Yahoo Finance See packages delivered by boat, plane, drone, and donkey as e-commerce reaches every corner of the world
E-commerce is growing worldwide, but the logistics can get complicated in hard-to-reach places.
The population, topography, and traffic of different locales create challenges for deliveries.
Here are some unique deliveries in Brazil, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Rwanda, the US and more.
Even in the simplest scenario of a truck driving up to a cul de sac and dropping a package on a doorstep, last-mile delivery is difficult and expensive to manage.
Factor in immense traffic congestion, unreasonable weather, uncrossable terrain, or geographically secluded areas, and logistics companies end up in some pretty remarkable situations just to get packages delivered on time in regions around the world.
In China's $2.6 trillion e-commerce market, two-day delivery is expected. ZTO Express couriers mostly deliver Alibaba packages.
Source: Insider
Though delivery speed is incredibly fast, China's logistics operations range from high-tech and automated to chaotic and very low-tech.
And big surges in online orders still create chaotic scenes.
There are also many different package pickup schemes in play in China like these autonomous lockers from Alibaba's logistics arm, Cainiao.
Source: The Straits Times
Walls of parcel pickup lockers are also a fairly common sight.
And in some neighborhoods picking up an online order is even lower tech with shelves stationed outside gated communities.
Lockers are popular in densely populated areas like big cities where packages may be easily stolen, but they're also used in places where residents are spread out like rural Canada.
Source: CBC
Sometimes remote places are easier to reach via waterways, like in the Cranberry Isles in Maine where the United States Postal Service sends a mail boat rather than a mail truck.
People on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, also sometimes receive deliveries by boat.
In Venice, Italy, boats are the fastest way to get around by far — and that includes package delivery. Traveling by boat is essential to avoid the tourist-jammed streets.
In Berlin, Germany, DHL, which is owned by the German postal service, uses waterways to keep out of traffic.
And in the Netherlands, boats get bicycle couriers closer to their destination for time-sensitive deliveries.
Smaller more nimble vehicles often make deliveries possible in congested cities like downtown Bangkok.
In famously congested London, UPS uses eQuad electric bicycles to get around traffic.
Source: Reuters
To deliver in even more extreme congestion, a startup called Favela Brasil Xpress has begun using tricycles to get through Sao Paulo, Brazil's crowded favelas.
Source: AP
Drone delivery is very slowly growing in the US, but in countries with more rural populations, like Rwanda, it's catching on.
Source: TechCrunch
Drones are spreading in Texas though, as Walmart's pandemic-inspired delivery program is expanding to Arizona and Florida.
Source: FreightWaves
In some places, like Alaska's smaller villages, deliveries by air are literally the only option due to extreme cold.
Source: Alaska Native News
Germany's North Sea Islands also require some unique mail service since the island of Baltrum has no cars (and no street names).
Source: Germany Travel
Mackinac Island in the US state of Michigan also requires delivery companies like UPS to make adjustments to the norm. No cars are allowed, so UPS drivers deliver with horses and carts.
Source: Detroit Free Press
Germany's Neuwerk island also challenges the local post office since its famed mud flats are a protected national landmark. Horses are the only way to make it through the mud.
Source: World Heritage
Germany's mudflats also led Knud Knudsen to volunteer as the mail carrier on a tiny islet with three inhabitants in the North Sea.
Source: DW
Even in dryer climates, animals are still used to deliver mail — like at the bottom of the Grand Canyon in Arizona where mules deliver mail to the native people who live there five days per week.
Read the original article on Business Insider
