Web-based on-demand transport services to reduce the cost of road transport in Africa

One of the main factors contributing to the high cost of cross-border road transport in Africa is the difficulty for carriers to find return freight. Once goods are delivered at destination, if the truck does not find a return cargo, the cost of travelling back empty is usually charged to the trader who booked the transport on the first leg of the journey. This problem is common in all the Continent.

Backhauling (also known as “backloading”) is a practice consisting of planning for roundtrip hauls, mapping out routes to ensure goods are transported on every leg of a truck’s journey. This increases vehicle and driver utilisation, improves productivity and eliminates additional trips, cutting down on unnecessary fuel use. In practice, trucks pick up an additional load once a haul is completed, which is transported back to a location situated at the truck’s initial starting point or in its proximity. Essentially, it involves carefully planning routes so trucks aren’t empty on return trips, maximizing productivity on the road.

Many IT companies have developed today some app-based hailing services allowing cargo owners to link with transport companies and truck drivers at affordable prices to solve the problem of finding cargo. A solution that is being adopted in Kenya for addressing the challenge of finding return cargo is TAI+, an "UBER-like" e-marketplace platform accessible via a mobile app, where pre-verified truck operators can directly access (without any brokers or intermediaries), to a list of all available loads created by the cargo owners/shippers registered to the system. Other platforms are Lori Systems (operational in 10 African countries, including Kenya and Uganda), Sendy (Kenya), Truckr (Ghana), Kobo360 (Nigeria), while in Tanzania, a web platform aggregating supply and demand of transport services is the NFLIP (National Freight and Logistic Information Portal), launched in December 2019.

In TAI+ and Lori system, truck drivers can select cargo according to their nature (cargo category, product type, weight), pickup location and drop-off location. By accepting the load (which is done via the mobile app), truck drivers are bound to the price displayed by the system. Moreover, the app allows cargo owners to track and monitor the status of the shipment at every mile thanks to a real-time GPS tracking module.