Supply chain and logistics are a crucial part of world economies in the ever-evolving globalization. With the need for a more connected world, logistical solutions are in dire necessity to be streamlined.
As location technology expands and becomes a reality for industries around the world, supply-chain and logistical issues seemingly become efficient. However, there is still a gap that needs to be bridged, especially in the first and last-mile logistics.
Companies from around the world have been trying to curb delivery problems by providing solutions aided by the latest tech. Drones, an emerging sector, look to grasp the rope of logistical tug-of-war.
There is still a lot that is required, especially huge innovations before drones become a mainstream reality. However, they are still counted amongst the favourites to catapult the new generation of supply-chain management, and first and last-mile delivery.
To discuss the role of drones in the future of supply chain and logistics, especially in deliveries, a session was held at GeoSmart India 2022. Moderated by Aditya Chaturvedi, Associate Editor, Geospatial World, the speakers included the likes of Wing Commander S Vijay (Retd), Vice President, Marvel Geospatial Solutions; Anil Brijpal Chandaliya, Founder CEO, Passenger Drone Research Private Limited; Prem Vislawath, Founder, Marut Drones; Paras Jain, Founder and CEO, Indowings.
Talking about the infrastructure to support drone delivery Paras Jain, Founder and CEO, Indowings said, “I believe it is a very capital-intensive infrastructure to make it accessible as we probably would do in other countries but to have that sort of network in India is too many things that we need to do and be ready for. At the current stage, us manufacturers are already facing so many issues in terms of making safe airspace.”
Speaking on challenges apart from infrastructure, Prem Vislawath, Founder, Marut Drones said, “Everybody wants a long range (drone), but we don’t have a testing facility to do more than a kilometer. How can we then send a drone to a 100 km – 50 kilometer I don’t understand.”
“Another problem is for every drone delivery we do, it is a very capital and labour intensive than other projects like survey mapping. Unless you don’t have multiple people, backup system, 6 months to one year planning, you cannot do a delivery,” he added.
Adding to the challenges that drone technology currently has, Anil Brijpal Chandaliya, Founder & CEO, Passenger Drone Research Private Limited said, “We probably have to advance drone technology more. There are vertainly technological challenges we have, for example, currently no drone manufacture can come forward and say my drone has got each and everything where I can assure it will not fail.”
