Will Drones replace the Post Office?

You bought something online last year and guess what? It was stuck in limbo at the Post Office.
You registered for your academic year at UNISA or other distance learning institutions and you are anxiously awaiting your study material and guess what? It was stuck in limbo at the Post Office.

You ordered some textbooks or electronic gadgets off Kalahari, its been 2 months since you paid but guess what? It was stuck in limbo at the Post Office.

You ordered a beautiful role-play,cosplay or Halloween costume online but guess what?

Well if you lived in South Africa this year aside from e-tolls & load-shedding, The Post Office strike
was one of the many frustrations local  E-Commerce Businesses and customers had to deal with.

Then I heard some rumors..

Google has teamed up with Amazon.com and are working on their first prototype of a Mail Drone.

Drone?

Thanks to the US Governments' excessive use in 'Drone Policy' when dealing with their so-called 'enemies' and the loss of lives as a result, the word 'Drone' has become synonymous with violence, fear, war and the military.

Contrary drones or UAVs ( unmanned aerial vehicle) are none of the above, the word 'drone'originates from the Old English 'drān or drǣn' meaning 'male honeybee'.

Drone - Male Honeybee

In the 16th century it was given the figurative sense of 'idler' or 'lazy worker', as male bees make no honey, which is sometimes given as a folk etymology of the word 'drone' itself. Alongside 'drān', Old English also used the word 'dora' for male bees, but its meaning was broader, as is seen in 'dumbledore', meaning bumblebee. 'Dore' survives in Dutch as 'dar', meaning 'drone'.[1]


Technology is just like Nuclear Power it is not evil or good but its use is a reflection of its implementer.

Drones can be used for various purposes aside from killing people, these are

• Hurricane Hunting 
• 2D and 3D Mapping 
• Protecting Wildlife 
• Farming 
• Search and Rescue 
• Delivering Packages

See link about detailed use of drones on National Geographic's website [2].


In today's post we will explore the delivery of packages.


Google and Amazon have been secretly working this project for 2 years and named it 'Project Wing'.[3]

AMAZON.COM'S OCTOCOPTER

The Octo-Copter is capable of delivering packages to any address within the US within 30 minutes! Can you imagine? instead of waiting days and even months to get something you ordered online you can get your package 30 mins after you've made a payment online and received a despatch confirmation?!

This could change the game in the fields of logistics and supply chain management.

We wouldn't have to go to Woolies to shop for food or get clothing, we could do that online and as soon as the payment confirmation has gone through all the items you needed that day can land safely in your driveway/front lawn or housing complex within 30 minutes.

Traffic would subside and you could save on fuel costs.

Call me old-fashioned though but I still like strolling into a shop and enjoying the social experience of shopping, grabbing a trolley and wheeling it about while exploring what new items are in the shop,
the smell of baked goods.

This would be something that would work on days where you are pressed with dead-lines or if there's not enough time. Event Companies that host events would put drone delivery service to use for big parties or corporate sporting events.

On a more humanitarian note delivery drones can be used to deliver medicine,food parcels and clean water to remote communities that are impoverished helping to alleviate transportation issues.

However,not much has been said about delivering packages outside the US, one would have to wonder if I order a package from Amazon.com for it to be delivered via Drone to let's say to a specific address in South Africa, where would the delivery drone land & announce its arrival so that I can come and collect my package?

Would it be at an airport or hangar built specifically for drones?
an Air force base perhaps?(highly unlikely).

Does the Octo-copter fly high and far enough to ensure it doesn't collide with Boeing air-traffic? Would the delivery-drone be resistant to adverse weather conditions like hail, hurricanes, strong winds, snow storms to ensure that packages get to you safe and sound in one single trip?
If it had to take several trips and land at various strategic locations where would those be? We might have to revert back to the transits and tracking processes.

There's also the issue of importation tariffs, no laws or regulations have been written concerning those issues yet.

Then there's the issue of escalation and drug/illegal substance smuggling. If you could send goods directly without them being screened then drug/illegal  substance smugglers would have a party.
(Well- at least human drug mules won't be necessary any more)

Local e-commerce companies could decide to procure drone-delivery vehicles from amazon.com/Google directly for use in local delivery,it could work but then there are issues of maintenance and insurance for the Drone-delivery vehicles which the consumer is sure to feel the full brunt of the cost.

It would be a great idea if a local South African company could become a producer of UAVs or drones made specifically for delivery in South Africa, then they would lease or sell the locally manufactured UAVs to distribution companies to be used for business purposes.

Once it gets aviation licences and successfully crosses the dreaded seas of 'red tape' [4] the company could flourish over time and become quite successful.

Many logistical nightmares and issues in South Africa could be avoided. This would drastically improve access to goods and services if this idea is strategically and carefully implemented. Jobs could be created and it could boost our economy's GDP.

The current Post Office or any other Courier/Transportation companies could become extinct much like what happened to CD & DVD shops when the mp3 and mp4 file was created.

To avoid this Courier and Transportation companies would have to take up this task if they are daring & forward-thinking enough. They have the luxury of being established and are familiar with the intricate processes of the supply chain when it comes to delivering goods and services to customers.

So the biggest barrier of entry for this type of idea into our current state of technology would be time, money, technological skills, materials and manufacturing facilities, aviation laws,regulation  and many others that I can't think of right now.

So unfortunately there are still a couple of milestones that need to be reached before the local Post Office becomes something we read about in a history school textbook.

ENDNOTES

[1]  Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

[2] 5 surprising drone uses 

[3] Project Wing

[4]  Red Tape- administrative costs and paperwork that has to be completed