What Does the Rise of Automated Delivery Mean for Your Business?

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As companies experiment with using drones and robots for automated delivery, questions arise as to the pros and cons of space-age delivery systems.

Writer/Author/Publisher/Speaker, Garden Guides Press

JANUARY 25, 2017   It might seem like a scene out of a science fiction movie, but automated delivery by drones and robots has become a reality. Testing is still taking place in the United States, but one of the first successful drone deliveries occurred this past December in the U.K.

In the U.S., food delivery startup DoorDash and courier service Postmates recently announced a partnership with the robotic delivery developer Starship Technologies to use robots to deliver meals. Testing is currently occurring on a limited basis in Redwood City, California and Washington, DC.

The Potential Positive Impact of Automated Delivery Technology

Given the fact that machines have successfully delivered products to customers, what could that mean for your business in the future?

“Drones are becoming more common in logistics, as they’re the new trend of the day,” says Daniel Oh, director of EasyPost, an API that ships packages each month for thousands of customers and strives to resolve technological obstacles of logistics for its customers.“Drones will eventually have the potential to lower shipping costs, widen

“Drones will eventually have the potential to lower shipping costs, widen logistical reach and make same-day delivery more common,” continues Oh. “In the long term, drones could drastically improve customer expectations. In an ideal world built for drone delivery, you can order your product, pay minimal shipping fees, track your delivery like you’d track an Uber and receive it the same day.”

 Drones might be an exciting, new automated delivery technology trend right now, but until someone figures out how to navigate the regulatory thicket and lower the overall costs of a drone, businesses should focus on the basics for now.
—Daniel Oh, director, EasyPost

A benefit of drone delivery is the ability to deliver in dangerous or rural areas, adds business strategy advisor Patrick Stroh, president of Mercury Business Advisors  and author of Advancing Innovation.

 “Consider the ability now to deliver food and water in a disaster area, where roads may be impassable, or medical supplies to a remote section in China,” says Stroh. “Drones take risk out of the delivery side and allow more people, who may not get this help, to be served and saved.”

Drawbacks of Drone and Robot Deliveries

While innovations like drones can create value, they may also produce challenges.

“The innovation is great, but the execution, practicality and risk/reward needs to be worked through to ultimately drive more value,” believes Stroh. “How we regulate drones and airspace, deter the automated delivery of dangerous packages, thwart drone crashers that follow drones and then steal the delivery packages and many other situations that one can only imagine, requires critical thinking and action.”

Oh agrees. “Drone delivery still hasn’t resolved the regulatory issue,” he says. Nobody can buy a fleet of drones and expect the FAA to let them operate freely. The FAA has trouble managing hundreds of planes in our airspace. How will they manage millions of autonomous drones on top of that?”

Beyond the logistics, automated delivery is expensive. “How will carriers afford the purchase and maintenance of these drones?” says Oh. “They’re not cheap, and there’s no guarantee they’ll last as long as other delivery vehicles. There’s also no guarantee these costs won’t get passed onto businesses, and therefore [to] the customers. Customers love same-day delivery until they start paying the true cost of it. It’s too big of a risk to invest in drone delivery when there’s so much uncertainty about how drones will operate.”

Automated Delivery Can’t Replace Great Customer Service

While it may be fun to imagine drones or robots delivering your products, all customers truly want is reliable, fast delivery without paying too much for it, notes Oh.

“Drones might be an exciting, new automated delivery technology trend right now, but until someone figures out how to navigate the regulatory thicket and lower the overall costs of a drone, businesses should focus on the basics for now,” believes Oh.

“With good logistics planning and the right technology, you can offer reliable and affordable shipping within two to five days, which is perfectly reasonable for today’s customer.”

Read more articles on innovation.

Photo: iStock

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Julie Bawden-Davis

Julie Bawden-Davis is a bestselling journalist, blogger, speaker and novelist. Widely published, she has written 25 books and more than 4,000 articles for a wide variety of national and international publications. For many years, Julie was a columnist with the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and Parade.com. In nonfiction, Julie specializes in home and garden, small business, personal finance, food, health and fitness, inspirational profiles and memoirs. She is founder and publisher of HealthyHouseplants.com and the YouTube channel Healthy Houseplants. Julie is also a prolific novelist who has penned two fiction series.