While many question whether drone deliveries will ever happen in the U.S., Keller Rinaudo is already using autonomous aircraft to deliver medical supplies to remote locations in Africa.
David Maloney has been a journalist for more than 35 years and is currently the group editorial director for DC Velocity and Supply Chain Quarterly magazines. In this role, he is responsible for the editorial content of both brands of Agile Business Media. Dave joined DC Velocity in April of 2004. Prior to that, he was a senior editor for Modern Materials Handling magazine. Dave also has extensive experience as a broadcast journalist. Before writing for supply chain publications, he was a journalist, television producer and director in Pittsburgh. Dave combines a background of reporting on logistics with his video production experience to bring new opportunities to DC Velocity readers, including web videos highlighting top distribution and logistics facilities, webcasts and other cross-media projects. He continues to live and work in the Pittsburgh area.
Few people are fortunate enough to combine their job with their passion. Keller Rinaudo is one of them. Rinaudo is CEO and cofounder of Zipline, a company that builds autonomous drones designed for delivering medical supplies to remote parts of the world.
The Harvard-educated Rinaudo started his career as a software engineer and a professional rock climber. For a time, he built computers out of RNA and DNA to operate in human cells as molecular doctors. Then, he discovered the wonderful world of logistics and the possibilities of using new technologies to deliver medical supplies to all of the world's inhabitants, wherever they may live.
San Francisco-based Zipline employs 40 aerospace and software engineers and is funded by an impressive slate of investors, including Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures, Paul Allen, Jerry Yang, and Stanford University. The tech firm builds and operates 40-pound battery-powered drones that look like small airplanes. The drones are catapult-launched and fly to remote destinations to make deliveries by paper parachutes. They then return to the distribution center, where they fly into a large net or are caught by a tailhook and quickly made ready for further deliveries. (You can watch a video of a drone delivery on the company's website.)
Zipline's first major project is partnering with the government of Rwanda to use its drones to make last-mile deliveries of blood to remote transfusing facilities. From its DCs, Zipline currently delivers about 30 percent of the national blood supply of Rwanda. The long-term vision for this project is to be able to swiftly reach each of Rwanda's 11 million citizens with any essential medical product they need, regardless of how remote they are.
Rinaudo recently sat down with DC Velocity Editorial Director David Maloney to discuss this exciting venture. The following is an edited version of their conversation. You can watch the full interview at the end of the article.
Q: What made you decide to zero in on healthcare logistics for Zipline's first drone deliveries?
A: Healthcare logistics was a really good place for us to start for a number of reasons. First of all, every delivery is potentially saving a human life. Second, healthcare products are obviously urgently needed, and logistics is a really important part of making sure that doctors have what they need to treat patients. Plus, the healthcare logistics market itself is a huge $7 billion market, and it's one that, while it functions well in developed countries, really doesn't function well in a lot of other parts of the world. There is a huge opportunity to both push the industry forward and also save lives.
Q: Why was Rwanda chosen?
A: We wanted to find a country that was small enough that we could get to national scale quickly and had a government that was making active investments in technology and healthcare for its citizens. Rwanda really fit that bill. So, in partnership with Rwanda's administrative health [ministry], we've been able to turn Rwanda into the first country to achieve universal healthcare access for all. They have been able to put every single one of their citizens within a 15- to 25-minute delivery of any essential medical product.
Q: Your drones sometimes have to fly over populated areas to reach patients in remote locations. Some people have questioned the safety of drones flying over people. Is that a concern for you as well?
A: When we're flying, what's important to us is not just saving the life of the person that we're delivering for, but also ensuring that we're safe for the people we're flying over—the people who live in the towns and cities that we fly over on a daily basis. It's really important that these vehicles be able to operate at a similar level of reliability as general aviation aircraft.
Q: Could you describe just how the vehicles fly and make their deliveries?
A: The user experience of receiving a delivery from Zipline is very simple. Any doctor or health worker can use a cellphone to send a text message to place an order. When the distribution center receives that text, Zipline's team will basically pull the product from stock and load it into one of our aircraft. That aircraft is then launched from the distribution center, and it flies autonomously to the destination's GPS coordinates.
Q: So, no one is controlling it? It is all programmed electronically and by computer?
A: Exactly. The plane is flying itself using a flight control algorithm. It will descend to about 30 feet off the ground, and then we drop the package using a really simple paper parachute. That enables us to deliver every shipment right into the receiver's "mailbox," which is an area about the size of about two parking spaces on the ground. The plane will turn around, come home, and land at the distribution center. It is ready to fly again a few minutes later.
Q: Have you had any complications with your deliveries in Rwanda?
A: We've made tens of thousands of deliveries, and we've never lost a vehicle. We design redundant systems into every level, whether it's the flight controls, the avionics, or the way the vehicle is mechanically engineered.
Q: And these are delivery vehicles that your company has created?
A: Yes. We build everything from scratch. We also have a system on board so if the vehicle can't make it back to the distribution center, it can actually use a parachute to bring itself to ground gently. So, this is how we ensure that these vehicles are 100 percent safe for the people they're flying over.
Q: How many types of those deliveries are you making a day in Rwanda?
A: We just agreed to an expansion of our services in Rwanda and have added a second distribution center. That will allow us to do about 200 deliveries per day countrywide.
Q: Are you looking to expand to other nations with this technology?
A: Yes, rural healthcare is a global problem. A lot of other countries are now looking at Rwanda as a role model and figuring out how they can leverage similar technology to improve their own healthcare systems. So, we will be launching in several other African countries in the next six months.
And here in the United States, we will soon begin making lifesaving medical deliveries in rural North Carolina. We're working through final details with the Federal Aviation Administration, the state of North Carolina, and our partners on the ground. We expect to begin deliveries there beginning in the second quarter of this year.
Q: There's been a lot of talk in the logistics industry about drones being used for deliveries. Can you see a day when that technology will be used on a regular basis for small parcel deliveries, such as e-commerce orders?
A: Yes. The funny thing is, it is already happening at scale today, just not in the United States. When it comes to e-commerce, we think it's inevitable that this type of technology will have a big impact on how e-commerce orders are delivered, but that's not the first place the technology is going to start. It makes more sense to start focused on life-saving applications. Then I think after that, you'll see a lot of high-need, urgent applications that might be more-industrial applications. And then in the long run, you'll start to see this technology permeate the really big parcel-delivery market that's currently served mainly by UPS and FedEx.
Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.
"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”
Their pursuit of those roadmaps is often complicated by frequent disruptions and the rapid pace of technological innovation. But Gartner says those leaders can accelerate the realized value of technology investments by facilitating a shift from IT-led to business-led digital leadership, with SCP leaders taking ownership of multidisciplinary teams to advance business operations, channels and products.
“A sound data governance strategy supports advanced technologies, such as composite AI, while also facilitating collaboration throughout the supply chain technology ecosystem,” said Dawkins. “Without attention to data governance, SCP leaders will likely struggle to achieve their expected ROI on key technology investments.”
The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.
A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.
The “series B” funding round was led by DTCP, with participation from Latitude Ventures, Wave-X and Bootstrap Europe, along with existing investors Atomico, Lakestar, Capnamic, and several angels from the logistics industry. With the close of the round, Dexory has now raised $120 million over the past three years.
Dexory says its product, DexoryView, provides real-time visibility across warehouses of any size through its autonomous mobile robots and AI. The rolling bots use sensor and image data and continuous data collection to perform rapid warehouse scans and create digital twins of warehouse spaces, allowing for optimized performance and future scenario simulations.
Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.
For its purchase price, DSV gains an organization with around 72,700 employees at over 1,850 locations. The new owner says it plans to investment around one billion euros in coming years to promote additional growth in German operations. Together, DSV and Schenker will have a combined workforce of approximately 147,000 employees in more than 90 countries, earning pro forma revenue of approximately $43.3 billion (based on 2023 numbers), DSV said.
After removing that unit, Deutsche Bahn retains its core business called the “Systemverbund Bahn,” which includes passenger transport activities in Germany, rail freight activities, operational service units, and railroad infrastructure companies. The DB Group, headquartered in Berlin, employs around 340,000 people.
“We have set clear goals to structurally modernize Deutsche Bahn in the areas of infrastructure, operations and profitability and focus on the core business. The proceeds from the sale will significantly reduce DB’s debt and thus make an important contribution to the financial stability of the DB Group. At the same time, DB Schenker will gain a strong strategic owner in DSV,” Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said in a release.
Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.
Meanwhile, TIA today announced that insider Christopher Burroughs would fill Reinke’s shoes as president & CEO. Burroughs has been with TIA for 13 years, most recently as its vice president of Government Affairs for the past six years, during which time he oversaw all legislative and regulatory efforts before Congress and the federal agencies.
Before her four years leading TIA, Reinke spent two years as Deputy Assistant Secretary with the U.S. Department of Transportation and 16 years with CSX Corporation.
Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.
In addition to its human toll, the storm could exert serious business impacts, according to the supply chain mapping and monitoring firm Resilinc. Those will be largely triggered by significant flooding, which could halt oil operations, force mandatory evacuations, restrict ports, and disrupt air traffic.
While the storm’s track is currently forecast to miss the critical ports of Miami and New Orleans, it could still hurt operations throughout the Southeast agricultural belt, which produces products like soybeans, cotton, peanuts, corn, and tobacco, according to Everstream Analytics.
That widespread footprint could also hinder supply chain and logistics flows along stretches of interstate highways I-10 and I-75 and on regional rail lines operated by Norfolk Southern and CSX. And Hurricane Helene could also likely impact business operations by unleashing power outages, deep flooding, and wind damage in northern Florida portions of Georgia, Everstream Analytics said.
Before the storm had even touched Florida soil, recovery efforts were already being launched by humanitarian aid group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN). In a statement on Wednesday, the group said it is urging residents in the storm's path across the Southeast to heed evacuation notices and safety advisories, and reminding members of the logistics community that their post-storm help could be needed soon. The group will continue to update its Disaster Micro-Site with Hurricane Helene resources and with requests for donated logistics assistance, most of which will start arriving within 24 to 72 hours after the storm’s initial landfall, ALAN said.