While sitting in a local “coffice” a couple of weeks ago with Cleantech Group’s head of research and advisory, Greg Neichin, I started explaining to him what I thought was a brilliant and unaddressed business idea in the smart transportation space.

I said to him: “This idea of peer-to-peer is beginning to gain some serious traction in the transportation space. We’ve all heard of peer-to-peer car sharing companies such as RelayRides, WhipCar, and Spride, and there are some innovative and emerging eBay-style market places propping up for parking spots such as ParkatmyHouse, ParkWhiz, and Streetline. It seems logical that this idea could be applied to goods delivery, no?”

The basis was that if I am driving to the other side of the country, it makes sense for me to be connected to someone who has a parcel to be delivered to a similar destination in exchange for a fee. Or even better, if I’m a delivery van with a scheduled delivery one way, it makes sense for me to find something to stock up with on the way back rather than have individual parcels go to several depots and be transferred across …