A Final Farewell

Simon Schmid
* 2001-06-29
Train­ing to be a mecha­tron­ics engi­neer in Regens­burg (Ger­many)
VACUTAP® VRM
* 2018-06-29
Switch­es in Shang­hai

“I’ve been cycling for as long as I can remem­ber. I saved up for ages to buy my first moun­tain bike. Most of the time I meet up with my friends and we go and test out new routes. We like to push it to the lim­it. That’s why I’d love to explore the Saal­bach Hin­ter­glemm bike park one day.But that’s just a lit­tle dream. Look­ing fur­ther into the future, I have no idea yet what my life will be like when I retire. It’s so far off at the moment. Maybe I’ll teach my grand­chil­dren to ride a bike – because one thing I know for sure is that I’d like to have a fam­i­ly. And I want to build my own house, prefer­ably with a lit­tle gar­den. I also hope I’ll be able to look back on a ful­fill­ing career. That’s why my aim is to take every train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty that comes my way.” Simon Schmid

Based on the cur­rent rules in Ger­many, Simon Schmid will retire in March 2066. If every­thing goes accord­ing to plan, the VACUTAP® will have switched 1.5 mil­lion times by then and will still have a good ten years of work ahead of it.

Vivi Tao
* 1993-07-13
Cus­toms & Ship­ping assis­tant in MRT (Shang­hai, Chi­na)
ECOTAP® VVS
* 2018-07-13
Switch­es in Cheng­du, Sichuan Province, Chi­na

“What real­ly impress­es me is things with a his­to­ry – things that endure. That was what won me over straight away at my inter­view here. In the Rein­hausen image brochure, I dis­cov­ered a pho­to with the year 1960 on the name­plate of a tap chang­er. That made me think that this must be a com­pa­ny with a strong foun­da­tion and a long his­to­ry. At the same time, I’m always open to new things and would love to trav­el to Ger­many one day. There are lots of things on my buck­et list: sky­div­ing in Dubai, liv­ing on a sail­boat, tak­ing a roman­tic bal­loon ride in Turkey, see­ing the North­ern Lights in Ice­land, going on safari in South Africa, and vis­it­ing Nia­gara Falls in Amer­i­ca – those are my dreams!”Vivi Tao

Under the cur­rent rules in Chi­na, the retire­ment age for women is 50. For Vivi Tao, that will be in July 2043. By that time, the ECOTAP® VVS will have per­formed 50.000 switch­ing oper­a­tions and will still have ten years of work ahead of it.

Jamie Hall
* 1991-06-16
Works in assem­bly at the Hum­boldt site (Tennessee/USA)
RMV-II 2000
* 2018-06-27
Switch­es in Salt Lake City, Utah USA

“I’ve always want­ed to see the world. Even as a small child, I dreamed about going on long jour­neys and hav­ing wild adven­tures. Admit­ted­ly, I don’t need things to be quite so wild these days. But I’d still like to explore dif­fer­ent coun­tries and immerse myself in for­eign cul­tures – ide­al­ly with my wife and son. That’s why I’d love to work for Rein­hausen in Japan. The idea of doing the same job for a long time doesn’t real­ly appeal to me. I get too rest­less. That’s why I’m glad that, even here in the USA, I’m always work­ing on dif­fer­ent tasks. And who knows – maybe soon we’ll be pack­ing our bags and head­ing off to Asia for some new adven­tures!” Jamie Hall

In the USA, retire­ment cur­rent­ly starts at 67. For Jamie Hall, this means he’ll be fin­ish­ing work in June 2058, while the RMV-II has to go on switch­ing for anoth­er 15 years.