Periodic Reporting for period 1 - D-TRUCK (The first effective, remotely-controlled, and environmentally-friendly in-built food-transport sanitisation system)
Reporting period: 2018-11-01 to 2019-02-28
When transporting perishable food-stuffs, disinfection of vehicles between loading is crucial for preventing bacterial growth, cross-contamination and ultimately bacterial outbreaks across the food chain. Current sanitation methods (manual cleaning or mobile misting system) are inefficient and must be done in depots. Ineffective sanitation together with empty travels result in poor resource-efficiency (i.e. water, chemical, fuel, labour) and high CO2 emissions of the perishable-foods refrigerated transportation industry. D-Truck is the first automated, on-the-go mist sanitation system built-into food transport vehicles, enabling disinfection after shipment unloading and organic residue rinsing, and report generation confirming sanitisation. The objective of this action was to guarantee the feasibility of the commercialisation of our system worldwide. We conclude we will need to implement several pilots with different lorry types. Based on customer reviews and feedback, we will optimize and validate the system for commercialization in new and expanded market.
Our Feasibility Study has guaranteed the viability of the project. 1) Our commercial plan and a FTO Analysis show that D-Truck is freely exploitable. We have identified existing and new markets, our target segments, competitor profiles, commercial risks, and the regulatory environment to consolidate our marketing strategy. We have built our business, revenue models and the value chain. 2) In the technical plan, we have set up the milestones for hardware and software development (i.e. pumping, dosing system, heating and climate control, user interface, cloud connection, and dashboard development) of D-Truck system. We have defined a detailed work plan with cost analysis and a complete evaluation of technical risks. 3) We have prepared a financial plan, in which we conclude that D-Truck generate €7M cumulative profit with a ROI of 3.67 and increase our staff from 3 to 13 employees in 2026.
Our ultimate goal is to provide a “full supply chain sanitation solution” from slaughter/catch to consumer delivery. Our system offers disinfection out-of-depot, 95-97% more effective, 90% faster, 50% less chemical- and 90% less water-intensive when compared to conventional methods used for sanitizing, allows the immediate reloading of foodstuffs (no more empty travels) and makes freight fleet monitoring simple. D-Truck system avoids energy wasting and the risks of cross-contamination just by a push of a button.