UPS expects to expand private home drone delivery by 2021. UPS vice president Bala Ganesh said to Yahoo Finance UPS is working with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on what’s called an integration pilot program or IPP. Three key guidelines are coming together that will pave the way to expand private home drone delivery by 2021.
Ganesh said to Yahoo Finance editor Adam Shapiro: “The first one is technology, a safe and sustainable technology that can be deployed. Number two is the regulatory environment that puts some guide rails around it. And last but not least, you need the customer needs,” said Ganesh, who is vice president of UPS’s advanced technology group, which oversees the Flight Forward drone program.
UPS Flight Forward has flown more than 1,000 revenue-generating flights as part of its hospital campus delivery program at WakeMed in Raleigh (NC). Flight Forward announced plans to expand that program to the University of Utah Health Network in Salt Lake and UPS just launched private home delivery last month in partnership with CVS Pharmacy.
Ganesh said drone delivery is still in the very early days of development. “There are two pieces we are looking at. The first is as a growth engine, the new revenue streams we can create. And the second is what improved efficiencies we can create for our existing business.” UPS is looking at its business-to-business hospital medical delivery program as an engine of growth, which is moving specimens between hospitals and labs.
“As the country’s first fully-certified drone airline, UPS Flight Forward is rapidly building a robust customer base and a network of technology partners to galvanize our leadership in drone delivery,” said Scott Price, UPS chief strategy and transformation officer. “We will create new logistics and delivery solutions no one has ever considered. Previous industry thinking had been limited to only ground transportation technology. Now we’re thinking in three dimensions.”
“We’re always looking to improve convenience for customers through faster, lower-cost and more efficient delivery models,” said Kevin Hourican, president of CVS Pharmacy. “Given our focus on innovation, we’re excited to be the first retail health care company to explore drone delivery options with UPS.”
Source: Yahoo Finance and UPS