Friday, June 24, 2016

Should Drones be Used for Food Deliveries?


It wasn’t a long time ago that drones were introduced in the market. In the early goings, people weren’t sure whether they were going to stick around and prove to be of any commercial use. However, within a short span of time, drones have become quite useful and have found applications in a number of industries. Such has been the popularity of these UAVs that businesses are trying to find ways through which they can incorporate drones in their setup. The food delivery industry is one of the sectors that are trying its hardest to start using drones. But, can drones be used for making food deliveries?

Drones Can be Good Food Deliverers
The industries that are currently using drones have found them to be an excellent addition to their setup. This is the reason why food delivery companies believe that these aerial vehicles can prove to be good food deliverers too. The argument put forward by the food delivery business is that with the help of drones they would be able to deliver the food much quicker to the consumer’s doorstep. This argument is a compelling one too as drones will be able to beat the traffic on the roads and thus reach the addresses of the customers much more quickly than any another means of food delivery.

Advantages of Using Drones for Food Deliveries
Apart from the fast delivery, drones can provide a number of other advantages for food companies when it comes to delivering food items.

  1. Unrestricted Food Delivery
One of the greatest advantages of using drone for food delivery purposes is that you would be free of any restrictions posed by the terrain. You would become able to deliver food items irrespective of the customer’s location be it a desert, a mountain top or even at sea. Since the drone would be airborne, it would be able to traverse any kind of terrain without encountering any problem whatsoever. This is one of the top reasons why top names in food delivery business like Foodpanda are looking forward to using the drone technology for delivery purposes.

  1. Flexibility
Drones offer flexibility when delivering food items too. You do not have to rely upon the transportation system that is in place in a city or a region for making food deliveries. With the drone flying high up in the air, you can bypass all this and make the delivery on time. Moreover, by using a drone, a food delivery service can easily expand its business to far flung areas of the world where there isn’t a transportation infrastructure in place at the moment.

  1. Ease of Delivery
A major problem that is faced by food delivery companies at the moment is that they only have riders available for delivering food. This limits their ability to reach customers that are located outside a certain area. However, with the help of a drone, the delivery company can ensure that even those customers which do not lie within their service area can still be reached quite easily. Furthermore, the vertical landing and take-off capabilities of the drone also helps in making food deliveries a much easier prospect.

  1. Cost Saving
You might be forgiven to think that drones can’t possible save you money. However, the truth is that the UAVs can prove to be quite economical for a food delivery business. Purchasing the drones might seem to be a very big investment in the beginning but in the long run, it will help you in saving a good deal of cash. For instance, it would eliminate the need for you to hire people for making home deliveries. Since the UAVs don’t need a human pilot to physically fly them around, you will save money on wages that would have been paid to them. 

Challenges of Using Drone for Food Deliveries
While the advantages of drones as a food deliverer are quite enticing, it is important to note that there are various challenges that such a project would have to face. The following are some of the obstacles that are currently stopping drones from being used for food deliveries.

  1. Payload
The existing drone technology that we have is not capable of delivering heavier items. The maximum payload that a drone can carry is no more than a few pounds. Thus, if the customer orders a large amount of food that weighs a lot then the drone would become useless as it would not be able to carry the food items in a single trip. So, unless the drone technology improves and the UAVs become capable of carrying heavier items, they can’t be used for making all food deliveries.

  1. Energy Consumption
Another challenge facing the delivery drones at the moment is that of energy consumption. The drone requires a great deal of battery power in order to remain airborne and travel long distances. If a food delivery service wants to deliver food items to far flung areas then it would have to find a way to keep the drone powered up for a longer period of time.

  1. Weather Conditions
Drones can’t fly in unfavorable conditions. So, you would have to monitor the weather before you can send a drone up in the air to make a delivery. If the wind speed is higher than 12 mph then there is a chance the drone would not be able to remain airborne. Moreover, rain can cause the drone to malfunction too and cause it to crash.

  1. Malfunctions
A drone is an electronic machine and like all other machines it is vulnerable to malfunctions. If the drone develops an issue during flight then it might drop from the sky, causing an accident. Thus, until the drone technology can be perfected enough to ensure that drones would not fail while they are in the air, they can’t be used for making food deliveries in densely populated areas.

In a nut shell, the use of drones for food deliveries is a very nice idea, one which can prove to be very advantageous for food delivery services. However, the drone technology needs to be considerably improved before this idea can be implemented on a large scale.  





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