Will Drones Replace Delivery Drivers?

The Rise of Tech

Technology is relentless, and big technology companies are constantly looking for ways to save money and encourage innovation simultaneously. Unfortunately, although these best-laid plans start with good intentions, and you’d like to think the ultimate goal is to do more positive than negative, they can result in traditional workforces taking the brunt of any negative impact.

We have witnessed traditional jobs wiped out because of technology, such as coal mining, car production, or steel manufacturing. It appears as though those whose jobs are considered menial are often the unfortunate collateral when significant technological innovations occur. 

Although many of these workers can be rehoused in jobs that still require physical labor, some have to reskill or find another career. Job uncertainty worries anybody, regardless of their vocation. Although new technologies come to help employees, who can know what that help might exactly mean in the future?

How The Tech Boom Shaped Society

The boom in this sector has sent multiple companies like Alphabet and Apple above a multi-trillion-dollar market cap and has generated hundreds of thousands of jobs. It has also resulted in massive profits for pre-existing sectors and wholly wiped out others. Automation and digital innovations influence so much to our daily life that we can even project some examples to explain the delivery drivers’ possible replacement by drones. 

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have already shown a revolution in the banking industry and financial transactions, which affected even the gaming and gambling industry with the waterfall method. Today, many enthusiasts prefer playing Bitcoin poker over other options with traditional payments, because it’s more secure, private, and affordable. Can drone deliveries be more affordable for businesses? Definitely. Can they decrease the delivery prices? Just think about it. 

Why Delivery Drivers Are Concerned About The Rise Of Drones

It’s understandable when technology advances to the point that it is knocking on the doorstep of your livelihood, it is a concerning time. While Amazon has often led the charge and wanted to create an industry where drones deliver hundreds of millions of packages per year, people working in the logistics industry are less optimistic that this is achievable, especially by the purported target of 2030. 

We’re a long way from delivery drivers completely disappearing from the roads. However, with drone deliveries and driverless cars becoming more important news items, the future could be concerning for these old-fashioned manual labor jobs, which are being managed out of society steadily.

For delivery drivers, it is essential not to be too overly concerned. There are legitimate, widespread concerns about the damage by drones. They can knock out power lines, cause damage to pedestrians and create danger for commercial planes. All of these issues need to be ironed out before we witness any sort of widespread mass adoption.

In addition to the issues with drones, driverless cars are also witnessing inevitable teething problems and have been linked to crashes and dangerous, albeit rare, malfunctions. Technology is driving us forward as a species, but taking stock and realizing that sometimes it can create more harm than good is also a good idea.

Conclusion

When it comes to business strategy, the bottom line is often that the most cost-effective approach is the idea that drives decision-making. While this is a brutal approach for many corporations, it is often cited as a reason many can stay afloat. Ultimately, businesses and corporations do not like to lay off staff.

It is unfair to simultaneously talk down innovations while embracing the enormous convenience technology has brought us in sectors such as digital casinos and other fields like home security. Finding a balance is critical, and the idea of thousands of people losing their livelihoods so that we can have a package delivered slightly faster may not be a good idea in the medium to long term. 

However, for huge corporations like Amazon, if they can save themselves tens of millions of dollars in staffing costs by replacing a fleet of delivery drivers with drones, then this will be a decision they’ll likely follow through with. When companies have to make critical decisions, they will weigh up price projections and how much money they can save, and if the business makes sense, they will often go through with it, regardless of the human cost. 

The argument from these corporations is that it is better to create effective, efficient changes rather than lose the entire company, and it’s a decision that not many people would want to make.