SOMI Trailers Ltd has developed truck trailers that carry eight extra pallets by utilising the previously ignored space underneath a standard trailer.
The extra capacity in a four metre high trailer means three journeys are required instead of four, resulting in 150 tonnes of CO2 savings per trailer per year and circa £70,000 in costs. The company calculates that the return on investment is less than 10 months.
Developed with 24 years experience in logistics behind the design to be user friendly, the SOMI (which stands for Same Outside, More Inside) has 22 granted patents and £2.6m invested by the founder and family only.
The moving decks technology uses air at 4PSI to lift weights of up to seven tonnes. The system is autonomous and controlled by an onboard computer, which also mines data, helping users to further optimise their operations.
The company claims that SOMI trailers can carry 75 per cent of goods by road. It calculates that if 50 per cent of goods used SOMIs, every day a line of trucks parked nose to tail around the M25 could be taken off the road and still deliver the same goods.
Moreover, SOMIs could reduce EU and US traffic by circa one million trucks given the technology meets regulations in both jurisdictions.
SOMIs CEO won Innovate UKs 'Women in Innovation Award' and the innovative SOMI Trailer won the Jaguar Landrover Innovation Award and the IGD Supply Chain Excellence Award beating ASDA, Nestle and Mars in the final.
