Drones Going Postal – A Summary of Postal Service Delivery Drone Trials

Drones Going Postal – A Summary of Postal Service Delivery Drone Trials

by | Jun 25, 2016 | Air | 3 comments

27 JUNE, 2016 Postal Delivery Drones With the rapid demise of snail mail and the explosive double digit growth of e-Commerce, postal companies have been forced to seek new ways to expand beyond their traditional letter delivery business models. Given the online consumer’s expectation of fast parcel delivery, it is not surprising that many of these postal service companies are now turning towards delivery drone technology to remain afloat. This article focuses on the recent activities different postal companies from Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Singapore and Ukraine have undertaken as they test the feasibility and profitability of unmanned delivery drone services.  Although the general consensus is that it will still take a while for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to become the defacto parcel delivery mode given a variety of existing obstacles (e.g. consumer expectations, end recipient safety, threat of theft, regulatory frameworks, battery life limitation, etc.), the current trend does indeed point to a time where Fido won’t be able to savor the mailman’s leg. The Australia Post parcel delivery drone in action. Photograph by Eddie Jim via the Sydney Morning Herald Australia Post In 2015 Australia Post reported their first full year loss in over 30 years of operation. Their AU$222 million (US$171 million) loss was a dramatic change compared to their AU$116.2 million (US$89.72 million) profit in 2014. What they did see however was that although letter volumes fell by 7.3%, parcel revenue rose by 3.6%. Ever since then, this government owned postal company down under has been quite active in the testing of delivery drone usage “It is not a matter of if, but rather of when” This...
Chinese Delivery Drones with 15 kg Payload

Chinese Delivery Drones with 15 kg Payload

by | Jun 14, 2016 | Air | 0 comments

Drone package deliveries at less than 0.5 yuan (7.6 U.S. cents) per parcel Chinese delivery drones with a payload of 10-15 kg are currently operating in Suqian City, China – JD[dot]com has two drones capable of handling 200 parcels a day. With a range of 15 to 20 km at a speed of up to 54 km per hour, the drones automatically load and unload goods between depots rather than delivering directly to customers. >>> #deliverydrones...
Perhaps Maersk wants to deliver a 10 kg cookie?

Perhaps Maersk wants to deliver a 10 kg cookie?

by | Jun 13, 2016 | Air | 0 comments

Beyond cookie delivery >>> Maersk wants to deliver 10 kg packages over 10 kilometers via delivery drone In January, the company made a drone fly 250 meters from one of its barges to a tanker and drop off a batch of cookies. It’s now looking for a drone-making partner for a test flight that would haul a 10-kilogram package for 10 kilometers. By using drones for resupply, Maersk might be able to avoid sending an entire ship on an equipment delivery to a tanker, something it sometimes has to do in order to comply with regulations about protecting explosive cargo. Original article...
Walmart to use inventory drones at their 190 U.S. distribution centers

Walmart to use inventory drones at their 190 U.S. distribution centers

by | Jun 9, 2016 | Air | 0 comments

Walmart is getting ready to use inventory management drones in their distribution centers. Taking 30 pictures per second, the drone can catalog in one day what would take human employees one month using handheld scanning devices.  Expected timeline is 6-9 months until deployment. The original article can be found here: http://nyti.ms/24qSqg5 ...
DHL’s ParcelCopter 3.0 – A Tiltwing Delivery Drone

DHL’s ParcelCopter 3.0 – A Tiltwing Delivery Drone

by | Jun 6, 2016 | Air | 0 comments

Bavarian Tested >>> The DHL ParcelCopter 3.0 Designed for integration into its logistic chain and as a tool for improving infrastructure in hard-to-reach areas, over a three month period the latest version of DHL’s ParcelCopter was rigorously tested. Covering 8 km per trip and carrying up to 2 kg payloads, the delivery drones integration with mail packstations (also known as Parcelcopter Skyports) proved flawless over 130 autonomous trips. More details can be...
Catalonia at the vanguard of drone development?

Catalonia at the vanguard of drone development?

by | May 30, 2016 | Air | 0 comments

UAVs in Catalonia are highly ranked (4 out of the top 10 worldwide as per one research study). Reasons? Catalonia has extensive drone history (since the 1980’s) They have the BCN Drone Center (a specialist drone center with 2,500 hectares of segregated airspace for drone testing) Accommodating laws (allowing UAVs of up to 25 kg to fly outdoors outside of cities and built up neighborhoods to height of 120 meters and withing 500 m of its pilot) A government sponsored CataloniaSmartDrones working group (comprised of 25 companies and 16 organizations, including universities and research groups, and all working together on making the region drone-friendly) The original article can be found here: http://www.zdnet.com/article/come-fly-with-me-why-catalonia-is-really-seeing-drones-take-off/...