June 29th 2024

Major governments across Europe and global couriers like FedEx, UPS, and DHL are exploring drone technology for last-mile delivery to address increasing global parcel volumes and logistical challenges. Drones offer significant cost reductions up to three times less than traditional ICE vans along with on-demand delivery and environmental benefits. Optimistic valuations by Morgan Stanley project the global AAM market to reach $1 trillion.

Despite this potential, there has been a severe lack of commercial drone activity, with competitors struggling to scale operations beyond limited trials. Safe, scalable methods and technologies to integrate drones into communities are underdeveloped, and infrastructure focus has been minimal.

Inteliports is addressing these challenges by developing heavy-lift, fully electric, autonomous drones and intelligent drone ports. Our ground solutions provide safe, secure landing infrastructure, manage drones and parcels, and enable collaboration with other delivery modes such as micro-mobility, cargo bikes, e-vans, and autonomous ground robots for last-mile delivery.

Through the ESA "last mile delivery" call and project “Inteliports PORTAL,” we aim to deploy our fleet and infrastructure systems in a pilot location on the Isle of Wight, UK. This trial will test a multimodal, collaborative logistics chain utilising heavy-lift drones, autonomous drone ports, and sustainable micro-mobility. The project will leverage space assets in satellite communications and navigation, facilitated through Vodafone's network.

Success in this trial will be a significant step toward creating multimodal drone delivery networks across Europe. The trial will demonstrate feasibility and seek municipality adoption for deploying drone logistics networks for e-commerce, retail, and medical goods.