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Ox Delivers' Flatpack EV Truck Creates Prosperity in Africa

By Rain Noe - December 11

in Cars | Social Impact

How do you create wealth? One answer is by enabling trade. British company Ox Delivers observed that the Global South is hamstrung in this regard; entrepreneurial individuals are hampered by unreliable transportation networks, and without an efficient way to ship goods, prosperity through trade is impossible.

The company thus designed their eponymous vehicle, the Ox. This is a truck that they ship to Africa flatpacked, and assemble near their deployment areas to save on costs. The Ox is electric, has a range of 150 km (90 miles), and a payload capacity of 2,000 kg (4,400 lbs). The company reckons they are nearly ten times less expensive to operate than existing delivery methods.

Rather than selling the trucks outright—which would be prohibitively expensive for their target market—Ox Delivers has rolled them out as trucks-as-a-service. Using an app, merchants book space on trucks to ship their goods at an affordable rate, the way you can split a shipping container. They can pay through the app and also, importantly, see where the trucks are with their goods, gaining an accurate sense of delivery times.

The positive impact on those using Ox Delivers cannot be understated. Here are some customer stories, where they discuss the night-and-day difference of their before-Ox and after-Ox experiences:

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Ox Delivers launched in Rwanda in 2021 (initially with a diesel-powered version of the truck; they switched to an electric powertrain in 2022). Today they have over 5,000 customers in Rwanda, and this year signed a $163 million multi-year franchise agreement to expand into East Africa. Ox Delivers will soon be operating in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Burundi.

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Eric Ludlum

3 days ago

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Yardley Yardley

3 days ago

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Writes post about flat packed truck, but doesn't include photo of flat packed truck.

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v p

3 days ago

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This is a puff piece. what do they cost? how do they charge? what are the economics of the competitors, who can really use them? We *could* talk about them from a pure-design perspective - but you don't cover that at all. Why is this on core77? Instead, you talk only about the business case - but without any of the important parts. Actually, this is making me mad now.

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- Christian Lockenwitz
  
  v p
  
  2 days ago
  
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  Chill, B - no need to get all uptight about it.
  It was still an interesting piece, even if lacking in some of the important details you mentioned.
  
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