Backhaul matching, so a lorry that delivers to a district town carries the district's goods back instead of returning empty

A first step

Spend a week at the market or a wholesale yard in one district town and ask the lorry drivers where they came from, what they unloaded and whether they go back empty. Then ask 5 producers in the town what they send to Colombo and how. Match one empty lorry with one producer's load for a fee, and record what each side saved. Both sides asking you for the next match is the proof.

Who pays first

A lorry owner who would rather carry a paying load home than drive back empty, and a district producer who wants cheaper freight to Colombo.

What leaves today

Lorries return empty while district goods wait or go through middlemen; one match fills the lorry and gets the box to the port.

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

• 426Motorbike courier networks in the districts for the small exporters' parcels
• 427Shared depots where 20 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

All 10 ideas in this cluster