Motovai
From subsistence to security: why a wooden cart matters
This was a 24 week project with Rare through Stanford’s Design for Extreme Affordability program (DFEA). Under DFEA, my team and I worked with Rare to reduce crab mortality and improve livelihoods in the crab value chain.
This project was a crab-centered, mangrove-centered, and human-centered initiative. It was the moment I realized the limits of the term “user-centered” - design should be centered around life.
Background
This is Para state, in northeastern Brazil, where most of the population is completely dependent on crab fishing for their livelihoods. The process of catching crabs is incredibly taxing from the start. As you can see in this video, fishers immerse themselves waist deep or higher in the mangroves, catching crabs by hand for 5-7 hours per day. These fishers also coat selves in gasoline, and wear shoes made out of old tires.
You can glean from this video why Rare doesn’t want any of these crabs to die in vain. Also that the process of getting crabs is incredibly tasking from the start and it doesn't get any easier along the way.
How can we inject value in the supply chain and uplift their livelihoods?
Once caught, the crabs still have a long journey to get from mangrove to market. The crabs are crammed into sacks and either left in the mangroves or taken to the fishers’ home for storage until they are sold to a middleman, who transports them by motorbike, car, or truck, to markets in nearby cities.
It can take up to a week for crabs to reach the market, from the point when they are pulled from the mangrove. Crabs must be sold alive so any crabs that are found dead at any point are discarded -- with mortality reaching up to 40%, depending on the circumstance.
THE BEGINNING
User research & insights
“If I could carry 700 crabs, I could sell 700 crabs. But I can only fit one sack on my motorcycle.”
This is Maria de Fatima Sousa, from San Francisco in São João de Pont. Maria lives with her youngest son and her ex-husband. Maria’s ex-husband does not support the home financially, leaving Maria responsible for generating enough income on her own to support herself and her son
Maria travels by motorcycle, every Saturday and Sunday, to the nearby community of Villa Nova to sell crabs that her brother catches
She currently sells 300-400 crabs, and knows she could sell up to 700 -- but her motorbike can only fit two sacks. During bad times, she sells around 300-400 crabs per week; in good times, she sells 400-500 crabs per week. She carries the crabs alive on her motorbike but at the market, she breaks the crabs in front of the buyer before selling, and sells 6 crabs for 10 reales.
She has heard of the basqueta but prefers using sacks, because she could only fit one basqueta on her bike.
“I’m dependent on others for transport”
-Naldo
“I’m dependent on others for transport”
-Maria E.
Let’s imagine a world here Maria isn’t limited by the carrying capacity of her motorcycle…
Where she can realize her economic potential without risking crab mortality...
If we can’t get them cars...
How might we turn their motorcycles into cars?
Looking at existing solutions
“Duct tape” solution
Middlemen currently transport crabs by tying them to the tops of their motorbikes...we found that this was very dangerous to the crabs, with the ones at the bottom of the tied sacks often being crushed to death during transit.
As well as very dangerous to the middlemen, as the extra weight at the top of the motorcycle threw off their center of balance, and made it more likely for them to have accidents. This was not the solution we wanted Maria to have.
Market solution
FlexMoto is a company in Brazil that manufactures carts for motorcycles. While their carts are great quality and craftsmanship, we found a few problems that prevented their use for our project.
First, they were prohibitively expensive, costing about 4000 Real, or about $1000 US dollars. Second, they were made from exotic materials, including bent steel tubing, as well as CNC-fabricated mounting hardware, which was not a tool available in the communities we were trying to help.
Lastly, while the carts are standard, the mounting hardware for each is unique to the motorcycle, with extensive modifications often required to install a mounting hitch to the motorcycle. These things made this solution out of our reach, but helped steer us in a new direction.
And so, we set a few goals for our solution. First, it had to be basqueta friendly, able to carry 3 or more full basquetas, each carrying 140 crabs. Next, it had to be rugged, able to move over rough roads and through heavy mud. It had to be affordable, costing less than 400 reals, or about 100 US dollars. It had to be easy to install, so that people like Maria was able to attach and detach the cart as needed. And lastly, it had to be safe and street legal, to protect both the motorcycle rider and those around them.
Prototyping & testing
Prototype 1
While it was basquetta friendly, the wheels weren’t too rugged, and the cart was installed by having to remove the rear axle of the bicycle, something that wasn’t too easy to do. Additionally, when Nikki braked, the cart would crash into the back of her bicycle, making it unsafe for use.
Prototype 2
The problem was that while we had allowed for the cart to travel over bumps and turn with the motorcycle, we hadn’t allowed for it to roll side-to-side. This would make the frame of the cart prone to breaking, and it would prevent the motorcyclist for turning safely.
Prototype 3
We quickly prototyped a new joint based on the idea of multiple tendons holding the joint together, allowing for roll, pitch, and yaw movements.
We drove around for 30 minutes over many surfaces, and found that the cart remained stable, and most importantly, stayed together. Here, you can see us driving the cart through rough gravel at forty kilometers per hour.
THE SOLUTION
Motovai
With the Motovai, we have met all of our goals. It is basquetta friendly, rugged, affordable, easy to install, safe, and legal.
Affordable
Costs $60 to make - less than 10% of the popular market alternatives. Even if sold for a profit, it would cost significantly less than existing market alternatives (i.e. FlexMoto).
High ROI
Maria’s income would 5x with the Motovai ($20 to $110). At $60, MotoVai will pay for itself within the first week of use, and can be paid for by saving $5/week for 12 weeks, or $10/week for 6 weeks.