UPS Plans to Roll Out Drone Delivery System by 2024

Within the shipping industry, we find an all-out battle these days. Those who run an e-commerce businesses will be able to attest to the fact that this battle is definitely one that the customer isn’t winning. In every direction, right now, there seems to be lots of kinks in the system when it comes to getting a package from a sender to a receiver.

However, it seems like every company that is involved in shipping packages is striving to get better. At the end of the day, the company who quickly and efficiently figures out how to manage these logistics is probably going to be the one to make the most money. After all, this is a big part of the reason for Amazon’s dominance. The good news is that, with all of the competition out there, there is a major incentive for companies like UPS and FedEx to get their act together.

When we take a look at a company like UPS, they definitely have big plans for the future in a variety of different ways. Recently, though, we found out that they have another exciting development that should help shipping become a bit quicker.

This development is in the form of an “Electric vehicle takeoff and landing vehicle” or eVTOL for short.

In short, the eVTOL is an aircraft that takes off like a helicopter and flies like an airplane. The concept will be to help deliver to destinations like hospitals and manufacturing sites, likely at a premium. It seems like the eVTOL will probably provide business to business solutions but if it works well, we wouldn’t see why something similar wouldn’t come to the consumer side of things as well.

The eVTOLs have a 50-foot wingspan and are battery powered. They can travel 250 miles at 170 mph on a single charge. The aircraft are rechargeable and could help reduce the number of workers involved with shipping each product. Another upside is that they can carry shipping containers while small airplanes can’t.

As far as how realistic this all is and how soon it will happen, we’re told that they should be delivered to UPS by 2024 if certified by the FAA. Currently, the aircraft will replace airplanes but there are talks that perhaps they might stand as a replacement for delivery trucks as well.