Drones are increasingly playing an important part in the transportation industry because of the improvements in technology. The initial skepticism has been overcome as drones are increasingly being used in the transportation of medicine, e-commerce package delivery, fleet management, spare-parts delivery and food delivery. How are drones revolutionizing transportation?
Aerial Delivery & Shipping
Because of the lower labor cost and speed, food and product delivery by flying robots has caught on in a big way as large companies such as Amazon, FedEx, Dominos, etc. are using drones for local transportation of their items.
Domino’s Pizza got attention when they posted a video of a drone delivering pizza. The point was that only drones can be fast enough to deliver hot products such as pizzas fast enough—within minutes—to remain hot enough to serve immediately.
Most of us can only imagine the convenience of sending packages to a client’s doorstep or receiving them at one’s own doorstep. This will undoubtedly improve customer service. The convenience of sending packages to a client’s doorstep will create an improved customer experience.
Drones are increasingly being used by many big companies for the delivery of products to customers. These drones are powerful enough to carry multiple large pizzas and make the delivery process quicker. Unlike cars or motorcycles, unmanned vehicles are not subject to traffic delays, so products can reach people much faster, as well as making it easier to maintain ideal storage conditions for certain products, especially medicines.
Although Amazon and Google spinoff Wing have been using drones in certain regions to deliver small items, California-based Ziplin and UPS’s Matternet have flown thousands of missions in different parts of the world delivering medical supplies and medicine. It will not be long before these and other companies will be able to deliver large items throughout the world.
Unmanned vehicles have the advantage of providing services with its accessibility, speed and low operating costs, partly because it requires limited labor cost, since only one operator is typically needed.
At this time the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has limits on commercial use of drones. The main concern is reliable delivery and public safety. Drone companies can perform commerce only with special authorization by the FAA.
The day of personal airborne deliveries is merely a matter of time!
What enables unmanned vehicles to avoid hurdles along its path in bringing products to a home or other place and return to its command post are cameras built with sensors.
Amazon is using same-day service of packages under a certain weight and its aerial package delivery system will be loaded with a delivery that is programmed with GPS coordinates and its advanced imaging technology which enables the drone to lower the package to a safe location like a front porch or driveway.
With the growth of drone integration and automation it is also a matter of time before we will also have flying cars (air taxis). These are unmanned vehicles that carry human beings. The same technology that delivers pizza will one day also transport people.
It is not surprising that postal operators are the first business sector to actively deploy drones. Online retailers, food delivery chains, and infrastructure operators continue to investigate solutions that can reduce costs and decrease reaction time.
At present, the most critical use of drone transportation or delivery is the medical field where medical supplies and medicine are being flown to many “hot spots.” Many of such hot spots will be found at natural disasters, places where drones are ideally suited because of their flexibility and speed.
