Drones and Delivery Services: Beneficial or a Hindrance?
By Alexa Marino
It’s no longer appropriate to call drones a fad. According to one estimate, the commercial drone market will be worth as much as $2.05 billion by 2023.
This growth is partially due to the fact that businesses across a range of industries have begun finding new practical uses for drones. For instance, some have experimented with using drones to make deliveries. With the new technologies derived from Android and iOS mobile app development, the possibilities for drones are only just beginning.
Zipline International uses them to deliver medical supplies with unparalleled efficiency. Major businesses such as Amazon and Alibaba have also started to build up delivery drone fleets. As more businesses experiment with this application, it’s likely others will follow suit.
It’s easy to understand why companies are looking into this idea. Drone-based delivery has the potential to offer several major benefits. They include:
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Reduced Costs
Drones don’t need to travel on roads to deliver products to customers. They also don’t need humans out there driving them. This provides businesses with opportunities to reduce costs and improve logistics. Additionally, because traffic conditions won’t prevent drones from making deliveries, customer satisfaction will see dramatic increases, keeping shareholders happy as well.
Environmental Benefits
The types of drones a business uses to make deliveries will depend on the types of products they deliver. That said, small octo- or quad-copters typically don’t require significant energy to fly. This helps businesses conserve resources, which is particularly important in an age when younger consumers favor socially-conscious brands.
Greater Safety
Again, a drone does not require a human operator. Most deliveries will likely be made by programming the destination into the drone, or its connected app, and letting it fly itself, essentially. In the rare instances when a human operator does need to take over, they’ll be doing so remotely. This means business owners don’t have to worry as much about driver safety.
Of course, adopting a drone-centric approach to making deliveries will be somewhat challenging. First, various regulations throughout the world can limit a company’s freedom to use drones in this capacity in all markets it serves. Businesses will also need to be convinced drone technology is reliable enough to make consistent deliveries. Additionally, it will be necessary to convince some potentially skeptical consumers that a switch to drone delivery is beneficial for everyone in the long run.
Such challenges are absolutely real. However, businesses always encounter obstacles when leveraging new tools in major ways. Those that embrace drone delivery now will be more likely to overcome those challenges sooner than the competition, giving them a substantial advantage.
