Food charity Felix matched surplus food to spare lorry space to cut costs

The Felix Project, London's surplus-food redistributor, spent £5.6m last year collecting produce and getting it to community organisations — costs director of food innovation Richard Smith calls uncuttable, 'without our logistics, this food would never reach the millions who need it most.' Three-quarters of that spend went to third-party logistics companies, by Nicola Robinson's reckoning at Alliance Food Sourcing, the coalition of leading food companies that decided to attack the number rather than the mission.

The fix matches two idlenesses. The Department for Transport counts about 30% of HGV journeys as running with spare capacity, and Felix's collections are predictable, repeated routes. Using AI, the new platform introduces them — 'speed dating for trucks' — pairing surplus pallets with lorries already heading the right way.

Early trials point at the upside: food producer Greencore now delivers milk to a Felix depot twice a week, free of charge, a locked-in route projected to save £20,000 a year with the milk back out to charities within 24 hours. Sainsbury's and logistics provider GXO have identified a further ten routes with estimated annual savings around £170,000, and Tesco, M&S and supply chain firm Gist are offering free consultancy. If upscaled, AFS says the platform could save Felix £1m a year — at a time when Trust for London data shows food insecurity up 23% in two years.

It attacks a nonprofit's biggest fixed cost not by cutting service but by selling the haulage industry its own empty miles.

The supply is measured, not hoped for: the Department for Transport puts spare capacity on about 30% of HGV journeys.

Locked-in weekly routes make the saving structural — 'the milk lands here and is back out to charities within 24 hours' with barely any charity involvement.

It turns food companies' logistics departments into the donation, a channel firms like Greencore say they can absorb for free.

Someone's cost is often someone else's empty space: matching a problem to idle capacity can shrink a budget line instead of trimming the mission.

As of September 2026 the platform was in early trials: Greencore's free twice-weekly milk run was locked in, ten further routes identified with Sainsbury's and GXO at an estimated £170,000 annual saving, and AFS urging an upscale it projects could save Felix £1m a year while cutting road miles.