Affordable, Life Changing Transportation
Many factors contribute to the perpetual state of poverty that third-world citizens find themselves struggling to survive. Aggressive diseases, corrupt governments and lack of education are all well known problems prevalent in many parts of the world. A lesser publicized, but key headwind to economic progress in developing nations is underdeveloped road infrastructure and a corresponding lack of viable transportation for those living in poor rural communities.
According to the World Bank,
“In poor rural areas transport is often the key facilitator of economic improvement. Poor transport raises the costs of production and marketing. It can cause some land to be unused and limit production yields of used lands to levels below their potential. It restricts the profit margin from sale of produce, which weakens incentives to farmers to maximize production. In short, it slows efforts to migrate from subsistence to commercial agriculture.”
A brief visit to the rural communities of the third-world was all it took for this truth to be burned into our hearts and minds.
In the fall of 2006, we kissed our three daughters goodbye and embarked on what would be a life-changing two-week trip to the continent of Africa. During those fourteen days, we encountered African roads, witnessed the inefficient use of African land and caught a short glimpse of the devastating effects of African poverty. Although our visit was brief, friendships were forged and we returned home to America with a God-given passion to become a positive force for change in the lives of those we left behind. Our impact would be through providing affordable life-changing transportation as a tool for Africans to combat persistent poverty.
Upon our return, we immediately went to work looking for organizations that were addressing this need. Our research led us to the Institute for Affordable Transportation (IAT), an organization out of Indianapolis responsible for developing the “Basic Utility Vehicle” (BUV), a vehicle designed from the ground up to be both affordable and practical for citizens of rural third-world communities. By partnering with IAT in using their design, we were able to immediately begin strategizing on the best ways to get these vehicles into the hands of those who needed them most. To achieve the greatest impact, we believe a model needs to be developed that would allow in-country manufacturers to build, market and sell BUVs profitably. (Successful for-profit companies would allow for the greatest expansion, job creation and large-scale impact.) However, there is very little in the way of market research for this industry, and many questions must be answered before pursuing this route. In particular, how broad is the market for these vehicles in the poor rural communities of Africa, and is there a business model that can profitably serve it?
Vytrak International is a non-profit organization with the purpose to reduce poverty in developing countries by facilitating the utilization of a Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) to create sustainable economic development. Vytrak will facilitate this utilization by optimizing design elements of the BUV, creating and proving out successful business models for the BUV, and by encouraging the formation of BUV manufacturers in these developing countries.
Vytrak’s focus will be on the following activities:
Coordinate Product Placement: Vytrak will partner with in-country organizations to identify small business owners that desire to use the BUV to augment current operations, or entrepreneurs that want to form new businesses centered around the BUV itself. Each recipient will be selected based on a submitted profile and business plan, and shipment and delivery will be coordinated with the partner organizations.
Coordinate Product Funding: Vytrak will source low-cost financing via American partners and international micro-finance institutions for the entrepreneurs receiving the BUVs. Additionally, donors will be sought out to subsidize the cost of the vehicles above and beyond what we estimate the price would be if operations were located in the local regions rather than here in the United States.
Determine Economic Viability: Vytrak will ultimately seek to quantify the benefit of affordable, practical transportation to those currently going without. Vehicles will be placed in various business models and analyzed to determine the economic value added in each instance. Research will be conducted with the long-term vision of having profitable in-country manufacturers in mind, therefore BUVs will be sold at realistic prices and the benefit derived by the end users will always be analyzed net of relevant costs.
The proliferation of practical everyday vehicles has played a key role in the widespread economic prosperity enjoyed by developed countries over the past century. Likewise, we believe that the BUV can play a similar role for many third-world citizens in their transition from extreme poverty to economic vitality. By optimizing the design, developing the manufacturing processes and facilitating the needed market research, Vytrak International will pave the way for the future creation of profitable BUV manufacturers in the developing world. By working towards the widespread provision of low cost transportation, we believe we have the opportunity to change the lives of individuals, communities, countries and even a continent!