A great new initiative called Shiply has been created that allows you to use the 25% unused space on haulage lorries. If you need heavy goods to be shipped somewhere (currently in the UK), then you create a listing on the Shiply website. Then receive bids from thousands of haulage companies who are already making similar trips.

This allows people to dispatch heavy goods at a lower price than usual, since it’s cheaper to utilise the space on lorries already making deliveries. Haulage companies can get an extra source of income by increasing their utilisation of their lorries by bidding on extra shipping work. And the best bit, better utilisation of shipping lorries means that you reduce the number of unnecessary trips made by haulage companies every day, benefiting the environment!

Shiply is a great concept, and is already getting rave reviews from Radio 2, The Sunday Times, Telegraph, Metro, Guardian, Radio 4, Manchester Evening News and on Radio Manchester.