Pic: BillWard
Imagine that you’ve rented a truck to move across the country. You fill up the truck, drive the miles and then unload at the other end. Now imagine someone had to drive the empty truck back across the country to drop it off where you picked it up.
Oddly, this is often what happens with commercial hauliers. Over a quarter of trucks on the road in the US drive empty on their return journeys – costing everyone money and not doing the environment any favours.
In response, VICS (an industry-led body tasked to ‘improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire supply chain’) have launched EmptyMiles.org
The website matches empty trucks on a return journey, with retailers who have loads that can be delivered en route.
How could a similar scheme be applied in your industry or on a micro level in your part of the world?
Site: www.emptymiles.org Via: PSFK
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m thinking a simple tag on Twitter could be used in much the same was as #getmehome was during the volcano crisis. Eg. #emptydublin with time, capacity, etc, details in the tweet. Then just subscribe to the tag feed.
Great idea. Guessing the EmptyMiles example has lots of technical issues around payments, insurance etc… behind the scenes – but it’d be interesting to see if someone could co-ordinate / package up something less formal using Twitter. Wonder if there any good examples?