Addressing the environmental and infrastructure challenges caused by the growth in e-commerce deliveries, Magway has won co-funding support from Innovate UK via its Emerging and Enabling Technologies competition. Magway is a “delivery utility”, delivering parcels between distribution centers and consolidation centers via underground pipelines similar to those used by water, gas and electricity companies.
The solution will reduce Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) from the road network and substantially decrease emissions, accidents, and road maintenance costs. At the same time, it enables e-tailers to better service customers, improving flexibility and reliability at a reduced cost for outwards orders, as well as returns. The Innovate UK grant will aid the consortium to build an operational demonstrator to illustrate how a full-scale system will operate.
The project consortium, comprising of Magway, Ocado, Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, Space Syntax, Force Engineering and Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), will benefit by in excess of £650,000, adding to Magway’s recently closed seed funding round.
Magway intellectual property combines technology from high-voltage distribution and high-speed transport systems and design from professional cycling and motorsports. It aims to install multiple pipelines across the UK and internationally. The initial link alone, proposed from Milton Keynes to Park Royal has the capacity to transport more than 600 million parcels a year. The full-scale roll-out will eliminate millions of tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, save millions of pounds worth of road maintenance costs and transform the road network as we know it today.
Source: Magway