Multimodal Freight

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Droneliner brings a significant shift to the multimodal strategy of primary carriers.  Integrating a swift air solution seamlessly with road and rail allows the major shipping companies to offer a fast, efficient and effective delivery alternative to their customers.  Whilst traditional air cargo requires the loading/unloading of cargo from containers to netted pallets or Unit Load Devices at each end of the flight, Droneliner's containers can be transferred directly between road, rail, sea & air. 

In addition, because the Droneliner system is designed specifically for cargo and doesn't have to wait on passenger aircraft, delivery times are dramatically reduced from weeks and days to hours.  

Droneliner slashes the costs of traditional air cargo by cutting fuel-burn and removing aircrew completely. And being speed-oriented rather than weight-oriented, it’s complementary rather than competitive with traditional seaborne services.

Traditional cargo shipping, although developing fast with the huge new container ships carrying 25,000 containers, has been challenged in recent years.  Those massive ships are limited in the ports they can enter and the ports have been beset with issues, not least the arrival of Covid19 reducing staff numbers or closing whole ports.  And with demand for container shipping still on the increase, the timeslots available for loading and unloading have resulted in container ships not being able to fully unload and having to return via other ports to complete their journeys.  This in turn creates backlogs, queues and delays.  Shortages of available space and even shortages of containers were already evident before the widely publicised blocking of the Suez Canal by the Evergiven and that all led to increased container shipping costs which have seen between eight and ten fold increases.  This in turn drives more inflation in costs of supply and will ultimately fall on the consumer.   Whilst those rates have now fallen considerably, there is still volatility in the shipping market and management of the shipping supply chain remains a challenge for shipping companies and their customers.

Now we’re not seeking to replace shipping, there’s always a place for that in the multimodal process.  What we’re providing is an augmentation, an alternative, which allows for fast, fresh, fuel efficient delivery for those items that need to get to their destination quickly, with a purpose built solution.  

Droneliner creates a whole new channel for the shipping companies, opening up new revenue opportunities and allowing suppliers and buyers a credible option for fast delivery. 

Droneliner carries lightweight versions of the ubiquitous 20-foot-long shipping container.  It doesn’t need to be made of steel and built like a bank-vault because it’s never stacked a dozen high like shipping containers.  And there’s no need for cranes when it’s never more than a couple of metres from the ground. A forklift truck is more than adequate for moving the containers around.  Some versions of the container will be in a flat-pack form to solve the chronic return-to-sender problem, which leaves abandoned containers around the world.

Ten-part container ‘baggage trains’ will be towed aboard the aircraft on wheels, on at one end and off at the other, using rail tracks inset into the ramps and the fuselage floor. Turnaround time is governed only by the 30 minutes it takes to refuel an aircraft this size.

With Droneliner, the box that changed the world can take to the skies.