#foodsupplychain #fooddeliverylogistics #dronetechnology
The Drone industry is fast evolving and is currently in demand for delivery logistics, especially in the food business.
By 2022, the drone industry will be worth 11.2 billion USD and have utility in various sectors such as food delivery logistics.
The pandemic has expedited the process of using drones in different businesses as social distancing and remote work took center stage. In fact, in countries like Thailand, drones are already being adopted for the delivery of hot meals and inventories to stores and restaurants.
As a logistics partner for the food supply chain, we understand that the necessity of this fast-paced industry is gradually evolving with time and drones are the inevitable future we are looking at.
How Drones Can Help the Food Supply Chain?
Drone technology might help the Food Supply Chain Management in the following way as we enter the new era of food business powered by data-driven automation.
Drones will make the process of delivering goods faster and more efficient as you can easily optimize routes and evade traffic snarls.
Drones will reduce the uncertainty and losses encountered by food businesses due to the unruly behaviour of the delivery personnels.
Drones in the future will move onto a battery-driven approach rather than the manual approach of today, making it a cheaper and effective delivery alternative.
They can be programmed to control a huge quantity of load and have remote access, making them ideal for safe and secure socially distanced delivery.
With instant delivery scheduling drones can prevent warehouse overstaffing and spoilage issues which is the primary concern of the food supply chain.
Lastly, with drones in place, one can cover a greater distance and larger number of places at a given time.
We at Just Deliveries see the future coming. At present, we deliver inventories, supplies, and finished products from farms to warehouses to restaurants to stores and customers. Our temperature-controlled delivery vans deliver products to 100 stores by 11 am in morning.
Imagine what could be done when the food delivery logistics industry is ready for drones. We can easily dispatch twice the amount of things from our delivery vans to stores, restaurants, and customers. That’s what the future holds.
Challenges
However, there are certain challenges in adopting this quickly and most of it is public perception.
Invasion of Privacy: Most people including businesses look at drones as things that invade privacy. Naturally, food businesses won’t want to lose their loyal customers and potential clients by employing drones.
Lack of Human Touch: Added to this, the lack of human touch to it often worries people who don’t feel comfortable interacting with a drone. Many don’t know how to track and trace it.
Drone Working Knowledge: The paucity of skilled people trained in drone technology is another problem area. Drones still remain largely manually handled and you need to be able to understand how to load and unload things on them. While delivery logistics partners might employ skilled individuals who know how to handle them, it’s not easy to educate the masses on how to take things delivered by a drone.
High Cost: The cost still is a drawback although drones are becoming more affordable nowadays and the use of batteries might make it more economical.
Laws & Regulations: Lastly, using drones in the public space requires knowledge and establishment of certain rules and regulations related to drone speed, pathways of flying, the basic horizontal distance of flying, permissible weightage carried by drones, etc. All of this is absent in the present food industry. In countries like Thailand that have just started with this system of food delivery logistics, they have put forward a set of laws governed by the aviation and aerospace industry.
So, as you can see the future of food delivery logistics is changing in favour of drones in the next couple of decades. But how fast the world will adapt to that only time will tell.
Meanwhile, it’s time to equip your business with a data-driven automated delivery logistics partner like us. It’s the only step towards the future. Contact us to know more.
