In an age when volumes of digital information can be downloaded in seconds, waiting days to receive physical goods bought online sounds positively medieval. Could replacing the postman with a drone be the answer to impatient customers’ delivery demands? Amazon believes it is and is already testing the technology’s potential to provide a same-day service. Earlier this year, the retail giant won US regulatory approval to trial a prototype drone design, allowing it to conduct outdoor test flights on private, rural land in Washington state. It follows the announcement last year that Amazon would also test the service on British soil (or rather airspace) in Cambridge. Of course, it is not just customers who will benefit – small businesses could also reap the rewards of what is potentially a cheaper method of delivery. The average diesel truck costs roughly a dollar a mile whereas a drone is just 3 cents a mile. With both Google and German courier company DHL also researching the technology, how long before the use of drones by businesses of all sizes is commonplace? Don’t hold your breath, claims David Grimes, managing director at delivery comparison website My Parcel Delivery. The SME owner who started his company out of frustration with delivery options available to small businesses, applauds Amazon for thinking outside the box, but warns there will be limitations to the scheme’s effectiveness and rollout. He claims that because a drone would not be capable of lifting items heavier than a couple of kilos, we are still a long way off machines replacing traditional human carrier services. “The important thing to also remember is that there is a limitation of distance as well,” Grimes explains. “I can’t see a drone picking something up in Heathrow and delivering it to China. But is there a potential for drones to deliver lightweight items quickly the same day? Yes, that is definitely something that could be realised. “At this stage, only the likes of Amazon have pockets deep enough to invest in and experiment with drones. We are therefore looking at around five years before it becomes commonplace. Only at that point will an SME be able to say, ‘Now we can cost effectively do this’. There is still a whole load of innovation to be done before it becomes viable for an SME to use.” The biggest hurdle, however, is airspace and other legislation. Amazon is fighting for the right for commercial drone flights in the US; the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority also restricts their use. Currently in Britain, drones can only be flown within the visual line of sight – in other words, within 500 metres horizontally and around 122 metres vertically. They must also keep a distance of 50 metres from buildings and people. Ben O’Leary, who runs aerial filming and drone photography company Bakehouse Aerial, says the law is struggling to keep up with advances in technology describing a “race between technology and legislation” to find a viable solution that allows drones to be used more widely by businesses. Safety remains a huge concern and while the biggest drone in his fleet of three is just a metre and a half across, its eight 17-inch propellers could cause significant damage if they collided with another object or person. Anti-collision technology is not good enough yet, says O’Leary. “Right now legislation prevents things from moving forward,” he says. “It is there for safety and to protect people in the street, but it is also there to serve drone and flight use. If you want that market to evolve that legislation would also have to change. It would be about how close things could fly to each other, and that would be driven by technological safety.” If this legislative crinkle is quickly ironed out, then Britain stands to be a leader in the billion-pound drone industry. This is helped by the fact that the industry in the US has stalled thanks to a $5bn investment in a new traffic control system that doesn’t support drones, according to Rohan Sinclair Luvaglio, founder and chief executive of Bizzby. The London-based startup is a mobile app that offers services, including handymen, cleaners and beauty therapists, to customers’ doors in 30 minutes. Luvaglio wants to launch his own answer to Amazon’s drone-delivery concept in the UK, and late last year successfully demonstrated Bizzby Sky, a delivery service operated by the company’s mobile app, from a test centre outside the capital. He believes the UK has a golden opportunity if it develops safety and the right laws surrounding the commercial use of drones. “Drones could disrupt so many industries and provide a range of services consumers would both love and need,” he says. “As consumers living in a ‘now’ economy, with low attention spans and the expectation that we need everything at the touch of a button, drones could provide this across a range of industries from manufacturing, security and software to hardware and consumer-based services. “If we could create a drone ecosystem this could open up lots of opportunities for small businesses to both establish new companies and services in the drone industry, but also offer products and services to support it. SMEs would further benefit from the services that the drone industry would create.” Sign up to become a member of the Guardian Small Business Network here for more advice, insight and best practice direct to your inbox.
The Guardian discusses the capabilities of drone delivery services. Experts say that whilst companies like Amazon should be credited for thinking outside the box, there are big limitations to drone services, such as constrictions on distance and weight of the objects to carry. The biggest limitation however will be airspace and regulations; safety remains a huge concern for the industry. Still, providing as long as the correct laws are put in place, the UK drone network could open up lots of opportunities for small business growth and development.