MOVEMARKET.IE, A reverse auction website that connects consumers and businesses with transport and haulage firms, is planning to add a feature showing the carbon impact of journeys booked through the site.
The site works on the principle that haulage firms with trucks returning to base empty can win jobs through the site, and because no extra journey is being made, unnecessary carbon emissions can be reduced.
MoveMarket founder Tadhg Hickey said that when he was researching the viability of the idea, he found figures from the Department of Transport and the Central Statistics Office showing that in 2008, 22 per cent of trucks and vans on the road were empty at any one time.
“Since the economy started dipping, the onus on people to conduct business in an environmentally aware way has fallen, but for transport providers, a mile saved is petrol or diesel saved,” he said.
Hickey said one possible option would be to have a live counter on the site that calculates the miles saved by not having to make new journeys, and translates this figure into the number of CO2 emissions that have been reduced.
The idea for the site came about in January 2009 when Hickey was relocating to his native Kerry from Dublin and he found a huge variation in price when looking for quotes from transport firms. When the cheapest price came in much lower than the original offer, he asked why and was told the truck had been delivering to Dublin anyway and would be returning south empty.
One of the site’s first customers wanted to transport 400kg of household goods from Ringsend in Dublin to Sarajevo in Bosnia. The first bid was €2,600 and the final bid was €565 – a 78 per cent reduction. While the current service is mainly concentrated on domestic haulage, Hickey said it was a “good boost” to see that job go through the system so early.
Since the site was launched earlier this year Hickey has been recruiting transport operators to register on the site. Now every county in the Republic and most counties in Northern Ireland are represented by several authorised haulage firms and that process is still ongoing.
“The more providers we get to sign up, the more competitive it’s going to be for customers. That will mean more bidding for jobs and that will make it cheaper,” said Hickey.
This summer MoveMarket has begun signing deals with coach companies to bid for transporting people to events and meetings. For now, this service will mainly be focused around the Dublin area.
Consumers, businesses and transport providers can register free. MoveMarket has been entirely self-financed to date and earns revenue from a percentage of winning bids. “In 2008 there were 23 million road journeys in the Republic of Ireland. [To get] even ½ per cent of that is a pretty big number,” said Hickey.
The company is now looking to bring in business expertise, cash investment or sign a partnership with a firm offering a complementary service. On the technology side, Hickey said a wish list for developments include integrating location technology to the site and adding mobile and SMS services that would allow bidding on same-day delivery jobs.
