Tag Archives: transportation

by | Thursday, May 27, 2021 · 9:41 am

Wing Drones Can Now Deliver Girl Scout Cookies

When you get a cookie craving do you go to the store? Poor you. If you lived in a Christiansburg, Virginia, a community that tests commercial delivery drones, you could get Girl Scout cookies delivered directly to your front lawn!

Christiansburg has been testing Wing drones since 2019. Wing is the drone subsidiary of Alphabet (Google’s parent company). The main delivered products are rather mundane, such as pastries, tacos, and coffee. But now – Wing will be delivering those tasty Thin Mints (my personal favorite) and more. Wing worked with the local Girl Scout troops who said they have had a harder time selling cookies during the pandemic. And, let’s face it, delivering cookies is an excellent way to garner public support for commercial drone services.

Wing’s drones can carry items up to 3.3 pounds that fit into a special aerodynamic package. The drones don’t actually land in your yard; drones hover over a designated delivery area and lower the package to the ground using a string. Customers then retrieve the package from the delivery area. The drones fly lower than 400 feet and cannot be near airports. Items range from foods, flowers, medicine, and more. In addition to the U.S. location, Wing is also delivering via drone in select locations in Australia and Finland.

Now, how many boxes of cookies do you want?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students: Have them think of all the products that could be delivered by drones.
  2. In order to be successful, companies must be able to physically get a product into the hands of the customers. Discuss how a distribution channel works.
  3. For Girl Scout cookies, what distribution channels are used now?
  4. How can the channel be expanded? What approach could be used?
  5. Show videos of Girl Scout cookie delivery: https://youtu.be/DFfsepDkTkA
  6. What can a drone deliver? https://youtu.be/HVDZgTJ8JLA
  7. View Wing’s Website for additional information and videos: https://wing.com/
  8. How does drone delivery change the experience? Positive or negative?
  9. Finally, what types of companies will benefit from the use of drone deliveries?

Source: Associated Press; USA Today; other news sources

Leave a comment

Filed under Classroom Activities

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

by | Monday, September 21, 2020 · 8:28 am

Amazon Drones get U.S. Approval for Delivering Packages

Drones seem to be ready to take over the skies, but are they really ready for prime time? Can they deliver the goods? And how does this change delivery services around the globe? We may soon find out the answers to some of those questions.

Amazon is the latest company to receive FAA approval to operate a fleet of delivery drones. The approval gives Amazon Prime Air broad privileges to “safely and efficiently deliver packages to customers.” Amazon will test its drones with the goal of achieving 30-minute deliveries for packages of up to five pounds within a 15-mile radius of a warehouse. The company has been working on using drones for deliveries since 2013, continually innovating the drone models. The FAA approval gives Amazon permission to operate a fleet and is not tied to a specific model of drone.

Amazon isn’t the only game in town though. Last April, Wing (owned by Alphabet) received FAA approval for commercial deliveries. UPS also received approval to operate a fleet of drones as an airline last year. However, in all these cases, widespread use is likely still years in the future as the FAA needs to establish new, automated air-traffic systems as drone operations will exceed what human air controllers can handle.

Ready for your drone delivery?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Review key aspects of developing a product positioning map, including determining the axis labels for positioning.
  2. Show Amazon drone video: https://youtu.be/3HJtmx5f1Fc
  3. Optional: Here is an older version of the Amazon drone model: https://youtu.be/MR9PoBAssw0
  4. Show competing drone services:
  1. Discuss which industries and services will be most impacted by drones. Why these?
  2. Will drones benefit consumers? How?
  3. Divide students into teams and have each team develop a positioning map for drone delivery services. What will be most important to consumers?

Sources: Associated Press; CNBC; New York Times; Wall Street Journal; other news sources

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Classroom Activities

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

by | Wednesday, July 22, 2020 · 6:58 am

Farewell to Segway PT

No product lives forever. There are always changes, an evolution, or a passing of the torch as a product fades away. Every product eventually reaches the decline/harvest stage whereby the product is eliminated and resources are reallocated to new technologies.

Such is the case for the original Segway PT (personal transport), which was a pop culture icon, but never really made it to a strong commercial or consumer product. The Segway two-wheeled PT debuted in 2001 and it became a staple in security and law enforcement (remember the movie Paul Blatt: Mall Cop?), but never really caught on for personal use beyond tourists and sight-seeing. The vehicles looked simple, but tended to be hard to use as riders shifted balance. Indeed, in 2003, then President George W. Bush took a tumble off the vehicle while riding!

Segway has expanded its product line into other transportation vehicles including electric scooters. All-in-all, Segway sold 140,000 PTs since its launch. However, the vehicles were less than 1.5% of the company’s revenue last year. China-based Ninebot acquired Segway in 2015 and will halt production of the Segway PT this July 2020.

R.I.P. Segway PT. You were an icon.

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss the stages in the product life cycle. What are the marketing objectives in each stage?
  2. Divide students into teams. Have each team draw a product life cycle and place various products and services into each stage.
  3. Next, discuss the life cycle of the Segway PT.
  1. Show videos of Segway:

Unveiling of Segway: https://youtu.be/Tppv2NgZOQU

Paul Blart – Mall Cop: https://youtu.be/dfzmYp60I7w

  1. Show the Segway web site: https://www.segway.com/
  2. Next, have students brainstorm on how to reposition or revise products/services to that they can move into an earlier stage of the life cycle or be reinvented for a new life.

Source: Associated Press; CNN News; New York Times; other sources

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Classroom Activities

Tagged as , , , , ,