The future of delivery service - where are we now?
Around 15 years ago children in schools when they were asked what the world would look like in 10 years' time a lot of them were saying that there will be flying cars. Yes, science and technology is evolving rapidly, but we are still having cars on the ground and it doesn't look like we're going to move by flying in them in the near future. But what about delivery services? What can we expect in this industry??
Flying parcels? Well, drone delivery service is already happening. For example Wallmart, an American multinational retail in the USA, with their same day drone delivery is already?serving over 4 million customers. Few years ago talking about drone deliveries would sound more like science fiction, but now for other companies it is just like a regular day at work. From 2021 to 2022 the number of packages that were delivered by drone increased by 80 percent and reached around 875 000 deliveries worldwide.?
At the moment, the rapid rise and development has experienced artificial intelligence. Can it help delivery services too? Yes, for example route development and supply chain automation. AI can help to find the shortest routes, and it will not only save time and fuel, but also improves overall efficiency. AI powered robots can help in sorting packages and hence increase the speed of processing. Also they can categorize packages by different measurements and optimize warehouse processes. As well as that, AI powered robots will reduce the chance of human errors, but in turn, it raises questions about people's workforce and future employment.?
Besides the drone delivery we can also talk about robot deliveries, that are usually traveling by sidewalk or pathway. Like our neighbor country Estonia, already in 2017 their delivery robots were transforming the world of deliveries. Now they have partnerships with different companies that now offer robot deliveries. We believe we will see more and more robots on the streets worldwide. But still, seeing a robot cruising around the city gives a very futuristic feeling. :)
What else? Self driving vehicles - another possibility for contactless deliveries and decreased costs overall. But also much improvement needed to make everything possible and safe. Not only technology improvements are important, but also urban development, otherwise, robots will not be able to move safely and efficiently from point A to point B and C. It only shows that not everything can be solved only with the help of technology.
The amount of parcels and parcel shipping is increasing and of course it means that delivery companies need to keep up. Technologies are and will help companies to improve their services and looking ahead the main goal will be to make processes more efficient, faster and environmentally friendly.?
See you in the future!?