New drones would soon be buzzing around in Ghana’s airspace in desperate moves to deliver blood, or blood products or vaccines or anything related to emergency medicine. In so doing Zipline, the San Fransisco-based drone delivery company, expects to meet its target with the Ghanaian government.
Ghanaian Vice President,Mahamudu Bawumia, said a deal has been signed with Zipline to use drones to cover over 2,000 health facilities in Ghana which serve 12 million Ghanaians (out of a population of just 30 million) . Zipline is expected to begin operations from small community clinics and vaccination centers and then reach out to larger general hospitals.
The Terms Of The Deal, In Part, Are As Follows:
- Zipline is to make 600 deliveries a day (150 deliveries from each of the four centers it would be operating from) for the next four years and they will be paid per successful delivery.
- For that to happen, Ghana has been billed $12.5 million by Zipline to cover the period.
- The hope of Ghana’s health policymakers is that the drone delivery system which has faster drop-off rate will improve its health outcomes including reducing its maternal and infant mortality rates.
- The delivery program, if successful, will also help to reduce the incidence of wastage of medical products, as a result of overstocking at hospitals.
- According to the World Health Organization, “severe bleeding during delivery or after childbirth is the commonest cause of maternal mortality and contributes to around 34% of maternal deaths in Africa.” The timely access to safe blood could save many lives.
Critics Say This Is A Big Hoax
Although Zipline is describing the Ghana operation as the world’s largest drone delivery service, Ghanaian naysayers are calling out the government for wasting such amount of money, which should have been spent on more important and simpler things the health sector really needs such as the critical shortage of hospital beds, gloves, consistent supply of water and the improvement of hospital buildings.
Zipline appears to be all out for business and does not seem to be buying into any of the stories. It plans to make Ghana the base for training future Zipline flight operators and prepares further to expand into more countries in the coming years. Already, Uganda, Senegal and some states in Nigeria are expressing interests in the drone delivery system. Zipline’s operations in Rwanda in 2016, delivering blood and blood products during emergencies, were largely successful.
The company is targeting the “last mile delivery” challenge which many logistics operators face in African cities and rural area where road networks are either underdeveloped or poorly maintained. The focus of last mile logistics is to deliver items to the end user as fast as possible.
From Delivering Blood to Delivering Pizza, Drones Have To Inspire New Generations of African Logistics Startups or Drone Manufacturers
According to a research report from Radiant Insight, “Unmanned aerial systems(UAS) markets (mostly dominated by drones) stood at $609 million in 2014. They are also expected to grow to $4.8 billion dollars, worldwide by 2021. The leading markets for drone use and sales include oil and gas mapping, utility line inspection, package delivery, and agricultural applications
Auterion Set to Announce Its Open Source Drone Control Program This Week
Should this happen, the Swiss technology firm Auterion which is working with General Electric Aviation and the Defense Innovation Unit of the U.S. Department of Defense would be allowing more consumer, commercial, and government drone manufacturers access to basic information on how drones are designed and programmed. This would also help small drone players to penetrate the drone market which is currently dominated by Chinese drone manufacturers, including DJI, by minimizing a complicated development road block: the operating system.
Just last week Tuesday, April 23, 2019, the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration’s gave the first ever certification for drone deliveries to Google’s Wing Project. Wing will now start delivering commercial packages weighing up to three pounds using drones.
Amazon
With Amazon Prime Air, Amazon.com is already delivering packages using drones in just 30 minutes. The U.S. Patent and Trademark office has already published Amazon’s patent application for its drone delivery system (US Patent 20150120094). Amazon is thinking beyond just home delivery. It already has design for features like“Bring it to Me”,which would capture a customer’s location by GPS data received through mobile devices.
UPS
In 2013, sources familiar with the company’s plans said it has been testing and evaluating different approaches to drone delivery. UPS is today partnering with Matternet under the first America’s Federal Aviation Administration-sanctioned commercial drone service to deliver medical samples in North Carolina.
DHL
DHL Express has already launched its “parcelcopter”, a helicopter-style drone which will deliver medications and other urgently needed goods to the remote North Sea island of Juist.
The Drone Manufacturing Market Is Still Very Much Open
Although the manufacturing of drones usually requires a lot of money, risk-taking investors, who are willing to stay longer in the market would have a field day of success. A few drone manufacturing companies have already taken strategic positions around the world.
Drone Current Market Leaders:
Matternet a drone startup has been able to raise $16 million in seed capital from investors.They have successfully partnered with organization like Swiss Post to conduct pilots to deliver post by drones. This is a classic case of last mile delivery success.
Other manufacturers such as the Chinese DJI founded in 2006 by Frank Wang and headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China is not focused on last mile deliveries but on other applications like photography and amateur applications.The number of players in this segment just depicts how familiar and aware people are getting with drones. DJI is the leader in civil drone industry. A privately held company, it has been able to raise 0.5 billion USD in revenue in 2014.
South African drone startups such as Aerial Monitoring Solutions (AMS) founded in 2013, UDS and HAEVIC also occupy a niche in the market for low cost, customised drones.
Also See: Ghanaian Startup mPharma Acquires Kenyan Second-Largest Pharmacy Chain
The Era of Drones Is Inevitable and Smart Startups Who Can Take The Risk Would Win Big
Drones are already business models to these industries:
- Global courier and delivery service companies using drones for last mile delivery:
- Logistics companies have been experimenting with drones for delivery. According to Business Insider:
“Drone deliveries will translate to instant cost savings, part of which will be passed onto consumers.It costs far less to operate a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles than it does a fleet of ground vehicles.It costs 10 cents to deliver a 4.4 pound(2kilo) package over six miles(9.7kilometers)using a drone,according to Raffaello D’Andrea,who co founded Kiva Systems (the warehouse robots used by Amazon) . That’s far cheaper than the $2 to $8 per package that it costs Amazon today using ground transportation for deliveries over this “last mile.”
Offering 30 minute delivery at such a low cost to consumers could boost Amazon’s eCommerce and retail market share.That’s because “high than expected shipping costs” are the top reason why consumers abandon a shopping cart online. The retailer achieving the most significant reductions in shipping fees will likely win consumer loyalty and market share.
3. Companies providing drone operations and management:
The drone era will also benefit companies that offer service drones for flight and management console or software. Matternet still is exploring subscription based leasing of drones.
Motivation to adopt Drones:
Main factors that could motivate online retailers to adopt drones are:
●Cost
●Value of fast delivery
●Convenience
Last Miles Delivery Drones Are Finally Coming To Stay
This is why for Ghanaian nurses like Gladys Tetteh, the use of drones are very much a case of what’s not to like?
“It makes us work faster and the mothers will not stay too long here trying to vaccinate their children,” she said.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organisations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.