Robots and drones could lower food delivery costs to $1
Autonomous food deliveries are cheaper than with human couriers. This cost advantage is expected to grow significantly soon. This promises profits.
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The costs for delivering groceries to customers are currently 3 to 4 US dollars lower in markets with high labor costs when food is transported by robot or drone. This is because autonomous deliveries currently cost between 5 and 7 dollars per order. In the long term, drones and robots could even reduce delivery costs to just 1 dollar per order, according to financial experts at the British banking giant Barclays.
In high-wage countries, this represents potential savings of 8 to 9 dollars per delivery, a significant cost advantage through drones and robots. Barclays calculates that autonomous food deliveries could lead to potential annual profitability increases of 16 billion dollars worldwide for food delivery platforms, with the bank assuming savings of 4 dollars per delivery, as Reuters reports.
Deliveries by drone or robot still rare
Currently, however, autonomous food deliveries are still rare. Barclays estimates them at only 1 percent of all food orders worldwide. By the end of this decade, the share of robot and drone deliveries for food is expected to grow to 2 percent and even accelerate to 10 percent by 2035, according to the financial experts.
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Initially, the US provider DoorDash and the Chinese delivery service Meituan are likely to benefit from this development, as these companies have already invested in autonomous food deliveries and are already using them in some areas. However, Uber has also positioned itself well in this market segment, according to Barclays. As early as 2024, Uber Eats ordered thousands of AI delivery robots to speed up food deliveries in the USA.
In the medium to long term, the Berlin-based company Delivery Hero, its Middle East subsidiary Talabat, and the Southeast Asian platform Grab should also benefit, as these companies have already launched small pilot programs for autonomous deliveries. The Dutch technology investor Prosus, which acquired Just Eat Takeaways last year, is seen by Barclays more as a long-term beneficiary of the trend towards robot and drone deliveries.
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