Amazon plans to launch Amazon PrimeAir, their 30 minute Drone Package Delivery Service for Amazon Prime users - Playing Catch-up as Mailpak launches DealBug in Jamaica

As I’d predicted in my blog article entitled “SF Express Drones in China Deliver Cake and Zookal Drones deliver Rental Textbooks - How Drones and smartphones in Jamaica can revive the Postal Service via Personal One-Day Delivery Service”, Amazon would pioneer the use of Drones to do package delivery. 

And that pioneer is none other than Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos, who broke the news on CBS 60 Minutes program of his intention to give Amazon Prime customers 30 minute Delivery from Fulfillment Centers upon purchase via Drones as stated in “Amazon testing 'octocopter' package-delivery drones”, published December 1, 2013 5:28 PM PST by Steven Musil, CNET News and “Delivery by drone: Amazon plans to deliver goods in 30 minutes using octocopters”, published December 2, 2013 By Trevor Mogg, DigitalTrends..

The new service, dubbed Amazon PrimeAir, will require FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) approval and is only in the testing phase, with a debut timeline in the next four of five (4-5) years! The PrimeAir Octocopters (8-rotors) can carry packages that are 5 lb and have a range of 10 km, as stated by CEO Jeff Bezon on CBS News 60 Minutes.

Clearly, Amazon is working on this with the intention of making it fully autonomous and seamlessly integrated into their Website for Amazon Prime users to get 30 minute Delivery of their purchases.

The news may surprise many but not us Jamaicans.

Even here in Jamaica, Drones are already being used by a local Company, Skycam Jamaica, to film events and do aerial shots for local Broadcasters News segments as noted in my Geezam blog article “Skycam Jamaica Aerial Photography marks possible Revival of Package Delivery in the Jamaica Postal Service”.

Jamaica may eventually have Drone Deliveries – America slow to adopting Commercial Drones

That’s right folks; Jamaica for once, even for only a brief moment and for a few more years, is currently ahead of the Technology Curve as Americans mostly worried about Government Surveillance, dislike the idea of what Drones imply and have thus become superstitious and distrustful of Technology. 

And we may still be, as our JCAA (Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority) has already approved Skycam Jamaica camera toting Hexacopters (6-rotors), so Octacopters (8-rotors) for Delivery purposes by Shipping Couriers or even the Jamaica Postal Service to make their operations more cost effective via automating Package Delivery isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds!

Even the Chinese have beaten the Americans to this!

SF Express in Shanghai, China already has Octacopter Drones making 6 kg package deliveries and Zookal in Melbourne, Australia is testing the automated delivery of textbooks to Australian College students as described in my blog article entitled “SF Express Drones in China Deliver Cake and Zookal Drones deliver Rental Textbooks - How Drones and smartphones in Jamaica can revive the Postal Service via Personal One-Day Delivery Service”.

Still it is first in America and thus puts Amazon way ahead of the curve!

Amazon PrimeAir - Amazon playing Catch-up as Airpak Express launches DealBug

The US of A has a lot of catching up to do as the rest of the world innovates past them! Amazon is really playing catch-up to the Chinese and they know it!

Trust me, it was only a matter of time before someone in the US of A decided to do this, be it Amazon, Best Buy or even the USPS (United States Postal Service). Never mind the fact that the FAA (Federal Aviation Authority) is slow on approving this, declaring it won't be until 2015 before Drones can get approval for Commercial usage. To me the main problem with this idea may be Vandalism; Americans and Jamaicans are a rough and tumble bunch.

We’re not a civilized as the Chinese or Japanese, albeit in defense of Amazon PrimeAir and the idea in general, the Drones are for Amazon Prime Customers who are a little better-off enough to pay US$79 for one year worth of same day shipping and sensible enough to not go near that whirly-gig when she’s coming in for a landing. I’d worry more about hillbillies, conspiracy nuts and idlers on the ground making it a habit to shoot drones out of the sky with everything from shotguns to slingshots! 

So until then, anything is possible in the rest of the World as it relates to our usage of Drones, as we have none of the Hang-ups about Government Surveillance like our American Counterparts.

We just need 3G Internet coverage to be uniformly everywhere and all Jamaicans to have smartphones for this to be economically feasible.

In the meantime, such a Delivery service could be launched soon by Jamaica’s largest Shipping Courier Service and my favourite, Mailpac, who recently launched Dealbug, their Virtual Online Store that’s partnered with Scotiabank to provide a single point of pre-approved one price purchase for anything online as noted in “Mailpac opens up virtual retail store”, published Friday, November 29, 2013, The Jamaica Observer.

Part of Dealbug includes door-to-door delivery service, mainly done by roving Pink Delivery Vehicles. But the idea of Drones may be a part of their plans for Dealbug, as my sources have told me, to provide same-day delivery at a lower cost.

If true, they’ll become only the second company in Jamaica aside from Skycam Jamaica to launch a commercial usage for Drones, apparently to be based on PC and Laptop users, as we’re not yet so sophisticated in our smartphone usage!

Thus this story deserves more development later on my blog or even on the Geezam blog as I go to Mailpac and ScotiaBank to see if I can get an exclusive on this story. In the meantime, as a former CSA (Customer Service Agent) for the Amazon, EMC² (Earth’s Most Customer Centric) Company, PrimeAir ups the ante against the Brick and mortar companies as they can now make deliveries in real-time.

Go Amazon PrimeAir!!!