Colombia Campaign
Colombia will be the inaugural country for the freight drone industry.
Topology, government acceptance, technology base and people that are accepting of the drones is the reason for starting in Colombia.
Bogota, Colombia was the place where the idea for creating a freight drone, the ecosystem and the industry came into being. From the first mention of the industry the government has been there to help the industry start as it has been included in the 4 year infrastructure plan for the country.
Opening Markets w/o Harming the Beauty of the Country
Topology
The country has 3 mountain ranges that run through the western half of the country and the rain forest in the eastern half.
All of Colombia’s major cities are located in the Western half of the country. Each one nestled into the mountains, which causes the road infrastructure between these cities to be extremely challenging.
The towns and the villages in the eastern half of the country are in many ways are isolated from the rest of the country. The main method of transportation here is river barges. There are very few roads that exist through the rain forest as Colombians are very protective of the worlds lungs.
The drones will make the topology issues moot by leap frogging over poor or nonextistent infrastructure, delivering raw materials to remote areas and then delivering products made in those small towns to the global market.
Government Involvement
The government has worked very closely with the IFD to make the industry a reality.
Since the beginning of the idea, the Colombian government has made many of its agencies available to work with us to help shape the regulatory changes that will be necessary for the industry to exist. Aero Civil has recently updated its UAV regulations to include drones of the size we will be building, making them the first country in the world where we can certify and fly autonomus freight drones.
Market Opportunity
Logistics companies and the military are awaiting the introduction of the drones.
It currently takes a truck 12 to 18 hours to take a shipping container from Medellin to Bogota. The same shipping container via a freight drone will take about 90 minutes. Getting goods to freight to market faster is what logistics companies have told us is the reason why they offer the drone delivery service as a new product for them. We have letters of interest from them as proof of their commitment.