Concern

Over the past decade and more, we and our politicians have been becoming increasingly concerned with a range of issues, including:

Climate Change

Until we have limitless cheap energy from sources other than fossil fuels, it is important to do anything we can to reduce energy use per capita. Making deliveries more efficient and eliminating a lot of journeys goes a long way to achieving this.
We also need to produce less, waste less and recycle more. This scheme moves us towards more reusable packaging and daily collections of recyclable waste – with real incentives to end users and a more efficient means of processing that waste. By moving to daily ordering – especially of food – we can dramatically reduce the one third that is currently thrown away. No longer do you need to plan every meal several days in advance and risk the change of plan or change in appetite that leads to food being wasted.

Peak Oil

Even if burning fossil fuel did not endanger the climate, our supplies of oil and coal are running out – so again, reducing demand is essential and optimising transport of goods is critical.
By optimising deliveries so that each van or delivery truck delivers to all premises on a two mile route rather than every tenth house on a twenty mile route, not only do we save nine tenths of the fuel but we bring the range inside the capabilities of today’s electric vehicles – allowing almost all delivery to be carried out by electric vehicle instead of diesels.

Online Shopping

It would appear to be obvious that it’s better for the environment if we buy something online rather than to travel to town to buy it. However, our love affair with the internet has led to a huge increase in the number of doorstep deliveries – and a corresponding increase in the number of delivery firms. This latter factor keeps these deliveries ridiculously inefficient – as even someone taking five deliveries in a day is likely to use at least three and probably five different delivery firms.  No-one is getting the economies of scale that are possible if only we consolidated the deliveries into fewer vans. This in turn keeps the delivery charges higher than they need be and makes it uneconomic to ship many low value or more bulky items.

Lack of Time

In the developed world, none of us has as much time as we would like. Anything that gives us back some of our time is to be welcomed with open arms. Avoiding unnecessary journeys to collect and deliver items does just this.

Quality of Life

While living in a city centre is not to everyone’s taste, there are few who would turn down the opportunity to have a wide range of items available for delivery to their door within a few hours – as is the case in central Manhattan for example. The lower the cost higher the frequency of such delivery, the wider the range of goods and services it supports. This creates opportunities for innovative new local services as well as encouraging spontaneity.

The Demise of the Local Community

In the UK we are losing our traditional village shops and post offices as they are beaten on price by the large supermarkets and out of town retail parks. Our elderly die in their homes and no-one notices for weeks or months. We are wary of strangers yet don't look out for our neighbours like we used to.

Making it Happen