Fluri and Dägi  – twins at the wheel

Until recently, two pairs of identical twins worked at the PostBus station in Chur: Fluri and Dägi Aebli and Stefano and Angelo Simonet. This caused a great deal of confusion among passengers and colleagues alike. People would often say to one brother: “I recently travelled to Bellinzona with you”, whereas it was actually the other brother behind the wheel. The four men know each other, and Dägi even took his driving test with Angelo.

As of this year, the mix-ups between Angelo and Stefano (62) only occur in private, because Angelo recently took early retirement, and Stefano will follow him in the summer. There are also fewer mix-ups between Fluri and Dägi (53) in everyday working life, because Fluri has been driving the Postbus in the Klosters region for the past year, whereas his brother remains in Chur.

Mix-up at the hotel

Angelo and Stefano live next door to each other in Tiefencastel, and Fluri and Dägi do the same in Seewis. But while the Simonets share the same hobbies and were both PostBus drivers for almost 40 years, Fluri and Dägi are quite different. ”Dägi definitely talks more than I do”, says Fluri with a grin. Dägi Aebli started out as a mail carrier in the railway post office and has been working for Swiss Post for 38 years now. Fluri Aebli, on the other hand, initially trained as a carpenter and has only been a Postbus driver for seven years. And whereas he enjoys cycling in his free time and loves DIY projects, Dägi’s motto is “no sports – I prefer travelling and enjoying life”. Both brothers are fathers: Fluri has two children and Dägi has three. And yet, they often give the exact same answers and finish each other’s sentences.

Getting mixed up several times a day is perfectly normal for the Simonets and the Aeblis. The mix-ups can be awkward at times, as Fluri explains. When he and his wife Olivia went to the same hotel in South Tyrol as his brother had been a few weeks earlier with his wife Sandra, the hotel owner greeted him with a flushed face. She thought that Dägi had travelled with his mistress this time. “We soon set her straight”, says Fluri with a smile. But they often don’t bother correcting such mistakes any longer – otherwise they’d have to explain their situation hundreds of times. “If someone I don’t know says hello to me, I know why – so I simply give them a friendly hello in return!”, says Dägi.

Click here for the story from 2022 about the Simonet twins.