English for Academic Purposes – Graham, T.

IAE for IT – Module 1 – Descriptive Essays

Name: .................................................................................................................... Section:

Drone Delivery: Transforming the Transportation of Packages

Module 1: Source Texts for Descriptive Writing

Outline Prompt:

Drone delivery is about to change the way people receive packages. Describe the benefits of drone delivery, potential problems, and its future use in the UAE.

Text 1: Drone Delivery is Economical and Environmentally Friendly

A drone is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. The flight of a drone may be operated either through remote control (by a human) or autonomously (by a computer). Millions of drones are being used today. Most of these are used by the military, but a growing number are being used

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A drone making a delivery in Dubai (Space Autonomous Drones, n.d.).

English for Academic Purposes – Graham, T.

IAE for IT – Module 1 – Descriptive Essays

Name: .................................................................................................................... Section:

commercially. Companies like Amazon, UPS, and Google are already exploring ways to deliver packages with drones instead of trucks.

Amazon, the largest Internet retailer in the world, is launching a service in the near future to deliversome of its packages by drone (as illustrated in Figure 1). This new service, called Prime Air, would get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less. Amazon believes that there would be many benefits of drone delivery for both customers and companies. One of these is that delivery costs would be reduced. A 2015 study by ARK Investing Group estimated that drone delivery would cost Amazon less than $1 per shipment. This is in contrast to what Amazon currently pays for traditional shipping methods, which is $5.75 per package.

Another benefit of drone delivery is that it is better for the environment than truck delivery. In the United States, an average truck delivery of a package results in about one kilogram of greenhouse gas emissions. However, drone delivery of a small package would result in about 0.42 of a kilogram of greenhouse gas emissions. This would reduce greenhouse gases by 54%.

If drone delivery is to become a reality, though, many technical and legal issues must be addressed. These include making sure that drones do not cause injury, and that they can land safely if something goes wrong. Preventing collisions with power lines, trees, and other aircraft is also essential. Moreover, small drones can only carry small packages, and not everyone has an area where deliveries can be dropped. It may take a number of years to solve these problems.

Source: Hammerand, J. (2017). Amazon prime air cargo jet fleet. Retrieved from www.bizjournals.com

Text 2: The Pros and Cons of Delivering by Drone

One area where drone delivery is already in use is the transportation of medical supplies to remote areas that are hard to reach by road. Zipline, an American company,

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Figure 1: An Amazon Prime Air delivery drone (WebProNews, n.d.).

English for Academic Purposes – Graham, T.

IAE for IT – Module 1 – Descriptive Essays

Name: .................................................................................................................... Section:

began delivering medical supplies in Rwanda, Africa using drones in October 2016. Zipline’s drones can fly 150 kilometers on a single charge, and they work in rain and winds of up to 30 kilometers an hour. As seen in Figure 2, they drop their packages by parachute.

In the United Arab Emirates, a new drone delivery company called Space Autonomous Drones is working to make drone delivery a reality. The idea is to use self-flying drones to deliver packages weighing up to five kilograms to customers’ homes across the country. The service is scheduled to begin in 2019, and it will operate in certain communities in Dubai at first. Space Autonomous Drones is working with Emirates Post, Souq, DHL, Amazon, and Aramex to try and transform the delivery industry. Drone deliveries in the UAE are expected to be 30% cheaper than traditional delivery methods.

If companies can save money on shipping costs, that would also reduce costs for consumers. In addition, consumers would receive their packages more quickly and reliably, which would motivate them to purchase from the same company again. These are all encouraging for companies planning on using this delivery method.

However, there are certain problems with drone delivery that need to be solved before it becomes more widespread. For example, technical issues are already presenting problems. Companies need to decide if drones should land in front of people’s houses or drop packages using parachutes. Furthermore, it is not yet clear how packages would be delivered to apartment buildings. Companies need to find the safest and most efficient ways to deliver by drone for it to be successful.  

Consumer acceptance is also an issue. In a survey done by the United States Postal Service in October of 2017, only 32% of consumers said that they trust delivery by drone. Most people who participated in the survey feel more confident with a human delivering their packages. Consumers also have privacy concerns, as drones would need to use GPS and cameras to find homes and deliver packages. 

Source: Should drone delivery be automated? (2017). Forbes Magazine. Retrieved from www.forbes.com

Text 3: Drone Delivery Challenges

Amazon, a company based in the United States, is planning on using drones to deliver customers' orders in the near future. The company’s Prime Air delivery program would deliver packages to customers within 30 minutes. Likewise, drone delivery is about to start in Dubai, afterwards expanding to a wider range of customers across the UAE. In other parts of the world, companies are also exploring the benefits of drone delivery and how it can help them and their customers.3

Figure 2: A Zipline drone drops a package (Niyonzima, 2018).

English for Academic Purposes – Graham, T.

IAE for IT – Module 1 – Descriptive Essays

Name: .................................................................................................................... Section:

There are a number of advantages of drone delivery. One of these is safety; when using drones, delivery personnel will no longer have to risk their lives because of accidents. Delivery drones are also more accurate than deliveries made by humans; this is because delivery people can deliver a package to the wrong person or wrong address.

Despite the benefits of drone delivery, it is not without its problems. One of the biggest issues that companies need to consider is job loss. With the increasing number of drones being used to deliver packages, delivery people will lose their jobs. Unless they re-train for another career, unemployed delivery people could find it difficult to get a new job in a different field.

Hacking is also a potential threat to drone delivery. Samy Kamkar, a well-known hacker, claims that he has already figured out a way to do this. He created a drone called SkyJack that can find other drones and hack them while they are still in the air. Todd Humphreys, a Professor at the University of Texas, states that small delivery drones can be easily hacked by cutting the link back to their operators or by feeding them false signals. Humphreys and his team demonstrated this in 2016 when they took over a helicopter drone.

Bad weather conditions could also be problematic. While most delivery drones are able to operate in rain and light winds, they could have trouble flying in heavy rain, strong winds, and snowstorms. In some areas of the world, this could stop delivery for days at a time during periods of poor weather conditions.

Source: Rupprecht, J. (2018). Drone delivery: legal problems. Retrieved from www.jrupprechtlaw.com

Text 4: Dubai Launches Drone Delivery Technology

Dubai has been a leader in its plans to use drones for delivering goods. A Dubai-based company called Space Autonomous Drones will allow customers to place orders for groceries, food, and other items to have them delivered to their home within minutes by drone (as seen in Figure 3).

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(Golden Gate University, n.d.)

English for Academic Purposes – Graham, T.

IAE for IT – Module 1 – Descriptive Essays

Name: .................................................................................................................... Section:

Space Autonomous Drones plans to cut delivery costs by 30% by switching from traditional truck delivery to drone delivery.  At first, there will be five drones in operation in certain districts of Dubai. By 2022, the company plans on increasing this number to 100, thereafter adding more drones to allow deliveries to take place in other areas throughout the UAE. The drones, which will run with a mobile application, will allow users to track and manage their orders. The price would be between AED 10-15 per delivery, while traditional deliveries usually cost up to AED 25. The price savings makes drone delivery a more economical option. However, drone delivery will not completely replace other delivery methods at this point. Drones are not yet able to carry heavy objects, making truck delivery still necessary.

Source: Abbas, W. (2017). Drone delivery in UAE coming soon. Khaleej Times. Retrieved from www.khaleejtimes.com

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Figure 3: Drone making a delivery to a home in a Dubai community (Ahlan Live, 2017.)