Investigating attitudes towards drone delivery

Abstract

In recent years civil drones have become more and more visible in everyday life. Reports in the media are numerous, they cover a variety of aspects and technical developments, and everybody is used to bird-eye views being a common feature in television, movies and photography. Parcel delivery by drones has been of high interest from the beginning as the increase of online shopping stresses the demand on classic forms of parcel delivery. Drone delivery is propagated as viable countermeasure to congested urban streets and a way to achieve sustainability. After some limited trials industry is now receiving support from the administration to schedule large-scale services for drone delivery for a variety of products. However, as surveys indicate the public acceptance of drone delivery seems limited, usually in the range of 30% - 40%. This paper reports findings of a representative national study about the acceptance of civilian drones. Investigating the attitude towards drone delivery in general as well as the anticipated own usage of drone delivery, several factors limiting the support like concerns about transport safety, noise, and animal welfare are identified. In addition gender effects are discussed showing female respondents being slightly more critical about drone delivery in general and more distinctive in their attititude. Also an effect of NIMBYism is confirmed in the context of drone delivery, as even among residents envisioning own usage of drones for parcel delivery the overflight of the own home is not agreed with. This special effect is labeled as NOMOH ‘Not Over My Own Home’