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Sir Torquil Norman has designed a flat-pack OX truck for the developing world
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May 15, 2013, 7:00:00 PM5/15/13
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Sir Torquil Norman has designed a flat-pack OX truck for
the developing world
After making a fortune from Polly Pocket and a doll's
house shaped like a teapot, the entrepreneur has turned
his creativity to a transporter truck for the developing
world.
By Simon Usborne
The Independent
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
He can't remember for sure but Sir Torquil Norman says
it's quite likely he came up with his latest invention in
the bath, the crucible of many of his best ideas. It was
there, while part-submerged, that he decided to buy the
Roundhouse, for example. The venue, round the corner from
his home in Camden in North London, was shut when Norman
bought it on a whim in 1996, rescuing it from likely
ruin.
It may also have been in the bath that Norman, who's 80,
decided the traditional doll's house would be improved if
it were re-imagined as a big, yellow teapot. He called it
the Big Yellow Teapot House, and it was a sensation after
he launched it with his Bluebird Toys company in 1980.
He was later responsible for the Polly Pocket range of
mini-dolls and the plastic lunch box. Norman, who is also
an aviator, philanthropist, former Wall Street banker and
the father of Jesse, the Conservative MP tipped as a
future prime minister, has now directed his brain beyond
the playground to the developing world of the future.
This week he unveiled a prototype flat-pack truck that,
appropriately, looks like a toy. But it has a serious
purpose � to provide cheap, reliable transport in the
world's remotest places.
The OX would be shipped in pieces, packed six to a
standard shipping container (which hold only two standard
trucks, Norman says). The vehicle then emerges,
Transformer-like, from a box formed by its own trailer
area. Assembly is an involved process by Ikea standards
but not for a working truck � it takes three handy people
11 hours to build each OX. The vehicle can be adapted to
carry people or cargo and supports two tons, more than
twice the weight, say, that a standard Land Rover can
take. The engine can be used to power a water pump or
serve as a generator.
Norman, below, who is 6ft 7in and has the lanky,
avuncular charm of a senior Snow brother, has long been
dismayed by the car industry's approach to the developing
world. "I could never understand how every car that came
out seemed to be heavier, more complicated and more
expensive than the last. But then you realise the entire
industry caters for less than 25 per cent of the world's
population, which is insane when you're looking at
countries where only a tiny fraction of people have
access to vehicles."
The OX's flat-pack advantages include many parts, such as
the doors, that can be bolted to either side of the
vehicle. Its windscreen is made of three panes, making
repairs less costly, and the seats can be pulled out and
used as ramps to get heavy cargo in the back or "ladders"
to bridge sand that would otherwise give the wheels
insufficient grip. The truck, which Norman will sell from
his charitable Norman Trust, will cost from �10,000 to
�25,000, much less than a shinier model from an
established manufacturer.
"A village with an OX would suddenly be independent and
could conceivably prevent its young people being forced
to move to some terrible slum in a huge city," Norman
says. "I think we might just have the tiger by the tail.
It seems to me we may be opening a door to making a lot
of people's lives better."
Norman is already in talks with several charities that
rely on traditional trucks. Riders for Health provides
and maintains more than 1,400 vehicles, including
motorbikes, for health workers in sub-Saharan Africa.
"There is a real market failure here," says Vinay
Nagaraju, who runs operations for the Northampton-based
charity. "We still haven't seen big manufacturers, the
global players, really look at vehicles specifically
designed for regions where there is huge potential to
drive the economy forward."
Riders for Health typically sources vehicles from the big
makers, shipping them at great expense for use in
projects such as community immunisation programmes in
remote villages. Further funds are required to adapt
vehicles that are inevitably designed with less-than-
hostile environments in mind. Their typical useful
working life in the field is as little as five years.
Norman believes the OX could keep rolling for 20 years or
more.
"It's a very promising vehicle because it is also durable
and versatile," Nagaraju adds.
Norman has competition. Joel Jackson is a young social
entrepreneur from Sheffield who was advising a forestry
enterprise in rural Kenya in 2010 when he, too, observed
the lack of good, rural transport. Mobius, the 28-year-
old's new Mombasa-based company, has already built a
second prototype car that swaps frills for practicality,
offering a rugged all-terrain vehicle that will cost just
�4,500.
"I thought it could be game-changing if we could provide
a platform for mobility that would bring out latent
entrepreneurialism across Africa," he told Wired
magazine. Mobius will also offer business advice to
customers and even help them find financing, but also
plans to be a profit-making enterprise.
Others have failed where Norman and Jackson hope to
succeed. Back in the Live Aid era of the 1980s, Sir
Torquil was originally inspired by a book called Africar.
It accompanied a Channel 4 series of the same name that
charted the efforts of a man called Tony Howarth to build
a cheap vehicle for the continent. But his plywood
invention got seriously stuck in the mud when he was
found to have been less than honest in dealing with the
project's backers. In 1994 he was imprisoned for fraud.
A seed had been sewn and Norman has finally found the
time in his later years to do the job properly. But, at
80, should he not be slowing down a bit? He laughs. "I
only stopped flying a fortnight ago," he says. "My
partner and I took my old Dragon Fly up for a run. I'd
just fitted new cylinder heads and it was smooth as
silk."
Norman is fanatical about planes and has amassed a vast
collection of classic flying machines. In 2007 he stepped
down as chairman of the Roundhouse Trust and later wrote
a book, Kick The Tyres, Light The Fires: One Man's Vision
For Britain's Future And How We Can Make It Work. His
personal visions may now be firmly at ground level, but
there's no holding him back. "I think if I started taking
it easy I'd be dead," he says, still laughing.
More at:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/features/sir-torquil-norman-has-designed-a-flatpack-ox-truck-for-the-developing-world-8617814.html
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.jai-maharaj
o o o
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used
for the educational purposes of research and open
discussion. The contents of this post may not have been
authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion
of the poster. The contents are protected by copyright
law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely
not be read, considered or answered if it does not
contain your full legal name, current e-mail and postal
addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views
expressed by others are not necessarily those of the
poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted
material the use of which may or may not have been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This
material is being made available in efforts to advance
the understanding of environmental, political, human
rights, economic, democratic, scientific, social, and
cultural, etc., issues. It is believed that this
constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the
material on this site is distributed without profit to
those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving
the included information for research, comment,
discussion and educational purposes by subscribing to
USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more
information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article
for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Since newsgroup posts are being removed by forgery by one
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times.
the developing world
After making a fortune from Polly Pocket and a doll's
house shaped like a teapot, the entrepreneur has turned
his creativity to a transporter truck for the developing
world.
By Simon Usborne
The Independent
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
He can't remember for sure but Sir Torquil Norman says
it's quite likely he came up with his latest invention in
the bath, the crucible of many of his best ideas. It was
there, while part-submerged, that he decided to buy the
Roundhouse, for example. The venue, round the corner from
his home in Camden in North London, was shut when Norman
bought it on a whim in 1996, rescuing it from likely
ruin.
It may also have been in the bath that Norman, who's 80,
decided the traditional doll's house would be improved if
it were re-imagined as a big, yellow teapot. He called it
the Big Yellow Teapot House, and it was a sensation after
he launched it with his Bluebird Toys company in 1980.
He was later responsible for the Polly Pocket range of
mini-dolls and the plastic lunch box. Norman, who is also
an aviator, philanthropist, former Wall Street banker and
the father of Jesse, the Conservative MP tipped as a
future prime minister, has now directed his brain beyond
the playground to the developing world of the future.
This week he unveiled a prototype flat-pack truck that,
appropriately, looks like a toy. But it has a serious
purpose � to provide cheap, reliable transport in the
world's remotest places.
The OX would be shipped in pieces, packed six to a
standard shipping container (which hold only two standard
trucks, Norman says). The vehicle then emerges,
Transformer-like, from a box formed by its own trailer
area. Assembly is an involved process by Ikea standards
but not for a working truck � it takes three handy people
11 hours to build each OX. The vehicle can be adapted to
carry people or cargo and supports two tons, more than
twice the weight, say, that a standard Land Rover can
take. The engine can be used to power a water pump or
serve as a generator.
Norman, below, who is 6ft 7in and has the lanky,
avuncular charm of a senior Snow brother, has long been
dismayed by the car industry's approach to the developing
world. "I could never understand how every car that came
out seemed to be heavier, more complicated and more
expensive than the last. But then you realise the entire
industry caters for less than 25 per cent of the world's
population, which is insane when you're looking at
countries where only a tiny fraction of people have
access to vehicles."
The OX's flat-pack advantages include many parts, such as
the doors, that can be bolted to either side of the
vehicle. Its windscreen is made of three panes, making
repairs less costly, and the seats can be pulled out and
used as ramps to get heavy cargo in the back or "ladders"
to bridge sand that would otherwise give the wheels
insufficient grip. The truck, which Norman will sell from
his charitable Norman Trust, will cost from �10,000 to
�25,000, much less than a shinier model from an
established manufacturer.
"A village with an OX would suddenly be independent and
could conceivably prevent its young people being forced
to move to some terrible slum in a huge city," Norman
says. "I think we might just have the tiger by the tail.
It seems to me we may be opening a door to making a lot
of people's lives better."
Norman is already in talks with several charities that
rely on traditional trucks. Riders for Health provides
and maintains more than 1,400 vehicles, including
motorbikes, for health workers in sub-Saharan Africa.
"There is a real market failure here," says Vinay
Nagaraju, who runs operations for the Northampton-based
charity. "We still haven't seen big manufacturers, the
global players, really look at vehicles specifically
designed for regions where there is huge potential to
drive the economy forward."
Riders for Health typically sources vehicles from the big
makers, shipping them at great expense for use in
projects such as community immunisation programmes in
remote villages. Further funds are required to adapt
vehicles that are inevitably designed with less-than-
hostile environments in mind. Their typical useful
working life in the field is as little as five years.
Norman believes the OX could keep rolling for 20 years or
more.
"It's a very promising vehicle because it is also durable
and versatile," Nagaraju adds.
Norman has competition. Joel Jackson is a young social
entrepreneur from Sheffield who was advising a forestry
enterprise in rural Kenya in 2010 when he, too, observed
the lack of good, rural transport. Mobius, the 28-year-
old's new Mombasa-based company, has already built a
second prototype car that swaps frills for practicality,
offering a rugged all-terrain vehicle that will cost just
�4,500.
"I thought it could be game-changing if we could provide
a platform for mobility that would bring out latent
entrepreneurialism across Africa," he told Wired
magazine. Mobius will also offer business advice to
customers and even help them find financing, but also
plans to be a profit-making enterprise.
Others have failed where Norman and Jackson hope to
succeed. Back in the Live Aid era of the 1980s, Sir
Torquil was originally inspired by a book called Africar.
It accompanied a Channel 4 series of the same name that
charted the efforts of a man called Tony Howarth to build
a cheap vehicle for the continent. But his plywood
invention got seriously stuck in the mud when he was
found to have been less than honest in dealing with the
project's backers. In 1994 he was imprisoned for fraud.
A seed had been sewn and Norman has finally found the
time in his later years to do the job properly. But, at
80, should he not be slowing down a bit? He laughs. "I
only stopped flying a fortnight ago," he says. "My
partner and I took my old Dragon Fly up for a run. I'd
just fitted new cylinder heads and it was smooth as
silk."
Norman is fanatical about planes and has amassed a vast
collection of classic flying machines. In 2007 he stepped
down as chairman of the Roundhouse Trust and later wrote
a book, Kick The Tyres, Light The Fires: One Man's Vision
For Britain's Future And How We Can Make It Work. His
personal visions may now be firmly at ground level, but
there's no holding him back. "I think if I started taking
it easy I'd be dead," he says, still laughing.
More at:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/motoring/features/sir-torquil-norman-has-designed-a-flatpack-ox-truck-for-the-developing-world-8617814.html
Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.jai-maharaj
o o o
o Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used
for the educational purposes of research and open
discussion. The contents of this post may not have been
authored by, and do not necessarily represent the opinion
of the poster. The contents are protected by copyright
law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
o If you send private e-mail to me, it will likely
not be read, considered or answered if it does not
contain your full legal name, current e-mail and postal
addresses, and live-voice telephone number.
o Posted for information and discussion. Views
expressed by others are not necessarily those of the
poster who may or may not have read the article.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This article may contain copyrighted
material the use of which may or may not have been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This
material is being made available in efforts to advance
the understanding of environmental, political, human
rights, economic, democratic, scientific, social, and
cultural, etc., issues. It is believed that this
constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the
material on this site is distributed without profit to
those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving
the included information for research, comment,
discussion and educational purposes by subscribing to
USENET newsgroups or visiting web sites. For more
information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
If you wish to use copyrighted material from this article
for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you
must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Since newsgroup posts are being removed by forgery by one
or more net terrorists, this post may be reposted several
times.
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