• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

Craft Brewing Business Craft Brewing Business
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment & Systems
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • COVID-19

Will drones deliver your beer one day?

October 9, 2017Brad Fruhauff

Workhorse demonstrated its new HorseFly delivery drone technology at Pack Expo Las Vegas 2017. It’s exciting to think that drones may one day bring beer right to your door, thereby solving the problem of the late-party beer run. Unfortunately, the technology is probably several years away from (a) urban applications and (b) delivering temperature-sensitive and fragile products like beer.

Workhorse, which has been making electric trucks for companies like UPS for years, had successfully run trials of the HorseFly making “tandem deliveries” with a UPS driver on a rural route. That is, the drone is stationed on top of the delivery truck, software computes which packages the drone can effectively deliver in order to decrease the number of total stops on the route, the driver feeds it a package from underneath, and then it takes off and makes the delivery.

The drone can land and drop off the package, or it can lower the package on a winch if, as the demo’s narrator suggested, a dog or child should be present. That was the first time it struck me that the problem with drones isn’t just with airplanes or trees, i.e., things up high, but with things down low, too. I expect the drone folks will need to do some serious public education and safety assurance for this reason. It won’t take more than one or two dogs getting their tails clipped for the public to sour quickly on flying robots descending from the sky with their replacement batteries.

Workhorse drone horsefly
Workhorse has been making electric trucks for companies like UPS for years. Now, it’s successfully running trials of the HorseFly drone, making “tandem deliveries” with a UPS driver on a rural route.

That said, it is still a cool technology that can significantly reduce costs for delivery companies. They estimate it only costs $0.01-0.02 per mile compared to the $0.30-1.00 per mile cost of the trucks. So far, the range is relatively limited to a few miles, and it can only fly about 30 minutes on one charge — and it takes 17 minutes to charge. I don’t think it’s being cavalier to say they’ll improve those numbers pretty quickly. Whether there are obvious beer applications is hard to say at this stage, but consider yourself a little more informed than you were two minutes ago.

Brad Fruhauff is a good dude, a great beer writer and a contributor to Craft Brewing Business. Plus, he wants to write for your brewery. Check out his other work here.

Cool CanReseal tech wins Technology Excellence Award at Pack Expo
PMMI PACK Expo
Less than three weeks until PACK EXPO Las Vegas and Healthcare Packaging EXPO opens its doors
PMMI PACK Expo
The facts behind PACK EXPO in Las Vegas (Sept. 28-30)
Catch ONExia’s new robotic palletizer, PalletizHD, at Pack Expo Las Vegas

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • Cheers to 10 Years: We should all strive to be Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.
  • Watch famed gonzo illustrator Ralph Steadman discuss his Flying Dog beer labels
  • The all-new Papago Brewing taproom opens Friday
  • Michigan’s Dog Star Hops wins Chinook Cup for second year in a row

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • Arizona Wilderness BrewingCheers to 10 Years: We should all strive to be Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.
    February 2, 2023
  • Watch famed gonzo illustrator Ralph Steadman discuss his Flying Dog beer labels
    February 2, 2023
  • Michigan’s Dog Star Hops wins Chinook Cup for second year in a row
    February 1, 2023
  • fort point both-ciders-3Fort Point Beer debuts cider line, explains why ciders instead of seltzers
    January 31, 2023
  • Watch a drone release insects over hop yards for sustainable pest control in this Yakima Chief Hops video series
    January 30, 2023
  • Distro update: Connecticut’s Two Roads Brewing goes to Colorado + news from Surreal, New Sarum and more
    January 30, 2023

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2023 · CBB Media LLC