Alida Ratteray
Engineering & Design
The Problem
High crab mortality and low profits.
Mangrove crabs must make it to market alive in order to be sold. In Pará state, where most of the population is dependent on crab fishing for their livelihoods, 40% of these crabs die during transport. This high mortality rate means lost income for supply chain actors and unnecessary stress on the crab population and mangrove ecosystem. Rare has been working with the local government and crab fishing associations, and has identified and tested a solution: the basqueta. By loading crabs into these plastic baskets layered with moist foam, crab transporters can reduce mortality from 40% to 1-2%. The problem? No one will use it.
The User
Small middlemen who transport crabs via motorcycle.
With so many actors in the system, each of which experiences a number of challenges, and all but the largest middlemen struggling financially, it was difficult for us to hone in on our target user. We ultimately decided to focus on the small middlemen as we felt that this was the greatest possible leverage point for us to impact the transport aspect of the supply chain, with the greatest possible impact per individual.
The Need
Small middlemen, who transport crabs for a living but are constrained to travel by motorbike, need to increase the number of crabs they can carry to market without risking high crab mortality.
The Solution
Small middlemen are excited to use the basqueta and keep their crabs alive, but they struggle to comply with Rare’s guidelines because they cannot easily carry the basquetas on their motorcycles. We sought out to design a motorcycle attachment that would allow motorcyclists to carry at least two basquetas, tripling their income.
Speaking with experts
We visited the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab at Stanford to learn a bit more about motorcycle dynamics and attaching a cart.
Our Innovation
Achieving affordability and universality.
While motorcycle carts are no new technology, most on the market are prohibitively expensive, exceeding our user’s budget by hundreds of dollars. Secondly, most existing carts are made from exotic materials, including bent steel tubing and CNC-fabricated mounting hardware, tooling that is not available in the communities we were trying to help. Lastly, while these 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 vehicle.
Our cart design poses solutions to all three of these barriers. We designed the cart with an open source model in mind. The communities we were working with are highly skilled in carpentry and could manufacture the product with the tools they have available. The open source plan would also allow for customization for varying motorcycle models. While our cart’s wooden frame would not be as durable as its steel counterparts, its remarkably low cost would allow our user to make the initial purchase and eventually pay for improvements or replacement parts with the income gain allowed by our product.
Thank you!
Enrico Marone, Denis Domingues, and Jonas Batista at Rare, Brazil, for their guidance and for planning an incredible field trip.
The crab fishing communities of Pará, for graciously donating their time and sharing their experiences.
My teammates, Thomas Trzpit, Danielle Limcaoco, and Nikki Brand, for being an endless source of inspiration and collaboration.
Rick at RMC Moto, for assisting us with testing.
The teaching team, for providing us with this opportunity and the tools for conducting this project.
