Internet Retailer has a piece quoting from an ARK Invest report projecting that "Amazon.com Inc.’s proposed use of drones could drive down the cost to deliver small packages crosstown to about $1—a fraction of existing same-day delivery options."
The story goes on:
"Barring regulatory obstacles, Amazon would face an upfront cost of about $100 million to buy tens of thousands of drones. The company also would see expenses of about $300 million to deploy them to deliver 400 million orders annually, according to the report, which based its findings on existing technology and prices.
"Amazon would need to hire thousands of operators, each capable of monitoring multiple drones simultaneously, to ensure safe takeoffs and landings, according to the study, which included the personnel cost in its calculations. Most of the drone flight would be automated, according to the study, which assumes each package weighs as much as 5 pounds and each delivery is no more than 10 miles."
The story goes on:
"Barring regulatory obstacles, Amazon would face an upfront cost of about $100 million to buy tens of thousands of drones. The company also would see expenses of about $300 million to deploy them to deliver 400 million orders annually, according to the report, which based its findings on existing technology and prices.
"Amazon would need to hire thousands of operators, each capable of monitoring multiple drones simultaneously, to ensure safe takeoffs and landings, according to the study, which included the personnel cost in its calculations. Most of the drone flight would be automated, according to the study, which assumes each package weighs as much as 5 pounds and each delivery is no more than 10 miles."
- KC's View:
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Again, this is all speculation. Fun, but speculation.
And one thing immediately occurs to me ... that at least in the short term, the kinds of markets with enough density to qualify for same-day delivery services also would have enough density to make flying drones a little more problematic. That that it can't or won't happen ... but I've learned not to say "never" when it comes to Amazon.
