Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones have become popular in the last decade primarily due to the widespread adoption of consumer drones. Several industries and sectors have announced their own “drone programs” identifying diverse application areas. UAVs come in varying shapes and sizes and widely differ in their capabilities. Some of the broad areas where UAVs have found their use are – crop inspection, mapping of mines, aerial inspections of real estate properties, package delivery, fleet inspection, and warehouse inventory management. This article will focus on the use of smaller drones in the transport and logistics sector. Specifically, electrical multi-copters (characterized by vertical take-off and landing) appear most promising for the logistics industry.

The Proliferation of Drone Start-Ups

The number of start-ups offering drones and related services has grown exponentially in the past few years. In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposed airworthiness criteria for type certification of delivery drones to initialize commercial operations in November 2020  for ten different Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS.)

Adoption of Drones in Transport and Logistics Industries

The transport and logistics industries have started investing heavily in drone technology. They are now partnering with start-ups offering services across the drone ecosystem while developing core in-house operational capabilities.

Major industry players, including DPDHL, UPS Flight Forward, Amazon Prime Air, Walmart (in partnership with Zipline) and Alphabet’s Wing, have already started  offering drone services after obtaining regulatory waivers.

The adoption of drones presents critical advantages –

• Significant reduction in operating costs due to automation
• Increased personnel safety and efficiency of operations
• Improvement in carbon footprint owing to decreased energy consumption
• Enhanced data-driven insights and decision making

Possible uses of drones in transport and logistics

Organizations can use drones in a wide range of operational areas in the transport and logistics sectors apart from their existing use for delivering goods and packages.

Some of these include –

Inventory Management and Audit

Businesses can use drones  to automate inventory management by keeping a count of pallets and scanning barcodes in different warehouse layouts at frequent intervals to gain a more granular and dynamic view of inventory stock. Drones can also capture aerial footage and count inventory stored on the ground in bulk bays.

Security Surveillance

Factories and warehouses typically occupy vast land areas. Drones can significantly reduce security surveillance costs by providing a more expansive bird’s eye view and acting as a deterrent against parties with malicious intent.

Fleet Inspection

Drones can be effective in fleet inspection and tracking of loading/unloading activities. Shorter inspection times and a real-time view of vehicle location will reduce idle fleet time.

Incidence Mapping

Many parts of logistics and transport operations involve a high degree of risk to the employees present on site. In case of an accident, drones can give a quick 360-degree view of the site helping the rapid response teams in their actions with an increased level of safety.

Shipping Industry

The average size of a container ship has increased over the years. Drones can assist cargo ships in vessel and cargo inspection activities. Drones can assist cargo ships in vessel and cargo inspection activities, assess local weather accurately and map incidences where the affected area may span a large region due to ocean currents.

Enabling Drone Programs to Scale

As the adoption of drones increases, a need to draft and manage a comprehensive drone management program will arise. The business process services industry can assist with reliable and flexible drone program management. Some of the functions that the BPO sector could carry out in the coming future are –

Pilot Management

Tracking licenses, certifications, training and proficiency of each pilot, assigning  pilots to jobs and measuring pilot performance

Flight Planning

Determining the flight schedules, altitude, paths and patterns, altitude and image specifications along with any weather-related requirements such as temperature, light, or irradiance limitations to meet the data goals of the job

Flight Logging

Collecting all flight data, such as path, speed, altitude, battery usage and screen captures, for appropriate documentation and flight tracking

Performance Tracking

Ensuring compliance to company policies during each flight, tracking program metrics and measuring the delivered benefits

Factors Affecting the Adoption of Drones

Regulatory Environment

Drone regulations differ across countries and are currently undergoing rapid changes to accommodate the usage of drones for commercial and civil purposes. Since 2018, the Federal Aviation Administration in the USA has granted waivers to select drone companies based on an “operations first” approach to managing functions, gaining insights to shape further regulations. Drone operators or pilots typically must go through a certification program to be eligible to fly a drone. Drones fall into different categories based on their weight, cargo capacity, distance capability, line of sight status, elevation, location of flight (rural/urban/near airport), etc. The regulatory landscape is undergoing rapid change due to the advancement in UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) landscape and insights from current operations.

Congestion of Airspace

With the widespread adoption of drones in the logistics and transport sector, airspace integration with other airspace users such as airplanes, helicopters and other flying systems will become essential. Many major cities already have crowded airspaces, and a single out-of-control drone will pose a serious risk to an aircraft.

Public Concern

There is a general fear and concern among the public due to privacy and safety reasons. Drones use cameras and other navigation sensors, which pose a risk of misuse for surveillance. To address this issue, manufacturers can limit the camera capabilities and practice privacy-oriented operations by not storing privacy-infringing data. Organizations can address privacy and safety concerns by ensuring operating and drone design standards and technological advancements such as UTM development.

The usage of drones in the civil and commercial domains has seen significant interest in the last decade with increasing investments and consumer interest. The main factors driving drone adoption include:

• Reduction in operating costs
• Accessibility improvement (e.g., rural areas, unreachable places in facilities)
• Reduction in GHG emissions
• Improvement in personnel safety

This application has expedited the upgrade of the regulatory environment to facilitate commercial drone operations at scale. The delivery sector has seen the most significant investments and pilot operations, mainly in food delivery and medical supplies. Some of the largest logistics, retail and e-commerce companies have partnered with drone start-ups to shape future offerings and develop their own drone programs.

Once organizations set the regulatory framework and clear technological hurdles, drone adoption will increase exponentially in the coming decades, reducing equipment costs with progressive adoption. 

Anish Hedaoo

Anish Hedaoo, Presales Consultant - Travel, Transportation, Logistics & Hospitality, Digital Operations & Platforms

Anish has experience in BPO pre-sales, crafting client-centric solutions addressing the rapidly evolving business and technological landscape. He is a computer engineer with an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Indore.