Idea 426 of 500. Cluster 22: Transport and logistics at village scale
Motorbike courier networks in the districts for the small exporters' parcels
The mechanism, from the book
The village cannot get a box to the container port. The gap is small firms, not big ones.
Every idea in cluster 22 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Ask 10 small exporters in one district, the spice packers, craft makers and online sellers, how they get parcels to a courier in the city now, how long it takes and what it costs. Offer a twice-weekly pickup by motorbike at a fixed price per parcel. The proof is a first route with enough regular parcels to cover a rider's day.
- Who pays first
- A small online seller or spice packer who loses a day travelling to send parcels, and pays because the pickup gives that day back.
- What leaves today
- Small producers sell raw to traders because shipping their own parcels is too hard; a courier network lets them sell finished goods direct.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. TwoAn Island Nobody Has Counted
The harbour on the main sea lane - Ch. FourteenThe List
Defend the port before expanding it
More from cluster 22
- 427Shared depots where twenty producers fill one container
- 428Refrigerated three-wheelers for the fish and dairy trades
- 429Tourist shuttle services on fixed routes and published timetables between the sites
- 430Airport transfer companies with drivers trained, insured and rated
- 431Luggage-forwarding for tourists, so they can walk the hills and meet their bags at the coast
- 432Bicycle hire and repair in the tourist towns and the flat districts
Idea 426 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.