Our societies are demanding greater efficiency and speed from all the services they use as they become more and more aware of the value of time. Being at the forefront of this urgent situation, the supply-side overseas logistics sector is leading the way in implementing cutting-edge technologies like drones to expand their capacities and reach new frontiers. 

In the GCC, the delivery sector is undergoing a significant transformation and is changing quickly after years of intense competition between established firms, with costs and services being the primary points of contention. But in today’s world, technology is king, and it performs better than anything else in terms of enhancing the customer experience throughout the entire delivery procedure. The way we plan deliveries, foresee delays and surpass expectations is evolving because of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive technology. This would undoubtedly help the region’s international logistics sector and, more importantly, the economy of the UAE.

The role of the logistics industry in the UAE economy and its capacities

The Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority estimates that the logistics sector will contribute 8% to the UAE economy in 2021, up from 5.4% in the previous year, according to the official UAE government portal. The logistics business makes up a sizable portion of the UAE’s GDP. With its state-of-the-art transportation system, the UAE is in a prime position to attract more and more companies looking to capitalise on the e-commerce boom. This is at a time when many free zones are welcoming the e-commerce wave by providing players with alluring licenses, with 100% foreign ownership serving as the icing on the cake.

In order to ensure safety during their use and a gradual transition away from the polluting methods of package delivery that we currently use, regulations must be established for all those new, innovative modes of transportation and future delivery vehicles, so it will take some time before we see full implementation. Delivery drones, autonomous delivery vehicles, and robots are the newest and most innovative logistics themes that are starting to surface through numerous POCs in the area. They are also the frontrunners of the next generation of overseas logistics.

It will be interesting to watch the next generation of transportation solutions being tried in the UAE, a nation that welcomes the future with a clear vision, although more time is required before the traditional man-and-van delivery mechanism is replaced. We expect more latitude in the regulation of these new modes of transportation in the upcoming years because of the new laws and regulations that will need to be created from the ground up to control the delivery industry’s acceptance of these transportation fleets’ 2.0 versions.

Can drones completely replace ground delivery fleets?

Due to issues with airspace safety and delivery capacity, drones will never completely replace ground delivery fleets. A small drone can carry up to 5 kg of packages at a time, while larger drones can carry more loads, but they are still not the most efficient in terms of efficiency. Drone deliveries will be significant in these situations since they can happen more quickly with a drone, particularly in remote and challenging-to-reach areas. However, this is never the case when considering operational delivery capacity.

What catalyst is required for the next generation of delivery vehicles to disrupt traditional approaches?

The fierce competition to deliver items the fastest is the first milestone in disrupting the traditional delivery process today. Technically, with the UAE’s current infrastructure, package delivery services can arrange a quick delivery using traditional vehicles, such as a car, bike, or van, with an almost exact estimated time of arrival from any origin to any destination in the UAE, regardless of the high operational delivery costs associated with on-demand deliveries, where speed is of the essence.

Customers don’t really care if a package includes a drone or a robot; all they want is prompt delivery as promised and a hassle-free, uninterruptible experience. Packaging and delivery service providers typically worry more about the mode of transportation from an efficiency standpoint as well as about staying up-to-date with the newest developments influencing the transportation sector. Next-day delivery, which was once thought to be a quick delivery period, is already being disrupted by quick commerce. However, given how quickly groceries and food are delivered, the parcel business is deemed to be lagging and will need to catch up because customers are basing their expectations on what they currently receive from grocery delivery services and are increasingly inclined to order anything with an “I want it now” mentality.

The type of infrastructure such a transition needs

The importance of designing and building what we may refer to as “smart buildings” and “smart towers of the future,” where IOT (Internet of Things) is a major part of every building material for any residential or commercial tower, facility, warehouse, or building, in addition to drone landing stations and other high-tech facilities that can also be embedded in residential compounds, cannot be overlooked when discussing the infrastructure required to support the next generation of package delivery services.

The buildings of the future are undoubtedly smart ones; to enable the process of getting hundreds of parcels every day, possibly to central receiving bays on the roofs of those buildings or even in dedicated underground slots, with minimal human intervention, they must interface with drones, autonomous delivery vehicles, or any other cutting-edge delivery vehicle. In order to offer a seamless and error-free delivery procedure, the Internet of Things connects all the dots from the time an order is made until it is fulfilled.

It might become a thing of the past to request a delivery address, and packages might never be without one again. Everything will be fully scheduled based on real-time data, which, at the touch of a button, will enable extremely accurate customer profiles in a smart and connected city that facilitates accuracy in every service activity across every neighbourhood.

Costs involved in setting up a logistics system

We cannot observe any challenge at all in developing a national crowdsourcing model as part of the sharing economy culture that enables anyone to deliver anything at any time. This model would be based on highly advanced algorithms and location spotting that ensure any delivery within the same city is completed within a few minutes, given the rise of “quick commerce” and on-demand delivery within minutes. We are fortunate to live in an area that embraces the future while remaining grounded in the present. The field of last-mile logistics and transportation has a bright future ahead of it.