FAA officially grounds drone for delivery...for now

The conversation about drone delivery services seems to have gotten out of hand in recent months. Ever since Amazon unveiled its plan late last year during an episode of "60 Minutes," there have been countless other organizations trying to get a head start in the industry.

The problem is that the Federal Aviation Administration has continuously grounded these smaller companies. The feeling has been that Amazon will eventually take on the government agency, win and allow other companies to follow suit. However, there has been a lot of grey area surrounding this.

A recent article from Ars Technica attempted to clear a few things up, including an interesting point buried in a recent FAA document on "special rules for model aircraft." Back in March, a federal judge ruled that the organization has no legal standing when it comes to preventing the use of drones. Since then it has announced plans to create an official guideline that will be enforced by the end of 2015.

However, earlier this week, the organization released a document that specifically mentions drones being used for delivery services and shutting them down. Under a graphic that lists things that are not a "hobby or recreation" which makes it illegal for drones to do is "delivering packages to people for a fee."

A footnote adds that: "If an individual offers free shipping in association with a purchase or other offer, FAA would construe the shipping to be in furtherance of a business purpose, and thus, the operation would not fall within the statutory requirement of recreation or hobby purpose."

Companies looking to improve their logistics services need to stop thinking about drones for the time being. Instead they should partner with a third party logistics service to improve overall operations.