MellowVans

Mellowvans are electric delivery vehicles that provide low-cost, efficient, and emission-free last-mile deliveries. They are attractive, with class-leading range, capacity, and technology. MellowVans are also great for urban advertising, with focused, location-specific campaigns.

Neil du Preez

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected people's access to, and the supply chain of vital goods, including food, markets, retail stores, and importantly resulted in interruptions of the medicine supply chain. It is critical that access to essential health services and medications not be forgotten or de-prioritised during this pandemic.

As the pandemic increasingly affects countries with under-resourced health infrastructure and services, it is an ethical imperative to ensure that all people in all countries of the world are able to access essential medicines. This includes those medicines that are under international control.

COVID-19 will forever change retailing, and its initial impact on e-Commerce is creating challenges to online selling & service no one imagined.

The epidemic is accelerating the consumer interest in both the purchase of goods online and the benefit of home deliveries. 

Medicine:

The pharmaceutical sector: People's access to medicine, clinics, and pharmacies have been affected by Covid. We are working with pharma companies in bringing these goods to the consumer. 

A well-functioning Last Mile delivery system is one that reaches the patient and point-of-care. Such a system is essential for adequate access to and availability of medicines for day-to-day medical needs and large or localized medical emergencies. Across Africa, governments and donors are investing billions of dollars to strengthen health systems and make affordable medicines available. However, government supply chains often struggle to get medicines and supplies the last mile to the health facilities and people who need them most.

E-Commerce:

"The number of African online shoppers has surged annually by 18 percent since 2014, faster than the world average growth rate of 12 percent.”United Nations Conference on Trade andDevelopment (UNCTAD)

All major parcel delivery companies such as DPD, UPS, DHL, PostNL.
Main food delivery players such as Deliveroo, HelloFresh, Just Eat
Urban consolidation centers (UCCs) like City depot, Cargo velo
E-commerce companies such as Coolblue, Bol.com, Amazon
Retailers: Lidl, Colruyt, Albert Hein
Postal services: Poste Italiane, Hvratska Posta

EVs running only on electricity have zero tailpipe emissions, but emissions may be produced by the source of electrical power, such as a power plant. In geographic areas that use relatively low-polluting energy sources for electricity generation, EVs typically have a substantial well-to-wheel emissions advantage over conventional vehicles running on gasoline or diesel. Source: Alternative Fuels Data Centre. The average delivery vehicle worldwide emits about 256 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre driven (Source: US EPA). MellowVans has zero direct tailpipe emissions. The (worldwide) average delivery vehicle does about 80 km per day, 240 days per year, given we maintain the average a single Mellowcabs could save 20 kg of carbon emissions per day, or 4.9 tonnes per year. 

Last-mile delivery service, the logistics of moving products from a transportation hub to the final destination, the customer, is possible with Mellowvans deliveries. Particularly, the elderly and most vulnerable who may be unable to leave their home on a regular basis to pick up a prescription or visit a clinic would benefit greatly from on-demand delivery.

Delivery methods in Africa
Most urban delivery in Africa happens by motorcycle or light delivery van. Motorcycles are light on fuel and good for avoiding traffic congestion but are very limited in terms of capacity and very polluting. Light vans have adequate capacity, however, this capacity is quite often not the right fit, and they are very expensive to operate, polluting, and are very inefficient.

Mellowvans is a flexible last-mile delivery vehicle, perfectly suited for a variety of use cases. 

We will also focus on empowering women drivers, by subsiding their lease repayments with 50% for a period of up to two years, thereby enabling them to become owner-drivers of their own electric delivery vehicles.

Owner-drivership will give these women independence, and a quality income to care for their families. An owner-operator is often better organized, and more knowledgeable about routes, equipment, and driving safety.

Unparalleled growth in last-mile transport
In the past decade, e-commerce has risen significantly. From 2014 to 2019, e-commerce sales ratios nearly tripled globally. This trend has doubled after the pandemic hit globally. 

The urban delivery market is expected to reach EUR 2.3bn by 2027 with a growth rate of over 16% CAGR.
The pandemic is accelerating the consumer interest in both the purchase of goods online and the benefit of home deliveries. 

Sustainable Growth

Sustainable growth is among the biggest challenges any business leader faces. This is our strategy:

1. PURPOSE

A company’s authentic purpose gives rise to its USP. When a business has a clear vision, it’s easier to create products and services of value.

2. A POWERFUL brand and Product

Build brand equity and emotional connections with customers. It’s those attachments that link customers to your products and will keep them returning to you. The product fits into this framework.

3. PARTNERSHIP AND COLLABORATION

Work with the best partners we can. From production to sales.

4. CUSTOMER RETENTION

Successful retention starts with the initial contact a business makes with a customer and continues throughout the lifetime of the relationship. A 10% increase in customer retention is roughly equivalent to a 30% increase in a company’s value.

5. FLEXIBLE, ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP

To continue growing, entrepreneurs, managers, and business owners must become the leader the business needs for each particular stage of growth..

Compare direct Green House Gas Emissions

• Reduction of GHG emissions compared to benchmark vehicles used in the industry.
• Tons of CO2e* (per year). Reduction in intensity (per unit of output)- in % (compared to the current/most common alternative)

Reduction in vehicle operational costs

• Compared to benchmark internal combustion-driven vehicles     
• Measured in operational cost per kilometre.
• Reduction in maintenance cost over 6 and 12 month period.
• Reduction in delivery cost per package

Operator income comparison

• Compared to expenses and downtime with internal combustion vehicle 
• Increase in driver revenue due to lower operational cost and downtime

Amount of deliveries/collection stops completed

• Stops completed
• Number of collections/deliveries completed

Capacity benchmarking

• Physical cargo capacity vs benchmark vehicles
• Driver information systems
• Real-time information
• On-system information
• Design factors, requirements, and aspirations
• Driveability, ease of use
• Reliability

Qualitive service factors

Barriers to entry 

Legal

Regulatory requirements in South Africa have been met, enabling us to sell our product across Africa. We plan on testing for EU homologation early June, which will unlock the global market for us.

Cost

We use a disruptive pricing model, based on long-term leases, subsidized by advertising, to cover the initial high entry cost of an EV in an African context.

Technical

We have already built over 50 prototype vehicles and proved their viability over time. We have successfully completed thousands of test kilometers with each of the prototypes.

We also have achieved ISO certification in our assembly plant.

Barriers to entry can range from simple and easily surmountable, such as the cost of renting retail space, to the extremely restrictive.

Idiada Spain: testing and homologation centre

Stellenbosch University and Nelson Mandela Bay University: Battery Pack testing

MAN Truck and Bus: Mentorship

The Trinity Challenge will certainly help to solidify and expand our product offering both locally and abroad. By participating we will improve our focus by fine-tuning our business plan. It will also add great credibility and exposure to our brand