

"I have had so many people say to me, That is the best thing I have ever done ... you should be doing more of this'.

"I love it when someone gets out and their kids are all excited. They get something on a rickshaw they don't get in the back of a limo, with its tinted windows.

"In a rickshaw, you are exposed to the world. Somebody said to me once that it was the best ride in Glasgow, and that has become my slogan."

Three years on, Tom is taken aback to see his is still the only rickshaw on Glasgow's streets.

"I am surprised no-one else has started it, especially when there are rickshaw companies in Edinburgh and London.

"Considering the city has the Commonwealth Games coming up in 2014, considering we have all this green stuff happening, and fitness campaigns, why has the city council not done it, why has no other business done it?"

He continues: "Rickshaw is the only economical way to get through the city just now. I can beat any traffic in the city centre.

"I can take passengers from Queen Street Station to Central Station in seven minutes - the buses can't do that. Mind you, I can go through pedestrian precincts and across George Square, which buses can't really do."

That said, Tom is, together with Free Wheel North, a pedal-powered Social Enterprise group, devising a fleet of free rickshaws taking passengers around Glasgow, linking up with hotels, restaurants and other venues. It launches next month - and Tom already suspects some taxi drivers will not take too kindly to it.

"Free rides around the city? Free excursions and drop-off points? That is when it will start. But bring it on, I am looking forward to it.

"Rickshaws are green and highly efficient. Just what Glasgow needs."

A sudden thought occurs to him. "Know what I would like, just for once? I'd love to sit in a rickshaw and have someone else take me around ..." To hire Tom and his rickshaw, call 07790 215747 or 07891 097936.