Drone delivery:
succesfully tested

Technology is evolving faster and faster and delivery of goods by drones, which until recently seemed utterly unreal, hangs in the air today. The regulation of unmanned flight operations is the subject of widespread debate around the world right now, so we want to open up this topic in our country. 

At the moment, we are at the beginning of the process. We understand that a large number of variable factors will play a role in the process and thus it is very difficult to estimate how long it might take to launch the service. We, as an innovative company, see many great benefits to our customers in this service. We are launching a public debate, so keep your fingers crossed.

In order to start using drones to deliver goods, we need to change current legislation. Today’s legislative environment is complicated: drones are forbidden to fly alone without a supervising pilot, to move over a variety of locations, to move over people, essentially a drone cannot even fly over a street.

Authorities in our country, in Europe and in the rest of the world have quickly realised that the rules for the operation of the drones need an overhaul. The process can be long and complicated, but for us it is important that we are a part of it. We believe that in the end, it might be beneficial for the community as a whole.

The situation abroad is similar to that in the Czech Republic. Companies such as Amazon, Google, Alibaba, or DHL are working on various forms of drone delivery implementation and are actively testing various options, while governments are looking for the best regulatory solution.

The European Civil Aviation Authority has published a report on how the drone operations could look at the end of 2015. For companies the report is optimistic – the main conclusion is that the EU will not try to regulate the drones using the general rules applicable to air traffic. This means that we and other companies, should have a clear set of rules, which will facilitate effective planning of future developments.

For our testing, we chose a quadcopter drone matrix 100 from the largest drone manufacturer in the world, the DJI company. It’s a proven model on which we have agreed with the Civil Aviation Authority, with experts from the Czech Technical University and with practitioners who work with drones every day.

This type of drone can be in the air for about half an hour, depending on the weight of the shipment, which, together with wind speed and direction affect the drone’s flight speed – in reality, the drones will be able to comfortably handle an area with a radius of several kilometers around each take-off point.

Bad weather can have adverse effects on the drones‘ ability to fly. This drone is, however, able to operate in temperatures from -10 to + 40 °C and has wind a resistance capability of up to 10 m/s.

The biggest technological challenge is to attain 100% control of the functions that will avoid other traffic, terrain and inclement weather, and to ensure accurate localization and navigation in urban terrain or communication and coordination with air traffic control.

Drone DJI M100 can carry a maximum package weight of 1 kg having dimensions of up to 50 x 250 x 170 mm. Most packages sold on Mall.cz weigh less than 2 kg, so we know for sure that drone delivery is a step in the right direction.

Just like mobile phones, drones have undergone tremendous development in recent years and are constantly improving. For example, in the past drones crashed to the ground for no reason. It happened mostly because the battery was connected with a single point of contact and when a circuit failure occured, the drone lost power and turned off. Today, similar mistakes are corrected and drones automatically land in case of emergency.

In addition safety implementations of individual manufacturers, the traffic safety authorities have a large impact on the improving safety of drones– just look how high the fines are for flying without permission and other offenses. Moreover, they know the best available equipment and know exactly where to look for errors. They have our full confidence and we consult with them on a regular basis.

You, our customers, are our top priority. Drone delivery will be fast, cheap and convenient. A drone can pick up your goods from the warehouse and deliver them to you to your home, perhaps in the garden. Drone delivery willwill shorten delivery time from day or hours to the hours or minutes. Real delivery time from the moment the order is placed would be around 20-30 minutes.

Furthermore, the shipping price will fall sharply. When we’ll have a sufficient number of drones, the price may drop to CZK 20 per delivery, which is a significantly lower amount than the company currently pays to carriers. The money saved will be invest into improving customer service.

PS: We love to play with ideas and flying was our childhood dream. The idea that our goods arrive home by air makes us excited and we believe that you feel that the same way. It’s like a dream come true. 🙂