System Elements

Localnet is a complex system built from components that range from a simple plastic box to a semi-automated goods handling warehouse. Here, we simply introduce each of the major elements in enough detail to understand its main purpose and how it fits into the system as a whole. The next two chapters elaborate on these and add a number of less important items not mentioned here. The elements are treated in successive chapters covering “components” and “infrastructure” elements. The division between these two categories is somewhat arbitrary but roughly equates to “can be moved” versus “fixed”.

At the highest level,

• Goods are transported in reusable plastic boxes that come in a (very) few standard sizes. There are several different types of box each specially suited to carrying particular contents - from paper to food to vehicle batteries.
• Boxes are carried inside miniature containers about 5 feet long by 7 feet high and 7 feet wide that can be loaded onto or taken off vehicles in a matter of seconds. These containers, known as OmniPods also have fold-down seats so are more like old-fashioned train compartments - seating six.
• The OmniPods are transported in flexible, electric vehicles. Small van/minibus vehicles visit houses while larger trucks/buses carry people and goods longer distances. Each neighbourhood also has a pool of electric cars that can be hired by the hour or day.
• Boxes are delivered to and collected from houses via secure DeliveryPoints - so you don't need to be at home to take a delivery.
• Each neighbourhood has a “LocalHub” where the boxes are filled, sorted and loaded onto vans - and which houses local shops and cafes.

Boxes

Localnet boxes are tough, plastic, reused many, many times and come in two main sizes:

• large cereal box and
• grocery box

The former size is ideal for holding your morning post and newspapers. An insulated version is great for holding enough hot croissants and freshly squeezed orange juice for the family's breakfast. This latter box also works for meals-on-wheels, for takeaway pizzas and so forth.

The larger, grocery box size is suited to... you guessed it: groceries. It's also a handy size for delivering many of the things you buy online - though a lot of smaller items will also fit in the smaller box. This one is big enough that, if filled with lithium batteries, it makes a terrific removable, rechargeable power source for an electric vehicle. It's also not a bad size for a refuse bin - as long as it is emptied every day or two rather than weekly.

OmniPods

As we've learned from containerised shipping, it's much more efficient to transport stuff in big boxes than to move each little item from one location and/or vehicle to another. However, few of us want or can accommodate an articulated lorry carrying twenty or forty-foot shipping containers at our front door several times a day.

But what if we put our boxes into smaller containers - say the width of the vans that regularly drop stuff off at our door (about 7 feet) and just high enough to stand up in (about 7 feet). If we made these about 5 feet long, a small van could have two on the back and a longer wheelbase one could carry three. These containers need to be a bit smarter than shipping containers. If they had doors and windows in and fold down seats along two sides we could even travel in them ourselves! Each one would seat three people facing backwards and three facing forwards - giving a 6 person “compartment” much like old train carriages - but without the corridor.

We'll keep some of the other useful attributes of a shipping container - such as the ability to stack them on top of each other and for a crane or hydraulic lift to be able to move them quickly and accurately (though not while people are inside!).

Vehicles

OmniPods full of boxes are delivered to and collected from houses in lightweight and relatively slow electric vans - which are therefore less dangerous to the planet and our children than the diesel vans they replace. We've already mentioned that some of the boxes can hold batteries - so the vehicles can carry as many such boxes as the need for the route they are taking. As people can travel in empty OmniPods, a van can set out as a van full of boxes but return as a minibus full of people.

Larger vehicles can be designed to use the same OmniPods but would run on the main roads only rather than visiting each property. These take over from rural buses and run between neighbouring localnet delivery areas. Double-decker versions could carry up to a dozen OmniPods at a time.

DeliveryPoints

Nobody wants to have to be at home every time something is delivered - so we have to address security of delivered items and, if groceries are to be delivered, how to keep perishables at the right temperature. In a green-field site where properties can be built with localnet in mind, each should have a delivery hatch in an exterior kitchen wall. On the inside, this looks just like a kitchen cupboard and a fitted fridge/freezer. Delivery staff place boxes through the hatch from outside and the householder removes them from the inside. In buildings that pre-date localnet, such hatches may not be practical. In such cases a DeliveryCabinet may be fixed to an exterior wall.

In shared accommodation such as new apartment blocks, a smaller hatch in the kitchen wall is the modern equivalent of the Victorian “dumb waiter” - we call it the “SmartWaiter”. Shared chilled and frozen storage units in the basement hold boxes until the apartment owner is ready for them. In existing apartment blocks, part of one elevator shaft can be repurposed to provide delivery hatches on each floor. These are termed “SmartHatches”.

LocalHub

Localnet van routes typically radiate out from a building at the centre of the neighbourhood. This is the “LocalHub”. It has two very different faces. At the front there is a bus-stop, ample parking and a row of electric cars that can be hired by the hour or day. Inside are all the amenities we used to find in every village: a well-stocked general store, a library, a cafe, a baker, a post office and so on.

At the back of the building, localnet vans pull up and have their OmniPods swapped for fresh ones and head out again. Inside, the boxes are emptied, cleaned, filled and routed back into fresh OmniPods for their next delivery. Staff in the shops inside the LocalHub are serving customers face-to-face via their front counter while at the same time processing orders for customers waiting at home who have sent their laundry to them; want a pizza delivered or have just run out of dog food.