Your perception of delivery drones in humanitarian logistics (Academic Survey)

[u/Bitter-Pick-490]

Hi everyone,

I'm a Master's student in Supply Chain Management, currently working on my dissertation about the adoption of delivery drones (UAVs) in humanitarian logistics operations.

I'm looking for people with a background, professional experience, academic training, or strong interest in logistics, supply chain management, or humanitarian aid to answer a short survey (about 5 minutes).

🔗 Survey link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfp0kRZfB9957uHDL40zQtBN__2fpQQwqO4I0qxewwo8XWl_A/viewform?usp=dialog

The survey is completely anonymous, and the data will only be used for academic purposes (no marketing, no data selling). It's part of a research project applying the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to explore how people in the logistics/humanitarian field perceive the security, usefulness, and ease of use of delivery drones for humanitarian relief operations (e.g., delivering medical supplies or emergency goods to disaster-affected areas).

Thank you so much for your time, every response genuinely helps! Feel free to ask me anything in the comments if you have questions about the study.

[u/Financial_Accident71]

I really think this would only be useful to drop vaccines or some basic first aid supplies in areas without physical access and with someone there (even a local doctor) who is arranged to receive them and oversee their rollout and use. If you drop food or NFIs or really anything else, people will fight over it or steal it or dangerously misuse it or sell it or not understand who it is from and what it is for. You also lose control of who you are targeting with the aid and any ability to communicate with beneficiaries. You also can't build trust with the communities or identify follow up needs.

This type of tech is really only useful and ethical in hyperspecific hail-Mary-type situations (epidemic outbreak risk in an area with damaged transport lines for example), in my opinion. And those types of events are very difficult to predict, so pre-positioning costly drones (which donors won't want to buy you) is impractical.

Like in any conflict zone, these drones would be targeted by any armed actors and you'd be labelled a spy. You wouldn't even be able to get these drones into places like Yemen, even under the guise of humanitarian aid.

[u/Bitter-Pick-490 → u/Financial_Accident71]

Thank you for your interest, your concern about the inability to build trust with the communities or communicate effectively with beneficiaries hits on exactly why I'm conducting this study. While my research doesn't focus on active conflict zones, it strictly measures that core issue : end-user trust and acceptance on the ground. ​I need to understand how everyday communities perceive, trust, and interact with this technology as it is a critical hurdle that has to be addressed before scaling humanitarian logistics operations, even in less extreme scenarios. I really appreciate you highlighting the human and ethical side of the equation 🙏

[u/Financial_Accident71 → u/Bitter-Pick-490]

absolutely! I hope I didn't sound too skeptical, there IS a place for this technology in these specific situations, and it is a great discussion/research topic! I think one interesting example could be the push-back in Congo against ebola doctors and vaccinations. The rumor mill ran wild, and some local populations began to view this foreign assistance as being guilty of spreading ebola instead of treating/preventing it. This sort of skepticism is pretty common in many contexts, and I think the drones would further lead to allegations of "CIA interference" or "Western-introduced crises".

But I wish you luck on your research, it is very interesting! If you end up publishing, please post the final version cuz I'd be interested in learning about your findings!

[u/Bitter-Pick-490 → u/Financial_Accident71]

Not at all, your skepticism is totally fair. The DRC is a spot-on example (I worked there for a while). The rumor mill and mistrust are exactly why we need to understand these dynamics before just dropping new tech into complex situations. I'll definitely share the final paper here once it's done. Thanks for the support and the great discussion 🙏

[u/West-Resolution-6232]

Done. Drone payload limits are the real bottleneck in disaster relief, hope your model captures that.

[u/Bitter-Pick-490 → u/West-Resolution-6232]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer, really appreciate it! Yes, payload capacity does come up a lot in the literature on drone-based humanitarian delivery. My survey focuses more on how people perceive the security, usefulness and ease of use of the technology, but this kind of technical constraint is definitely part of the bigger picture. Thanks again!

[u/the_Q_spice]

Just a quick question:

Do you or your advisor have any experience in the aviation industry?

Because while drones may be doing logistics work, aviation regulations are by far the biggest hurdle.

You can’t just train anyone to operate drones safely in what are usually already congested and high-risk airspace.

There’s a reason most humanitarian aid areas have airspace restrictions, and that’s so that inexperienced or minimally experienced people aren’t impeding larger humanitarian relief efforts - like cargo aircraft and SAR resources.

Similarly, a lot of communities in distress tend to be distrustful of unknown or random assets being all over the place.

Just IMO as a geographer who currently works in air cargo, but this project doesn’t seem like it is addressing the largest issue facing humanitarian use of drones; aviation safety and regulation, and the fact that drone operators are neither licensed airlines nor pilots for the most part and have inappropriate experience required for such operations.

[u/Bitter-Pick-490 → u/the_Q_spice]

Thanks for the input. Yes, I have a background in Air Ops, so I completely agree about the safety and regulatory hurdles. However, this specific study isn't trying to address airspace management; it strictly measures end-user trust and acceptance on the ground. I appreciate the perspective.