The use of drones is emerging and can be evaluated in terms of advantages and disadvantages but also in terms of threats and opportunities. In general, it is prohibited to fly drones for business purposes. At least it is in the Netherlands (according to drones.nl). Nevertheless there are organisations that earn their money, legally, by flying drones. Recent newspapers head that important persons from the Middle-East are killed by western drones are well-known examples of that.
Amazon announced that the company is developing “aerial vehicles”, as they call them or their website, for package delivery. Sounds nice to have your ordered products delivered by these remote controlled or even pre programmed, autonomically operating small kind of helicopters, or simply “drones”. Is it really that great or is this idea and thereby Amazon’s project, unfeasible?
Pros and cons
Martijn Rosman, student Logistics and Supply Chain at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, sums the pros and cons of using “aircrafts without a pilot on board” for product delivery in an article on logistiek.nl. The cons he states are: the drones are not able to deal with “unexpected obstacles”, as he calls them, and therefore human interference is needed. Batteries available at this moment don’t have enough power to keep the drones flying for a longer period. Rosman states that without exemption it is prohibited to use drones. At last he mentions that the society doesn’t support the use of drones (yet) because of safety issues of the drone. Of course he also mentions pros. The replacements of trucks by drones will cause a decrease of congestion, what results in lower utilization of roads and lower CO2 emission. Rosman points out that lower CO2 emission is a more sustainable way of doing business. Besides that, drones that fly on solar-power are tried to develop. His last argument to use drones for product delivery is that it is much cheaper (five times) than using trucks.
Rosman states that major changes and decisions need to be made about, amongst others, the way of warehousing and how products are distributed. Besides that, other tasks need to be performed. For instance, before the use of drones trucks and cars were loaded, now smaller drones with a smaller capacity are loaded. Flight control is another new task.
New regulations
On 15 February 2015 the Federal Aviation Administration in America announced new rules for using drones with business purposes (http://www.drones.nl/faa-maakt-regelgeving-commerciele-drones-bekend/ ). Amongst these rules are; the maximum weight of the drone is 25 kg; a pilot must be able to see the drone at all times; and drones may not fly above crowded areas. It will take at least two years before these rules enter into force. So, even after 2 years it is not allowed to deliver goods at home. Besides that, due to the small size of the drone (up to 25kg) it is not even possible to deliver bigger packages to the homes of the customers.
Convenience and acceptance
Other questions that should be taken in consideration are the following. Drones exist in a lot of different sizes, with other functions and can be bought for low prices but there are also very expensive ones. Surfing the web shows us that you pay easily a couple of hundred Euros for a decent one, and that’s only for private usage. Therefore, starting to use drones is a real investment and it is not very likely that these drones will be used very frequently right away. Will it pay off? Moreover, how will people feel about and react on drones constantly flying over their houses and gardens, especially in summertime? When goods or mail is delivered for these people themselves, it won’t be a big problem. Do these people feel the same about the drones flying over when it is concerning deliveries for the neighbours or people living four houses further along the street?
Due to security and efficiency issues at the moment of delivery, it is convenient or even required that the receiver is at the point of delivery to confirm the delivery. With the use of a deliveryman, your postbox, or for bigger packages your neighbour or a post office located nearby can function as backup. Then there is security during transportation. Longer range deliveries over uninhabited areas by drones without a single person on board might be an interesting target for theft. This makes this manner of transportation riskier than staffed transportation. In the end humans are the ones that should intervene in case of trouble. The cons mentioned above come from immaturities that might be solved in time by technological innovation. But there always will be a very important influence on transportation by drones that can never be controlled. It is even very difficult to predict this influence: the weather. Drones cannot be used when there is a certain amount of wind, rain or snow.
Usage
These arguments mainly concern transportation and delivery of small packages. Do they differ for larger (or B2B) goods? Checking sites of companies that provide helicopter services will show that helicopters are only used for transportation of small and often valuable goods, transportation of people and services like making photos and videos out of the air. Transportation of bigger and heavier goods or batches of products through the air is normally done by plane. The higher speed and higher capacity are very useful for long range. The summation above is not really a plea for a bright future for the use of drones. These arguments state that only light tasks can be performed by drones. Regulation and/or laws prevent intensive usage in the near future, but perhaps technological improvements can turn these weaknesses into strengths one day.
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