Up Up and Away

It’s a scene straight out of The Jetsons: drones delivering packages right to your doorstep, cutting out inconvenient delivery time and costs. But what once seemed futuristic now seems inevitable: retail giants such as Amazon and Walmart are currently experimenting with drones, and many people have big questions about the technology’s role in the supply chain. Among them: how would drone delivery work? Why is it necessary? And finally, when can we expect this future to become reality?

The How: Taking to the Skies

The most obvious application of delivery drones is shipment to the suburbs, where houses are spread out, few tall buildings clog the airspace, and grassy lawns allow for easy landing. To improve long-distance delivery in the suburbs, Amazon is experimenting with a system of drone charging stations in light poles.

Delivery to varied geographic zones poses unique challenges, and companies are currently developing ways to deliver anywhere from the grassy plains to the densest cities. Urban drone planning recently faced a considerable setback, however, as the Federal Aviation Administration officially banned drone delivery in urban settings. Of course, this ruling may be overturned, and solutions that adapt drone delivery to densely populated settings are already in the works. In Germany, for example, DHL has already tested a system to deliver packages from drones to lockers in urban areas, which would allow apartment residents to pick up packages from a centralized location.

Along with the aforementioned delivery services, Walmart is experimenting with other uses of drones in the supply chain. The company has pioneered drone technology that can quickly scan large warehouses and take full inventory. This could speed up the inventory process dramatically, and the technology may be live this year.

The Why: Reducing Time, Costs, and Future Risks

Amazon has always gone to great lengths to cut down on delivery time, and services such as same-day delivery depend on cutting-edge technology to meet customers’ needs. Drone technology is only the latest in this pursuit of efficiency.

For example, a long-standing problem for delivery services has been the ‘last mile’, when a package must be delivered from the post office to an individual house. Shipping trucks are a costly, slow, and energy-intensive solution to this problem. Not only are drones faster and potentially cheaper; they also cut down on fuel usage. It’s easy to see why this alternative would appeal to a company like Amazon. Additionally, drones allow companies to avoid the risks associated with deteriorating infrastructure. As Farhad Manjoo has predicted, the United States’ transportation infrastructure could cause the efficiency of the traditional supply chain -- which is dependent on stable roads and bridges -- to be dramatically reduced by 2040.

Drones bypass these risks by taking to the sky, where traditional infrastructure doesn’t interfere with speedy delivery. Unless changes in infrastructure maintenance take place soon, drones could become the safest and most stable plan for the future.