UPS Uses Drone to Deliver Package to Boston-Area Island
September 23 2016 - 4:52PM
Dow Jones News
By Laura Stevens and Georgia Wells
United Parcel Service Inc. said Friday it successfully used a
drone to deliver medicine to an island near Boston, jumping into a
race with competitors such as Amazon.com Inc. to test drone
delivery inside the U.S.
The delivery of an inhaler on Thursday was conducted in
partnership with CyPhy Works, a drone maker in which UPS holds a
stake. The delivery kicks off a wider test by UPS of using drones
for commercial deliveries to remote or difficult-to-access
areas.
"UPS has a history of trying to take a look at new technologies
as they evolve," said Chuck Holland, a vice president of industrial
engineering. "We're looking at this in steps," he added, declining
to say whether the company may someday use drones more broadly.
UPS's delivery marks the first major commercial delivery
conducted via drone in the U.S. since the Federal Aviation
Administration implemented long-awaited rules in late August
authorizing businesses to start using small drones. The company
previously has tested drone use for indoor warehouses and
international disaster or human-aid relief, which aren't subject to
the same regulations. UPS is on the FAA's drone advisory
committee.
"Now we can conduct commercial operations without having to go
through the rigmarole of getting an exemption from the FAA," said
Helen Greiner, co-founder and chief technologist of CyPhy Works,
the Boston-area drone startup that operated the drone. UPS invested
an undisclosed sum in CyPhy last year via its strategic enterprise
fund.
UPS joins a crowded field of companies including Amazon and
Google parent Alphabet Inc. eager to deploy drone technology.
Amazon unveiled its plans to deliver via drone in late 2013 and has
lobbied for faster action from regulators. It made a deal with
British authorities in July to begin testing deliveries in the
U.K., where drone regulations are seen as less stringent as in the
U.S.
Alphabet, meanwhile, said in early September that it plans to
use drones to deliver burritos at Virginia Tech in a test of its
technology. Deutsche Post AG's DHL also has tested delivery by
drones, including medicine to a German island in the North Sea.
Traditional delivery companies generally have expressed more
skepticism about the likelihood of package delivery via drones.
"There are two enormous transportation networks that are built
around moving light packages and freight, and they are FedEx and
UPS," FedEx Corp. Chief Executive Fred Smith said after Amazon's
2013 announcement.
UPS's brown and white drone, which was emblazoned with its logo,
took off from Beverly, Mass., carrying the 2-pound package. It flew
3 miles over water within line of sight to a nearby island,
touching down in a patch of grass. The drone flew autonomously,
without a human pilot, simulating an urgent medical delivery.
One incentive for UPS to invest in drone technology is that the
company has higher labor costs than rival FedEx due to its
unionized drivers, package sorters and other workers. Still, any
wider scale use of unmanned technology to do those jobs likely
would complicate the delivery giant's relationship with the
Teamsters labor union.
Write to Laura Stevens at laura.stevens@wsj.com and Georgia
Wells at Georgia.Wells@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 23, 2016 16:37 ET (20:37 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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