JD.com looking to expand drone delivery service
Chinese online retailer JD.com is reportedly looking to expand the coverage of its drone delivery service. JD.com started making drone deliveries last year. It is currently offering the service in four provinces – Jiangsu, rural Beijing, Sichuan and Guangxi – and operating 20 fixed routes. By the end of this year, however, the company reportedly plans to have 100 routes up and running across China.
In an article published by technology website Recode on Friday (27 January), JD’s CEO Richard Liu, was quoted as saying: “We try to deliver with drones from cities to the countryside.
“In every village, we have a delivery man who lives in the village, and he will take the parcels [delivered by drone] to different houses.”
By delivering to designated landing pads rather than directly to individual consumers’ houses, the JD.com delivery model can use fixed routes and also reduce the interaction (and possible collision) between drones and people.
