Page 28 - Logistics News Oct Nov 2020

News

Drones help boost

healthcare supply

chains in Africa

HEALTH WORKERS serving remote communities in
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) must often
undertake a six-day return journey to collect vaccines,
traversing dense tropical forests and the Congo River The global rise of dark
and its tributaries. Drone technology is offering a
lifesaving solution to the challenges, including helping kitchens and stores
to ensure that cold chains are maintained and vaccine
quality is not compromised. Courtesy www.bizcommunity.com
Freddy Nkosi, DRC country director for BEHIND THE doors of a warehouse in Wynberg,
VillageReach, an NGO, says the Drones for Health Johannesburg, food is being prepared exclusively
project is focused on getting vaccines and supplies for delivery. There is no restaurant space, instead, a
to hard-to-reach rural communities. In the DRC, company called Collective Kitchens is managing a
with funding from Gavi (The Vaccine Alliance), fully-equipped venue that can cater to more than
VillageReach, in partnership with the Ministry of Health one restaurant brand simultaneously, from the
and the Civil Aviation Authority of the DRC, is using same space. This delivery-only restaurant is known
drones to transport vaccines and other supplies to as a ‘dark’ or ‘ghost’ kitchen, and it’s a real estate
isolated villages and communities. trend that is gaining traction worldwide.
Nkosi says the project is being piloted in the DRC’s The restaurant and grocery sector has
north-west province of Équateur. “This province has been forced to adapt, or die, as a result of
18 health districts, more than half of which are only the coronavirus outbreak. Around the world,
accessible by river. This makes the supply chain and pubs, cafés and restaurants closed in line with
transportation of vaccines from the provincial storage to government lockdowns and delivery instantly
the remote health storage facilities exceedingly difficult, became the go-to essential way for operators to
especially during the rainy season when there is often maintain an income stream.
flooding.” While businesses are now reopening, the fear
A round trip to the Équateur province, which involves of contagion prevails, and operators are generally
taking a non-motorised boat down a river, can take up not in a financial position to immediately return
to six hours. The drones completed the one-way journey to business as usual. The cost of setting up and
in just 20 minutes. Nkosi explains that the drones are running a dark kitchen is 30-50 percent less than
only being deployed for the hardest-to-reach locations for a traditional restaurant, so it’s obvious why it’s
in the DRC. Since the drones do not include cameras, an attractive option for struggling or emerging
Nkosi says privacy is not an issue, and to date, there businesses.
have been no safety problems, The need for delivery isn’t limited to meals.
Nkosi believes that it is only a matter of time before With many people still self-isolating, the delivery of
many countries and communities adopt drones for groceries has become an essential service and the
deliveries, even in urban areas. He says that in the long-term impact of online delivery of groceries
DRC’s capital Kinshasa, the blood transfusion service is expected to have a considerable impact on
is exploring the use of drones for urgent deliveries of commercial real estate. Before the pandemic, a
lifesaving blood due to the city’s poor infrastructure and small but growing percentage of South Africans
traffic congestion. • bought their groceries online. This number has
since escalated, with grocery delivery services
seeing a dramatic spike in demand.
The cost of delivering groceries from central
warehouses is estimated to be double the cost of
delivery from smaller micro-fulfilment warehouses.
Grocers around the world are therefore seeing the
financial benefits of these so-called dark stores.
Large South African retailers whose centralised
DCs are unable to handle end-user customer
deliveries are also opting for smaller dark stores in
industrial locations near suburban areas. •

26 October/November 2020 | Logistics News