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The progression of technology never ceases to amaze us. The speed of its progression is just as impressive; in the last decade alone, the improved quality of cell phones, TVs, and automobiles is staggering. The next advancement may be the most impressive yet: drone delivery.
How do companies plan on utilizing drone delivery?
The simple idea of drone delivery can, in theory, be used for basically anything. For instance, pizzerias can use drones to deliver pizzas. Essentially, the goal for drone delivery is to transport materials from Point A to Point B in a timely and cost-effective manner.
But for large companies with intensive logistics strategies and heavy material volume, the issue is compounded. Amazon is looking to change that.
It’s tough to find a company in a better position than Amazon right now, and their daily shipping reflects that. Over 600 million packages are shipped annually, equating to roughly 1.64 million daily shipments. A few drones flying around certainly won’t do the trick; they require an entire drone-based transportation system. It appears that the company is already a step ahead.
GeekWire published a fantastic article about Amazon’s proposed drone system. In fact, Amazon has already received a patent for a system of “locomotives, container ships, road tractors or other vehicles, and equipped with systems for loading one or more items onto the aerial vehicle, and for launching or retrieving the aerial vehicle while the intermodal vehicles are in motion.”
Even with Amazon engineers hard at work, commercial delivery is still years away. But if there’s a company out there with both the desire and capital to utilize drone delivery, it’s Amazon.