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THE FUTURE OF DRONES IN LOGISTICS
“A sky-high vision for the future of Logistics”
🚺Drones in logistics
There are many ways UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) can be used in society. The use of drones in the logistics sector is very advantageous, enabling a wide range of applications.
The uses of drones started in the military and defense sector (for surveillance purposes) and later extended to civilian uses (entertainment, photography, fire fighting etc.). Now, step by step the turn has come to logistics, mainly for inventories or goods transportation. These drones can collect data, monitor inventory, operate forklifts, and update the company’s warehouse management system (WMS), among other tasks
Some companies, especially in the US, have already begun testing for use in the distribution of products to the end customer. The majority of experts assure that the use of drones in the logistics sector is very advantageous, although, to date, there are also many barriers for it to become widespread. Amazon is already working on using them as parcel delivery devices. Other companies like Google or the US-American pizza chain Domino’s have been experimenting with drone delivery as well. The latter has started testing pizza delivery by ‘DomiCopter’.
🚺The applications
They can be put-to-use in the transportation or delivery of customer purchases, which is a great solution for urban areas with heavy traffic congestion. As well as pallet scanning within distribution centers, enabling the operations team to view inventory stored at the facility, as well as search for lost merchandise in hard-to-reach spaces.
Joint with security surveillance of large areas for logistics such as warehouses and factories. In addition, drones allow us to reach areas that cannot be accessed by other modes of transport.
This way, it is possible to expand the radius of action of the companies that make the shipments. These vehicles are also very useful in emergency situations when rapid transport of medical and relief packages to remote areas is needed. To date, many delivery tests have been carried out focused on medical supplies.
🚺Benefits of UAVs in the Supply Chain
- Deregulation—free market enterprises
- Cost efficiency
- Information sharing
- Increased collaboration
- Integration of last-mile delivery (multiple modes)
- Maritime and military logistics
- Innovative management, operations, processes, communications, data collection
- Changing customer/consumer choices—improved services
- End-to-end visibility, accurate delivery
- Reduction in delivery times
- Road conditions do not impact delivery
- Environmentally friendly
🚺Drawbacks of UAVs in the Supply Chain
- Information sharing (has its pros and cons)
- Loss of Freedom (drone eyes, tracking)
- Cybersecurity
- Training costs
- Start-up costs
- Privacy concerns
- Trust, partnerships, exchange of data and information
💢As The use of drones has become a widely discussed topic among supply chain players – the cost of scaling up and the regulatory framework remain unsolved issues. For the time being, drones are more likely to play a supporting rather than main role in the delivery process.
The technology exists to make drone deliveries feasible, but there are plenty of impediments – regulations on airspace, package weight, the need for certified pilots – that prevent large-scale adoption today. In practice, we still have a long way to go.
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