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Why We Do What We Do – Our BUV Philosophy

Everything we do here at the Institute for Affordable Transportation (IAT) in creating the Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) we do for one reason: to provide hope.
We do is about providing hope; so the poor and isolated in Africa and beyond can live better lives. By providing for people, we help those in need but also ourselves and our faith in God. By providing hope for the poor and isolated, we can help them rise out of poverty, educate their children, and live comfortably and without danger.
We do this by creating rural transportation that’s durable, simple and pays for itself. A lack of usable roads is often a major cause of this poverty. People can’t get to medical care, deliver their food to the markets, or have aid delivered to them.
So we design and help others manufacture Basic Utility Vehicles (BUVs). This lets our partners and local entrepreneurs create their own way of life and provide for themselves and their community.
That is why we do what we do, and it’s how we do it.

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“Just Far” Becomes “Just Near” with a BUV

Here in North America, it is not hard for us to find wheeled transportation to go about our regular days, whether it be a bike, public transportation, or our own vehicles to get to where we need to go. We think of distances in terms of minutes and hours, not hours and days.
 
But in the rural areas of Africa, distances are measured in miles and many hours. Better yet, just think of it as “far.” If you can’t walk to it in less than an hour, it’s “far.”
 
We received a letter from a missionary partner in Malawi and there was a quote that struck us:
 
In our country our people have to walk everywhere they go. Hence, every place is ‘just far.’ But, when Americans come here they travel around the country in cars. That is very easy so we say the distance is now ‘just near.’ Therefore no matter how far you must go in Malawi, if you have a motorized vehicle ‘just far’ turns into ‘just near.’
 
This is our goal for our BUVs. We want to turn far into near. We want to make it easier for people to more easily travel to different parts of their country, to get the necessary items they need, and helping people get from ‘far’ to ‘near’ faster.

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The BUV’s Design Simplicity

One thing we worked hard to create on the Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) is its simple structure. With three wheels, a truck bed, and a steel frame, the BUV can conquer many rural roads across Africa.
 
But why three wheels? Why not four like on an ATV or a truck?
 
It also allows for constant contact with the ground with virtually no frame twisting. By having one fork on the front end, the drivers can easily change any tire.
 
The three wheels also creates a more stable base. When an ATV gets into an accident, there is a tendency for the ATV to follow you. That is, if you flip the back-end of the ATV will follow. This is why there are many ATV injuries – the ATV often lands on top of the driver.
 
A motorcycle, on the other hand, will shoot away from you in the event of an accident, such as a slide. You can still be injured in the accident but it’s not usually caused by the bike itself.
 
The BUV has significant mass to help protect the driver in slow speed accidents. However, the driver also has the option to jump clear of the vehicle if he or she decides to, making the simple design helpful in the rural areas of Africa.

 

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The BUVs Financial Sustainability

One of the interesting features the Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) offers to owner-operators is the vehicle’s ability to pay for itself.

BUV Cleaning CityFor many owners, they are in a rent-to-own payment plan. They make a down payment and then pay for the vehicle as they earn money with it.

A couple of the sites, including the new BUV Tanzania Factory, require that the funding comes from local sources so all the funds go back to the community. They typically do not allow outside fundraising. Missionaries may receive funding from any source.

A typical down payment for a BUV is $500-1000 USD. The owner can then start generating an income, having no problem making a $200 USD/month payment. With these payments, most BUVs are paid off within two years and create a large sum for the owner with a positive ripple effect to the community.

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What I Saw in Belize

Imagine riding in a truck with jarring suspension over a potholed road that makes several of your fellow travelers sick just to ride on. Now imagine living on the other end of that spine jolting road, several miles away from the nearest town.

I got to visit that little area, riding in that truck on that road, during a recent research trip to Belize.

I recently returned from the University of Indianapolis-sponsored trip to the little Central American country, where we got to see different parts of it, traveling from the north to the south. The northern part of the country is flat and touristy since Belize City it the tourist capital of the country.

Most of the area is developed and the roads aren’t bad.

It wasn’t until we entered the southern Cayo District that I noticed something. We entered a small village called San Antonio, a.k.a. Little Texas, nestled away in the mountains to visit a women’s group where we learned how to make traditional Mayan food and pottery.

Most of my classmates got sick on the way over and back from the women’s group because the only way in and out of the town was a pothole-ridden dirt road.

Most of the women were at the center after leaving a domestic abuse shelter, learning to make this red clay pottery to sell at the market, as a way to create a stable lives for themselves and their children.

The only way to get the pottery to the market is to take it via the dirt road. It’s an hour to get to

San Ignacio from San Antonio and the only means of transportation is a Toyota Land Rover. The suspension on a Land Rover isn’t the best for taking pottery down to the market. It isn’t the best for people either — it’s what we rode in and why so many people got sick.

As a result, many pots and larger vases break during the trip and the group cannot make the money they need to keep the group going and support the women.

On our return trip and we all loaded up with our own pottery, I thought about the work I’ve been doing with the Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV), and what a difference it would make here. With its truck bed and good suspension, the pottery would make it down to the town more easily, and more pieces would be intact. The vehicle is relatively inexpensive and it is easy to repair and drive, which makes it ideal for the village and the women’s group.

It was interesting to see another country and actually see a place where the BUV would be helpful.

As an American, I never thought I would actually see an area where something like the BUV would be needed, and it was a humbling experience to see just how good we have it.

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