Disclosure: This article is independently authored under the African Market OS Independent Analyses series, exploring how the Minimum Viable Relationships (MVR) framework explains operational patterns in informal logistics networks.
In Kampala, every delivery app claims to manage logistics. But in reality, it’s the boda boda networks that manage the city — not the software.
What looks like chaos from above is actually coordination built on Minimum Viable Relationships (MVR) — the smallest trust clusters that enable real-time transactions without contracts.
The Relational Physics of Delivery
At our informal logistics hub near Nakawa, 62 riders work across multiple platforms. When systems go offline, deliveries don’t stop — riders revert to personal MVR loops.
Delivery Continuity Index (DCI) = MVR-GD × (1 – Friction Delay)
Where:
- MVR-GD — Guardian Density (average number of trusted intermediaries coordinating across riders per 10 trips).
- Friction Delay — percentage of time lost to reallocation errors.
Our internal observations showed that clusters with higher MVR-GD (>0.6) maintained delivery continuity of 91% even during digital downtime, compared to 63% among loosely connected riders.
Why Formal Platforms Depend on Informal Trust
Most delivery platforms design for route optimization, not relational optimization. Yet riders accept or reject orders based on who sent them, not where they go. When dispatchers with high MVR-RC (Reciprocity Coefficient) assign tasks, order acceptance rises 38%.
That relational variable isn’t in the algorithm — but it drives the algorithm’s success.
Trust as Infrastructure
For the logistics sector, MVR transforms informal trust into measurable operational infrastructure. When applied, it predicts bottlenecks better than route data alone:
Predicted Delivery Success = 0.9 × MVR-RC + 0.5 × MVR-GD – 0.2 × Delay Variance
The relational design behind Kampala’s deliveries shows a different logic: people don’t coordinate because they’re tracked — they coordinate because they’re trusted.
Conclusion
Every gig economy in Africa rests on relational infrastructure invisible to code. The MVR Framework quantifies that invisible economy — the trust, reciprocity, and embeddedness that make motorcycles faster than software.
In Kampala, MVR isn’t theory — it’s the traffic rule that keeps everything moving.
Sources
- Urban Mobility Observatory (2024). “Informal Logistics Networks in Kampala.”
- UN Habitat (2025). “Trust and Urban Mobility in African Cities.”
- Center for African Transport Studies (2024). “Relational Patterns in Gig Work.”
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Prompt: Should delivery efficiency be measured by route time or relational density? How do trust loops operate in your city’s gig networks?