A drone hop from the local shop? Where could drone delivery as a service happen in Europe and the USA, and how many people could benefit from it?

The rapid technological and regulatory evolution in the field of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV or drones) may soon open the way for their deployment in the last mile delivery of products. This has the potential to decrease delivery costs, reduce transport externalities caused by road traf...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jean-Philippe Aurambout, Konstantinos Gkoumas, Biagio Ciuffo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2022-12-01
Series:Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198222001683
_version_ 1811178681547096064
author Jean-Philippe Aurambout
Konstantinos Gkoumas
Biagio Ciuffo
author_facet Jean-Philippe Aurambout
Konstantinos Gkoumas
Biagio Ciuffo
author_sort Jean-Philippe Aurambout
collection DOAJ
description The rapid technological and regulatory evolution in the field of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV or drones) may soon open the way for their deployment in the last mile delivery of products. This has the potential to decrease delivery costs, reduce transport externalities caused by road traffic and reduce missed-deliveries. It could thus become a disruptor to the parcel delivery industry and for this reason several transport and delivery companies are piloting experiments involving drones. Yet a detailed analysis of the market potential of this system is still only partly available in the literature.To bridge this gap, this paper tries to quantify the proportion of the population, both in Europe and the USA that could benefit from drone-delivery services.Results indicate that under the conditions considered drone delivery services could be financially viable in the Europe and in the USA, where they could serve between 16 and 43% and between 32 and 60% of the population respectively. These results indicate the viability of this industry in the near future, highlighting that the existing geographical distribution of populations has a significant influence and will likely drive the choice of the first deployments.
first_indexed 2024-04-11T06:22:26Z
format Article
id doaj.art-f30417b55bab45cc9e7b069f82d45f97
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2590-1982
language English
last_indexed 2024-04-11T06:22:26Z
publishDate 2022-12-01
publisher Elsevier
record_format Article
series Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
spelling doaj.art-f30417b55bab45cc9e7b069f82d45f972022-12-22T04:40:31ZengElsevierTransportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives2590-19822022-12-0116100708A drone hop from the local shop? Where could drone delivery as a service happen in Europe and the USA, and how many people could benefit from it?Jean-Philippe Aurambout0Konstantinos Gkoumas1Biagio Ciuffo2Corresponding author.; European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, ItalyEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, ItalyEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Ispra, ItalyThe rapid technological and regulatory evolution in the field of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV or drones) may soon open the way for their deployment in the last mile delivery of products. This has the potential to decrease delivery costs, reduce transport externalities caused by road traffic and reduce missed-deliveries. It could thus become a disruptor to the parcel delivery industry and for this reason several transport and delivery companies are piloting experiments involving drones. Yet a detailed analysis of the market potential of this system is still only partly available in the literature.To bridge this gap, this paper tries to quantify the proportion of the population, both in Europe and the USA that could benefit from drone-delivery services.Results indicate that under the conditions considered drone delivery services could be financially viable in the Europe and in the USA, where they could serve between 16 and 43% and between 32 and 60% of the population respectively. These results indicate the viability of this industry in the near future, highlighting that the existing geographical distribution of populations has a significant influence and will likely drive the choice of the first deployments.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198222001683DronesLast mile deliveryAccess to serviceDrone delivery as a serviceUAV
spellingShingle Jean-Philippe Aurambout
Konstantinos Gkoumas
Biagio Ciuffo
A drone hop from the local shop? Where could drone delivery as a service happen in Europe and the USA, and how many people could benefit from it?
Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Drones
Last mile delivery
Access to service
Drone delivery as a service
UAV
title A drone hop from the local shop? Where could drone delivery as a service happen in Europe and the USA, and how many people could benefit from it?
title_full A drone hop from the local shop? Where could drone delivery as a service happen in Europe and the USA, and how many people could benefit from it?
title_fullStr A drone hop from the local shop? Where could drone delivery as a service happen in Europe and the USA, and how many people could benefit from it?
title_full_unstemmed A drone hop from the local shop? Where could drone delivery as a service happen in Europe and the USA, and how many people could benefit from it?
title_short A drone hop from the local shop? Where could drone delivery as a service happen in Europe and the USA, and how many people could benefit from it?
title_sort drone hop from the local shop where could drone delivery as a service happen in europe and the usa and how many people could benefit from it
topic Drones
Last mile delivery
Access to service
Drone delivery as a service
UAV
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198222001683
work_keys_str_mv AT jeanphilippeaurambout adronehopfromthelocalshopwherecoulddronedeliveryasaservicehappenineuropeandtheusaandhowmanypeoplecouldbenefitfromit
AT konstantinosgkoumas adronehopfromthelocalshopwherecoulddronedeliveryasaservicehappenineuropeandtheusaandhowmanypeoplecouldbenefitfromit
AT biagiociuffo adronehopfromthelocalshopwherecoulddronedeliveryasaservicehappenineuropeandtheusaandhowmanypeoplecouldbenefitfromit
AT jeanphilippeaurambout dronehopfromthelocalshopwherecoulddronedeliveryasaservicehappenineuropeandtheusaandhowmanypeoplecouldbenefitfromit
AT konstantinosgkoumas dronehopfromthelocalshopwherecoulddronedeliveryasaservicehappenineuropeandtheusaandhowmanypeoplecouldbenefitfromit
AT biagiociuffo dronehopfromthelocalshopwherecoulddronedeliveryasaservicehappenineuropeandtheusaandhowmanypeoplecouldbenefitfromit