It’s a little hard to believe that we are now seriously considering the prospect of flying vehicles as a real mode of urban transport, but we really are. In fact, just recently, Airbus and the RATP Group came together to make plans to produce a study on how this concept could actually come to fruition. Can you imagine how this could potentially affect drivers carrying out courier jobs, and how it might fundamentally change the shape of your business? The truth is, it could entirely alter the face of our industry.
The Study
The recent Tech for Good Summit saw the formation of an important partnership between Catherine Guillouard, the RATP Group Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer, and Guillaume Faury, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Airbus. The two believe in the potential of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and want to study how feasible the idea is.
Both of these influential companies have decided that they want to see how this service could be developed. They have vowed to investigate the cost implications as well as the feasibility of incorporating the service into the urban setting, while also making it accessible to as many people as possible.
As the two companies meet to discuss their ideas in the coming months, they also plan to get other like-minded businesses involved so that they can roll out this new transport option in other major cities around the world. If this were to be successful, people involved with courier jobs could be working in a completely different way in the not too distant future.
According to the Experts…
Catherine Guillouard believes that our industry can’t escape the fact that its success is all about mass transport, but she also says that it has to develop and evolve to accommodate the smart cities in which we will soon be living. She acknowledges that her company needs to push its expertise that centres on human and technical assets, so that the transport industry can evolve in line with the world’s future.
Catherine is also delighted that Airbus has collaborated with RATP because their aviation knowledge will be invaluable to the project.
Guillaume Faury is equally pleased with the partnership. He regards RATP’s experience with urban mobility projects as an essential element in the study’s success. He believes that all the basics are in place when it comes to Urban Air Mobility, but getting the pieces perfectly in line and integrating them into our everyday life is what he sees as the potential challenge.
If you’re in the transport industry, it’s certainly a time to be paying attention. Courier jobs (and the entire logistics supply chain) could really be set to change forever if the urban transport options are developed around the concept of air mobility. Any manager of a fleet should stay abreast of all new ideas and developments in order to begin to understand the changes that are coming and how a particular business may one day evolve. There’s no doubt about it – we’re living in exciting times!
Norman Dulwich is a correspondent for Courier Exchange, the world's largest neutral trading hub for same day courier jobs in the express freight exchange industry. Numerous transport exchange businesses are networked together on their website, trading jobs and capacity through what is now the fastest growing Freight Exchange in the UK.
This article is copyright free.