Last mile delivery market (including drones) to hit $4.96 Billion
The autonomous last mile delivery market was valued at USD 860 million in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 4,964 million by 2030.
The development of robots, advanced sense and avoid systems in aerial delivery drones, expansion of eCommerce and increased use of low-cost and lightweight parcel-carrying drones by startups as led to the rapid growth of autonomous last mile aerial and land deliveries all over the world.
Additionally, the growing use of autonomous delivery vehicles on the ground is developing rapidly in the food and retail sector. One of the factors for this growth is the congestion seen in urban and metropolitan areas. This congestion, plus delivery to far-flung and remote locations, invalid or incorrect address details and the issue of massive labour shortages can result in increased delivery costs.
Automatic drone delivery
Automatic delivery (using drones) could be transformational for the retail industry, decreasing delivery costs by a whopping 80% to 90% compared to human delivery methods. Furthermore, advancements in technology for autonomous ground delivery vehicles and an increase in investment funding for the development of next-level ground delivery vehicles has made everyone excited about the future.
Self-driving vans & trucks
The market for delivery drones coupled with self-driving vans & trucks is expected to grow with higher compound annual growth rate due to the increasing demand for improved autonomous delivery solutions. There is also a growing need for contact-less healthcare supply deliveries using autonomous ground vehicles /aerial drones owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of the standouts in the last mile delivery market are Starship Technologies (US), JD.com (China), Nuro (US), Amazon (US), Kiwi Campus (US), Zipline (US), United Parcel Service (US), Wing (US), Flirtey (SkyDrop) and Aerodyne Group (Malaysia).
When will delivery drones be flying in Australia?
The key players mentioned earlier offer aerial drones which are highly-suited for many sectors and have well-equipped and strong distribution networks across the North American, European, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Latin America and Africa. Will we see autonomous delivery using drones in Australia soon? That’s the burning question.
At One World Courier, our development teams are watching the progress of autonomous delivery methods as the role out continues in various parts of the world. Considering the current mixed delivery systems on offer, road, air, rail and sea options, the addition of last mile drone delivery by air and by robots traversing our streets will change the way we live and work.
The question is, how will autonomous vehicle delivery be managed, tracked and validated with delivery authentication? Only time will tell.