Drönare inom sista-milen leveranser

Abstract

Background Last mile deliveries, whilst not a new concept, is a subject that has gained more attention during recent years. Especially now when consumers both are increasing the amount of things bought online, as well as putting forth demands for deliveries to their doors. Whilst achievable in urban areas, the same can not be said for the rural areas where the low density of population and insufficient infrastructure serves to further complicate the last mile delivery. This holds very true for Sweden where most of the land is classified as rural. In recent years, there have been discussions regarding the possibility of implementing drones in the supply chain for last mile deliveries. Purpose The purpose of this essay is to examine and investigate whether or not logistic corporations with activity in Sweden have an interest in the usage of drones in their supply chains, what opportunities and challenges this would entail and if they could be used to aid deliveries in rural areas. Method The empirical material has been gathered through qualitative interviews with representatives from DSV, DB Schenker, DHL, UPS and Bring AS, all global logistic corporations. Result Though drones hold interest to the corporations, the degree to which they’ve started to use them varies from consideration to advanced tests. Furthermore, there are several concerns regarding the performance of the drones that need to be considered. However, all of those participating in the study holds to the opinion that the importance of drones is going to increase. The main motivation for using drones is to gain or keep market shares in the logistics industry.