Home Global News Parcels Delivered by Drones Will Soon be a Reality in China

Parcels Delivered by Drones Will Soon be a Reality in China

Drone
Outside of China, companies like Amazon, Google, Boeing, Zipline and Drone Delivery Canada are experimenting with packages delivered by drone as well.
Drone
Outside of China, companies like Amazon, Google, Boeing, Zipline and Drone Delivery Canada are experimenting with packages delivered by drone as well.

New Delhi: China’s largest courier company, SF Holding Co. was granted a government license to operate drones, opening up the possibility for parcel deliveries using drones. According to a report by State Post Bureau, China’s delivery-industry watchdog, more than 40 billion packages were shipped around China in 2017 and that number is expected to rise to 49 billion in 2018.

After the news broke out that the courier firm had received a license to operate drones in China its stock rose 5 percent on the Shenzhen Composite Index.

Recently a study revealed that battery-powered delivery drones with an average 2.5-mile action radius consume less energy per package, per mile than traditional trucks.

Delivery firms in China have been looking at drones to deliver packages since 2015 when ginger tea was delivered by drone in a test conducted by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Shanghai YTO Express Logistics Co.

Another rival online retailer JD.com, which has its own delivery service, started making drone deliveries last year after testing the service in some rural areas in 2016.

It was the world’s first commercial drone delivery programme for e-commerce in rural locations outside Beijing, as well as those in the provinces of Jiangsu, Shaanxi, and Sichuan.

According to initial reports, JD.com maintains a fleet of more than 30 custom-built drones which are designed to transport and deliver packages weighing between five to 15 kilos and cover distances as far as 50 kilometres. The drones do not deliver goods directly to people’s homes. Rather, they automatically fly along fixed routes from warehouses to special landing pads where one of JD.com’s local contractors then delivers the packages to the customers’ doorsteps in the rural villages.

In 2015, Flytrex, an Israeli startup which specializes in developing drone delivery solutions, partnered with AHA, Iceland’s largest eCommerce website, and together they started a drone delivery route to reduce AHA’s delivery times from 30 minutes, to less than 5. The system was deployed on 25 August 2017 and is now delivering food and small electronics via drones.

Package delivery matters in the world’s biggest consumer market, where the rise of e-commerce and mobile payments has shifted shopping for everything from groceries to factory parts online.

Outside of China, companies like Amazon, Google, Boeing, Zipline and Drone Delivery Canada are experimenting with packages delivered by drone as well.