Dan O’Toole, Founder and CEO of DRONEDEK, today lauded a federal aviation committee for recommending new regulations that would encourage drone-based package delivery in the United States.
The Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) issued its report late last week.
“Our smart mailbox has the capacity to overhaul the global package delivery system and bring needed efficiency and environmental benefits,” O’Toole said. “I’m happy to see progress being made that will allow the U.S. to catch up to other countries.”
O’Toole had earlier complained that countries like Ireland, Canada, Uganda, Rwanda are ahead of the U.S. in this niche market.
The committee report notes that the use of UAS continues to grow and evolve globally: “The technology has proven to provide many societal and economic benefits and can be used as a critical tool to support numerous use cases and public safety efforts.”
Benefits include inspections of critical infrastructure, and delivery of medical supplies and packages to consumers, as well as public safety efforts including aiding with disaster recovery, wildfire response, and search and rescue missions. The new recommendations call on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to:
Set an acceptable level of risk for UAS consistent across all types of operations being performed that will enable the FAA to adopt a common and consistent set of regulations and guidance to operators.
Modify right of way rules to accommodate UA operations.
Create an operator qualification to cover topics associated with Extended Visual Line of Sight (EVLOS) and shielded UAS operations and create a new Remote Pilot certificate rating to cover BVLOS operations beyond the scope of the extended Part 107 rating.
Establish a new BVLOS Rule which includes a process for qualification of UA and UAS, applicable to aircraft up to 800K ft-lb of kinetic energy.
Adopt a non-mandatory regulatory scheme for third party services to support UAS BVLOS operations.
Industry experts project double digit growth in the drone delivery sector in the next few years, if regulations ease and guidelines are established. The FAA rules include “line-of-sight” requirements for the drones, as well as privacy and safety concerns for flights.
DRONEDEK’s “mailbox of the future,” is a platform-agnostic, smart receptacle designed to consolidate all deliveries to one secure and connected point. Each unit accepts all types of deliveries from any carrier; traditional, robotic, autonomous, and drone delivery are all compatible with our units. DRONEDEK keeps all delivered items secured (and away from porch pirates, weather, and animals) until the user with access retrieves it.
