December 2013, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos takes to US National TV and announces the tech giant’s intentions to launch Amazon Prime Air.

Using small unmanned drones, the firm claimed they could deliver packages weighing under 2.3kg to customers within 30 minutes of pressing ‘Order Now’.

Six years on legislation and regulatory requirements seem to be the only thing keeping the drones grounded, with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ultimately still having final say on Amazon’s flying machines. For once, it seems the Amazon goliath could be halted.

Yet, the Prime Air mini-site is choc-full of slick videos showing successful test flights along with a series of well crafted FAQs and responses however, for now, it seems the project is still on the runway.

“The FAA is actively working on rules and an approach for unmanned aerial vehicles that will prioritise public safety, “An Amazon statement read.

“Safety will be our top priority, and our vehicles will be built with multiple redundancies and designed to commercial aviation standards.”

Clever PR

At the time, Bezos’ announcement was viewed as a clever PR stunt.

The usually media-shy Amazon CEO, took up airtime on CBS’ prime time show 60 Minutes the day before the firm’s ‘Cyber Monday’ sale event, with cynics suggesting Bezos’ appearance was there merely to encourage page impressions and click throughs.

Despite this, few doubt the tech company have the knowledge to delivery customer packages via the air and once the legislative jungle that surrounds drones and their implementation is made clearer then it surely remains a matter of time.

As a business case, drone distributed products is a good one. But is it sound enough to translate to the final segment of spare parts distribution? Surely the framework would compliment the service supply chain?

On the surface it could be a game-changer: a drone navigating the final stage of a delivery journey, whizzing above traffic congestion could seriously disrupt the last-mile conundrum when it comes to challenges around traffic. “One day, Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today,” the minisite predicts, while looking worryingly at the FAA’s regulation book.

The Amazon effect

Alongside Uber, Amazon has shifted the goalposts of what we traditionally know as service. Shopping online was pioneered by the firm; their intuitive site made it simple for nervous customers making their first few tentative clicks into online shopping. Back then, delivery took a few days, but having a book, CD or video turning up on your doorstep without having to pass the doors of the shopping centre fundamentally changed the face of retail, both physically and virtually.

Then in 2005, the firm launched Amazon Prime, where customers paying an annual fee could receive goods they ordered in no more than two days with free delivery often coming within 48 hours, What a game changer: now people could order online and often receive their goods the following day - and were happy to pay for the privilige and Amazon sensed an opportunity.

The firm then cleverly packaged up the service with other benefits including Amazon Music and Amazon Video, an alternative to Spotify and NetFlix respectively.

The number soared with new customers continued to sign-up and existing customers continuing to renew. Last year, Bezzos announced that Amazon Prime had surpassed 100 milliion subscribers worldwide.Amazon’s continuous disruption in tech makes the vision of drones buzzing overhead very plausible.

However, I think the disruption in service that drone delivery will create is more important than the drones themselves: receiving a product a mere 30 minutes after clicking ‘Order Now’ is another level. Of course, as many field service professionals will know, what has been established within the eCommerce sector, can have a profound ripple effect into many other sectors, particularly field service. The potential of similar levels of ‘rush orders’ of spare parts being transported by drones directly to the engineer on site, could have a dramatic impact on overcoming both last-mile service delivery in the future as well as seeing first-time--fix rates on break-fix calls rocket. 

Getting Closer

In July, at Amazon’s own AI conference, re:MARS, an invite-only event focused on Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics and Space, the firm’s CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer, Jeff Wilke, unveiled the latest drone model, called quadcopters.

In a follow-up blog to the event Wilke said, “We expect to scale Prime Air both quickly and efficiently, delivering packages via drone to customers within months.”

However, following Wilke’s announcement the FAA said it was issuing approval for a one-year period of testing of the devices which would not however, incorporate deliveries.

Service and logsitics

So while we wait for FAA to give Amazon permission for lift off, how does the rest of the logistics and service industry view the potential of drone delivery?

Back to 2013 and not long after Bezos’ declaration on TV, FedEx Chairman and CEO Fred Smith, while delivering an earnings call to analysts, investors and the media, responded to a question suggesting that Amazon’s drones could soon impede on the logistic firm’s own business territory.

“Quite frankly I don’t think I’ve seen more mythology in the press about anything than I have about the e-commerce space over the last year or so,”

Smith said, seemingly dismissing the threat. “…but at the end of the day [most products will be delivered through] the intercity transportation networks of FedEx and UPS and to a lesser degree the Postal Service, which is designed around delivering very lightweight items,” he continued.

To be fair to Smith and prior to this comment he had acknowledged that FedEx were at the time carrying their own research into drones and was keen not to “belittle UAS (unmanned aerial systems) technology” but as a serious threat to traditional delivery logistics, the man in charge of one of the biggest logistics companies in the world seemed non-plussed.

And while FedEx’s research into UAS technology presumably continues, there has been little noise coming from the firm on its progress, instead the company are stepping up their own traditional methods of delivery by announcing they plan to deliver packages seven days a week. A claim they made just a few days after Milne’s drone proclamation at reMARS.

However, that’s not to say that the company isn’t pursuing other innovations.

They are currently prototyping autonomous robots for its last mile deliveries. Like Amazon’s drones the announcement courted much publicity, including a cameo on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show.

However, its launch, also like Amazon’s drones remains ambiguous. 

FedEx’s major competitor, UPS, has thrown its delivery hat into the drone shaped ring by actively pursuing drone delivery and like Amazon are awaiting approval from the FAA to fly their machines. The firm have even created a subsidiary, UPS Flight Forward, to manage and oversee specific drone operations affirming their belief in the technology.

The Future

While Amazon and UPS await Part 135 certification, a certificate that applies to all “air carriers and operators” - and relevant here as the size of their drones fall into this category - then companies must prove its safety credentials.

Given the four-legged make-up of these flying machines, weighing in at approximately 25kg (200lbs) and travelling at 50mph over potentially densely populated areas, then you can forgive the FAA for making sure everything is watertight when it comes to safety. Until public safety is completely assured then we might be waiting a while longer then to have our groceries delivered to us via the air.

What is certain is drone delivery will happen soon and service will once be disrupted. Last mile potentially, could be changed forever. Watch this space... or the skies!