Deliveries in Australia in the future by drone
Google will now be the first company in the world to deliver via drone. The required license was granted to the US-American digital corporation in Australia.
The subsidiary of the Google parent company Project Wing has been testing drone flights in the Australian capital Canberra and the neighboring city Queanbeyan for one and a half years. This route is suitable because of the long distances between the city and the satellite districts.
A trip through the city center and back can take up to 40 minutes. The route is therefore suitable for the delivery of parcels, food, non-prescription medicines, golf equipment, chocolate and coffee.
Approval granted
The aviation authority Casa granted Google permission on Tuesday to use its drones during the day for the traffic control system, pilot training and maintenance. However, flying robots are not allowed to fly on major roads or near pedestrians.
An area of one hundred houses in three districts has been selected to be linked to a department store in the Mitchell district. Two more districts are to be added later. The orders will be placed via an app on the smartphone. However, some of the inhabitants are not enthusiastic: Many complained about the noisy sound of the rotors.
Already successful cooperation
Wing has been working with the Guzman y Gomez snack chain and the Chemist Warehouse drugstore chain for a long time. For over a year, the drones carried out deliveries in a district with a special permit. In total, over 1,000 deliveries were made without errors or crashes.
In the long run, up to 40 million dollars in transport costs can be saved by drone traffic at the companies. A further advantage is a lower emission of carbon dioxide than with conventional delivery vehicles with combustion engines. By 2030, up to 6 percent of all deliveries in Canberra will be made by drone.
Drone market growing steadily
While numerous innovative companies are moving ahead with their drone projects, Deutsche Post DHL Group put its first on ice. When asked by FAZ.NET, a company spokesperson replied: “There are currently no specific plans for a routine deployment of the DHL Parcelcopter. It currently remains a pure development project to try out, identify and tune the options of this delivery option”.
The commercial market for drones is growing at an average annual rate of 34 percent. According to industry expert Markus Scherer of Ipsos Business Consulting, a volume of up to 12.2 billion dollars is to be achieved by 2021.
Currently, the market volume is worth around 4 billion dollars. “Asia will experience the highest growth rate and be the second largest market after America in 2021. The United States will then account for a market share of 40 percent, Asia 29 percent and Europe 20 percent. According to Scherer, China alone will account for a market share of 50 percent in Asia.