Marketing textbook, chapter 9

DHL trialled the delivery of urgent medicines to remote locations by parcel drone.

Logistics companies and internet groups such as Google and Amazon are developing and trialling the use of drones for parcel delivery. Even pizza delivery services are showing interest in using unmanned aerial vehicles to deliver orders. Companies are trying to use new technologies to organise the logistics sector much more efficiently, massively shorten delivery times and thereby increase customer benefits. In metropolitan areas, there are not only technical challenges but also very practical problems to be solved, e.g. in the public monitoring of automated air traffic, theft protection, economic efficiency or crash risks.

The logistics group DHL has therefore focussed on remote areas in order to test the use of parcel drones in pilot projects. To this end, DHL cooperated with RWTH Aachen University, which was responsible for the development, and the North Sea island of Juist, where the „Paketkopter“ ensured the emergency supply of urgent medicines to the island pharmacy. The advantage of using drones was that the delivery of medicines could be carried out at virtually any time, even in adverse weather conditions such as dense fog or darkness, in a short time and fully automatically over the distance of 12 kilometres between the mainland and the island, controlled by GPS. However, DHL had to register each drone flight to Juist individually, so the project was cancelled due to regulatory requirements and for cost reasons.

The last pilot project was carried out in 2018 under the name „Deliver Future“ with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit and the drone manufacturer Wingcopter in Tanzania. The autonomously flying drone supplied the clinic on an island in Lake Victoria with medication from the mainland via fixed routes and took blood samples, for example, on the way back - all within 45 minutes on a route that can take up to six hours by car or boat.

Image description

Photo series on the ‚DHL Paketkopter‘ pilot project: documentation of the autonomous delivery of medicines by drone from the mainland to the island of Juist.

The collage shows the drone logistics process in chronological steps:

1. Cover picture (top left): A dark background with the silhouette of a drone and the white text: „Pilot test DHL Paketkopter medicine supply island of Juist“.
2. Start preparation (top right): A yellow DHL drone with four rotors stands on a yellow landing mat. A person carrying a parcel can be seen in the background.
3. Flight over the Wadden Sea (centre left): An aerial view shows the small silhouette of the drone as it flies over the vast, grey-blue Wadden Sea.
4. Loading/unloading (centre right): An employee in yellow and black DHL clothing kneels next to the drone and stows or removes a yellow parcel from the drone's transport container.
5. Redistribution on the island (bottom left): A postman with a yellow e-bike (cargo bike) stands in front of the „Seehund-Apotheke“ pharmacy on Juist. The bike's large yellow transport box is open.
6. Handover in the pharmacy (bottom right): Interior view of the pharmacy. The DHL employee hands the yellow parcel directly to the pharmacist at the counter.

Sources:

• DP DHL (as at 27 June 2022)
• FAZ (Status: 12 January 2026)
• Reporting (Status: 12 January 2026)
• Daily news (as at 27 June 2022).