{"id":3140,"date":"2019-07-22T16:19:32","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T14:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/?p=3140"},"modified":"2019-07-22T16:19:32","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T14:19:32","slug":"3140","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advancedfleetmanagementconsulting.com\/eng\/2019\/07\/22\/3140\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Drone Food Deliveries Are Going to Happen Sooner Than You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Manna<\/p>\n

Manna drones have been designed with a very simple service envelope \u2014 2 kilos of hot food across 2km radius operating areas \u2014 safely. Photo via Manna <\/em>by Bobby Healy<\/p>\n

Opinion: Drone Food Deliveries Are Going to Happen Sooner Than You Think<\/h2>\n

This article was first published on\u00a0Sifted<\/a>, a FT-backed media site focused on European technology and startups.<\/em><\/p>\n

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In a response to Richard Parker of Altitude Angel\u2019s\u00a0post on the limitation of drones<\/a>\u00a0and why they haven\u2019t taken off yet, I\u2019d like to put forward the reasons why I believe we can all look forward to\u00a0drones\u00a0playing an important societal role within the next few years, and why drone food delivery will happen sooner than you think.<\/p>\n

I believe the drone economy is going to be enormous, and I believe we are right on the verge of food delivery with drones becoming an everyday reality for large swathes of the population.<\/p>\n

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I am the CEO and founder of a business called Manna.aero that plans to use drones to deliver food directly from restaurants and \u201cdark kitchens\u201d \u2014 to front doors across Europe and the U.S. We plan to start with a limited scale service in Ireland at the end of this year (Manna is waiting for flight approval from the Irish Aviation Authority), followed by a series of launches in other European markets, under the regulatory umbrella of the European aviation safety body EASA.\u00a0(EASA just recently published\u00a0E.U.-wide regulations<\/a>\u00a0for drone usage, making it easier for people operating drone businesses to know what is required).<\/p>\n

Drones Are Safe<\/h3>\n

Firstly, and the \u201csine qua non\u201d of running a regulated business, under the oversight of a body like EASA, \u2013 is safety. You simply can\u2019t operate at scale and\/or over populated areas with off the shelf drones from a certain Chinese manufacturer like some propose to do.<\/p>\n

Manna drones have been designed with a very simple service envelope \u2014 2 kilos of hot food across 2km radius operating areas \u2014 safely. This means we have three\u00a0separate flight computers on each drone powering a fly-by-wire design, redundant power systems, redundant propulsion systems and even redundant parachute systems. We have three\u00a0independent GPS receivers, three\u00a0independent comms links (all encrypted), and other non-GPS based geolocation systems in the event of a failure of the GPS signal. In other words, we have designed a reliable mule.<\/p>\n

Virtually every instance of negative press around drones lately has been either speculation, or sensationalism. Every professional drone operator and technology company (including us) uses geo-fencing and\u00a0U-Space management systems<\/a>, a European network that connects all drones flying in the air and makes them visible to public services like air traffic control, ambulance services, military, and police forces.<\/p>\n

Users of the drone airspace (which is below the air space that general and commercial aviation use) already work together to coordinate and avoid each other and to cooperate with authorities. This is not new but regrettably eclipsed by the purveyors of the tabloids and the occasional hyped-up and shamefully unbalanced TV\u00a0documentary<\/a>\u00a0as recently broadcast by the BBC.<\/p>\n

Drones Are Good Citizens<\/h3>\n

Drones emit zero carbon and replace road-based delivery which on average involves a 4km round trip per delivery in a fossil fuel powered vehicle. There\u2019s an additional multiplier effect on carbon emissions from road-based delivery due to the extra congestion they lead to on already busy streets.<\/p>\n

Another frequent perception of drones is that they are noisy. This stems from the experience most people have with consumer grade drones that feature very small propellers which by their nature generate a nasty noise profile.<\/p>\n

Manna drones are designed to be completely inaudible at cruising altitude and even at our lower delivery height of 15 metres, no louder than a normal conversation.<\/p>\n

Drones Will Provide a Better Service<\/h3>\n

Which makes more sense to you \u2014 a person driving a 1,500kg motor car taking 40-60 minutes or more through congested city streets and waiting at traffic lights as she goes to deliver your semi-warm meal (and expecting a tip), or a 9kg Manna drone flying as the crow flies at 80kph and taking a maximum of three\u00a0minutes to get to your house with a piping hot meal?<\/p>\n

It costs companies like Deliveroo, JustEat, Uber Eats (and many more) at least 5 euro ($5.61) a meal to deliver to your house. In a world where the average price of a delivered meal is about 15 euro ($16.83), this is simply too high a price for restaurants or customers to have to pay in terms of platform commission or delivery surcharges.<\/p>\n

We believe the final cost of operating drone food deliveries will be a fraction of that 5 euro ($5.61), and we can guarantee a three\u00a0minute maximum delivery time.<\/p>\n

The Drone Economy<\/h3>\n

When\u00a0Uber launched its taxi hailing service\u00a0in the U.S.<\/a>, the overall size of the market for taxis grew exponentially \u2013 driven by the convenience and affordability of \u201cthe three minute hail\u201d.<\/p>\n

When a three\u00a0minute drone food delivery becomes a reality, consumer behaviour will change. People will order more frequently and in a more granular fashion. Demand for local products including food will grow and as a consequence, so too will the entire market \u2014 creating jobs as a by-product.<\/p>\n

PWC estimates that\u00a0drones will add 42 billion pounds<\/a> ($52.37 billion)\u00a0to the U.K. economy by 2030, and create 628,000 jobs.\u00a0 We think that figure will be a lot higher as existing markets and sectors will be turbo charged and democratized by the disruption and innovation that drones bring.<\/p>\n

Drones will replicate the Uber market growth through disruption effect on steroids.<\/p>\n

And Finally, Drones Will Save Lives<\/h3>\n

Apart from the obvious benefit that Zipline bring with their vaccine delivery service in Rwanda, or that Matternet bring with their blood delivery service in Switzerland, what a lot of people are not aware of is that current road-based food delivery is costing hundreds of lives a year already.<\/p>\n

A recent government report from the\u00a0Netherlands<\/a>\u00a0showed an alarming statistic. Last year alone, food delivery drivers\u00a0were involved in 116 accidents. In more than half of the cases the driver had to be taken to hospital by ambulance. If you extrapolate based on comparative population size, that number comes to 451 food delivery drivers hospitalised annually in the U.K.<\/p>\n

While a consortium of food delivery companies have agreed to move towards paying the drivers an hourly wage instead of an amount per delivered meal in order to stop speeding, bigger names like Uber and Deliveroo have not joined the initiative. Why? Because an unfortunate fact of life is that for road-based food delivery, profitability, and speed come hand in hand.<\/p>\n

Those numbers and statements alone are enough reason to want a better way.<\/p>\n

Bobby Healy is a serial entrepreneur and currently CEO and founder of Manna.aero, a drone food delivery company.<\/em><\/p>\n

by Bobby Healy<\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.fleetforward.com<\/a><\/p>\n

FLEET MANAGEMENT AUDIT<\/h3>\n

Fleet management is the use of a set of vehicles in order to provide services to a third-party, or to perform a task for our organization, in the most efficient and productive manner with a determined level of service and cost.<\/p>\n

Fleet management activities are shown in the following graph 1:<\/p>\n

\"fleet<\/p>\n

Graph 1: fleet management activities<\/p>\n

The proposal audit analyses and assesses all fleet management activities shown in the graph 1, and its main goals are:<\/p>\n