FAA approves first commercial drone

This blog has been covering the potential use of drone delivery for some time. Ever since Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos appeared on 60 Minutes late last year and announced that the retail shopping and delivery service was testing drone devices, it seems to keep coming up.

The problem for many businesses, Amazon included, is that the Federal Aviation Administration has been grounding these efforts before they are able to take off. We have covered some of them here, and smaller organizations have announced that they would wait for larger organization to take on the government organization before trying again.

However, it now appears as though that may not be needed. According to an article from CNN, the the FAA has given permission to BP to fly the first commercial unmanned aircraft over land in the U.S. The 4.5-foot-long drone will fly over Alaska to monitor roads, pipelines and other equipment at Prudhoe Bay.

"The FAA has greatly restricted the commercial use of drones over U.S. land and water as it seeks to safely integrate them into national airspace," the article reads. "Entities that fly drones must first get certificates of authorization, and those have gone chiefly to government enterprises and those conducting research."

The article also mentioned that the FAA will continue to research drone potential and has named Nevada as the third of six congressionally mandated drone research sites.

Organizations should not get too excited and think that this means drones can start making deliveries tomorrow. Flying over Alaska is much different than making deliveries in the heart of New York City or Los Angeles. 

It is no question that reliable delivery services are becoming more important. Instead of waiting for drones, organizations should improve their operations with the help of a 3PL service.