Cargo drones are expensive – but vital

Although costs are gradually falling, shipping goods by drone is still an expensive business. Cost notwithstanding, it may be important to invest in developing and operating cargo drones, Which properly utilised can help save lives.

In brief, this is the conclusion of an impending report on drone freight management at Skellefteå Droneport written by VTI researchers Niklas Arvidsson och Chengxi Liu. The report is titled Analysis of Drone Traffic in Logistics for Future Drone Operators, with the somewhat cryptic subtitle How Expensive Rotisserie Chicken Today Will Become Cheaper Rotisserie Chicken Tomorrow. But For a Good Cause?

According to Arvidsson: “The title says it all”.

As he explains, the good cause is Sweden’s defence capabilities. We can all follow events in Ukraine on a day-to-day basis and there is no doubt that drones are playing a major role in the ongoing conflict.

In the project in question, the assignment of VTI’s researchers has been to study business models for drone traffic, with the emphasis on economic and environmental sustainability. The study is funded by Vinnova, Sweden’s national innovation agency, and has been conducted in collaboration with drone manufacturer Katla Aero AB.

“There are many good areas of use for drones,” says Arvidsson. “For example, they can be used for surveillance, to deliver medicines and vaccines, and to fly out a defibrillator, something that is already being done in Gothenburg. And, as someone pointed out, it would be cool if you could have a rotisserie chicken delivered when you’re in the middle of nowhere. We took this on board and calculated what it would cost to deliver a rotisserie chicken by drone, as a representation of low-value goods in the study.”

The answer turned out to be between 350 and 500 kronor. Procurement, staff and battery wear account for most of the cost. Drones are also relatively accident-prone, with between four and eight crashes per 100,000 flights, which becomes very expensive in the long run. The Katla drone used in the project costs approximately half a million kronor

In other words, freight traffic using the drones studied in the project is not profitable when delivering products of relatively low value, such as rotisserie chickens. While drones are environmentally competitive in rural areas, in urban environments they are no better than electric vehicles.

But then we come to the defence aspect.

“In our report we recommend launching some form of civil-military cooperation in order to build up drone operations in Sweden,” says Arvidsson. “Applications with social benefits, such as delivering defibrillators, should present opportunities to develop drone technology. From a societal perspective, drone traffic is profitable if it saves a single human life each year.”

Text: Catarina Gisby/Redakta

Translation: CBG