“We believe that Africa shouldn’t be trailing behind the developing world in green initiatives, but
that actually Africa is primed to lead the drive to green initiatives.”
Around the world, over 3 billion people don’t have access to motorised transport. This means
that farmers in emerging economies can struggle to get their produce to market. They might
have to carry heavy loads long distances, or pay to rent a bike which isn’t suited to dangerous
roads, all because they can’t afford to buy a truck. OxDelivers is working to change all this by
allowing farmers to rent space in their electric OxTrucks. As the farmers are only paying for the
space they need, the system remains affordable and allows them to take more goods to market
and make more profit.
The OxDelivers system is currently operating in Rwanda, but they aim to expand to other
emerging markets. The OxTrucks have been designed to be durable enough to negotiate the
hilly Rwandan roads, and fully electric to keep costs down and to be less polluting. Our producer
Helen visited their HQ in Leamington Spa in the UK to find out more about how OxDelivers are
constantly innovating and improving their trucks to give the best possible service to their
customers.
We also hear from Jon Hirschtick at PTC, who tells us about how OnShape’s cloud-based
system can suit a small start-up like OxDelivers and help their engineers to work collaboratively
with their office in Rwanda.
