Amazon hires lobbyist group for drone push

Earlier this week, this blog covered a story about the Federal Aviation Administration which has allowed for the first commercial use of drones. This happened when BP was granted permission to use a 4.5-foot-long unmanned aircraft to fly over Alaska to monitor roads, pipelines and other equipment at Prudhoe Bay.

This is considered a major step for this sudden hot delivery service that has been on people's minds since Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled that it was working in such a service late last year. However, approving the use of a drone in Alaska is far different than trying to get permission to fly them around New York City or Los Angeles.

This battle with the FAA is the biggest deterrent for the use of drones and Amazon is leading the charge for companies. According to an article from Investorplace, the company has hired Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to work on a federal advocacy with regards to testing and operation of [unmanned aerial vehicles] in the U.S."

This lobbyist group is needed because the FAA is still in the process of creating formal rules for drone flight and the fight on Capitol Hill should be interesting to watch over the next few months. A final decision is expected by November.

The coming battle will be something that every delivery service will be watching, but that doesn't mean organizations need to be ready to deploy these by the end of the year. Instead, companies need to focus on deploying a solid logistics strategy to meet order fulfillment strategies.