Drone Delivery is on the Horizon, and Most People Favor it, Post Office Survey Says
A recent survey conducted by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) has revealed some pertinent information about how the public feels about unmanned systems making deliveries.
According to the report, which collected the opinions of nearly 1,500 residents of the United States and how they feel about drone use for deliveries, citizens believe that widespread delivery by UAS is on the horizon, and more citizens like this potential method of delivery than dislike it.
The survey started by asking responders when they believe drones will begin making widespread deliveries of goods on behalf of companies. A resounding 75 percent of responders expect drone deliveries to be the new reality by 2021. An additional nine percent believe that drone delivery will be in place by 2026, with the remaining 16 percent saying that it will take 11 or more years, or that drones will never make deliveries.
When asked if they liked or disliked the idea of drone delivery, 44 percent of responders said that they liked the idea, with 34 percent saying they dislike it. The remaining 23 percent said they neither liked nor disliked the idea.
While the idea of drone delivery at the moment is more liked than disliked, the issue of safety is slightly more nuanced, and maybe not for the reasons that many would expect.
Thirty-seven percent of respondents said that they disagree with the statement, “drone delivery would be safe.” Thirty-two percent said they neither agree nor disagree with that statement, and the remaining 32 percent said they agree with the statement. When asked about specific concerns when it came to drone delivery, almost half of the respondents (46 percent) listed “malfunction” as their main concern. “Theft” was the next highest concern, coming in at 16 percent, with “Intentional misuse” of a drone landing in third, coming in at 14 percent.
Members of certain demographics tended to heavily favor one side or another when it came to likes and dislikes of drone delivery. Unsurprisingly, millennials are more receptive to the idea of drone delivery, as 65 percent of those surveyed like the concept, versus just 24 percent of baby boomers. Males, those who live in urban communities or on the West Coast, and those that get a lot of mail, also tended to fall on the majority side of liking drone delivery.
A subsection of the study also showed that those who were familiar with the drone delivery concept liked the idea than those that didn’t, with 75 percent of those who had heard of it liking it. Of those who had never heard of the concept, 52 percent disliked it.
Some final statistics of the survey showed that the most popular reasonings for liking drone delivery were because of its potential speediness, benefit to the environment, and an increase in control of where the package could be delivered.
Overall, the results of this survey show that more and more Americans are open to and like the idea of drone delivery, but some people still need convincing.
