In Canada, a drone network plan for seafood delivery is being developed by a Chinese company called JD.com. JD.com specializes in direct online sales and they plan to reduce the cost of land hauling from an East Coast processing plants to the airport.  The CEO of JD.com, Richard Liu, met with the Canadian Prime Minister in Beijing to talk about the company’s drone plan. He said the company has a cost reduction strategy that will potentially reduce logistics by 50%-70%.

The logistics process from a farm to the airport and to China will involve several drones that will travel from base to base. This strategy will be beneficial to Canada because the country is known to have a high cost of shipping.

The proposal by JD.com is an innovative way of leveraging the power of drone technology. Drones in recent times have been used to deliver foods and e-commerce products all over the world — in Iceland (food) and John Hopkins University (medical provisions) to name a few. The efficiency of this technology improves operational processes, employee safety, and inventory tracking.

The cost saving aspect of JD’s strategy will also be massively beneficial for the company because they’ll only need a few employees to control a fleet of drones. This will save them money on manpower while also improving the effectiveness and efficiency of deliveries to China.

Yariv Bash, Flytrex CEO told Supply Chain Dive that drones are an excellent choice for logistics because they rarely have any safety or hazardous traffic incidents or delays. They are quicker than any traditional logistics method and because they are 100% electronic based and won’t burn up expensive fuel.

For example, a 20-minute delivery drive will take a drone only 4 minutes. So if time is of the essence, a drone will be a faster means of transportation. This is especially important in remote, rural, or suburban areas. Companies do not have to send a driver and vehicle into hazardous areas just for a single delivery.

There are certain industries that will benefit more from drone deliveries like restaurants, fast foods, and consumer retail. Basically, any small parcel that weighs about 6 lbs can be delivered with a drone. Over the next few years, we can certainly expect more industries to adopt drones into their day to day operations.

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