Watch: Port of Rotterdam Makes its First Shore-to-Ship Drone Delivery

The port of Rotterdam made its first aerial delivery to ship by drone. The consignment of spare parts was delivered to Allseas’ Pioneering Spirit, the biggest vessel in the world.

Pioneering Spirit is currently moored at Alexiahaven in preparation of upcoming offshore activities. This is actually the first drone delivery ever made in the Netherlands to a vessel.

The pilot project was set up by Dutch Drone Delta, Allseas and the Port of Rotterdam Authority and it is intended to determine whether and how drone deliveries could increase transport efficiency in the port of Rotterdam.

The airspace over the port area will be safely managed under the slogan ‘Rotterdam, the safest port to fly’, allowing parties to take optimal advantage of new technologies to make the port safer, smarter and more efficient.

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While in this case, the delivery was still directly monitored by human observers, in the near future, it will be handled entirely beyond the pilot’s physical line of sight.

Stephan van Vuren, one of the people behind the Dutch Drone Delta initiative said: “The sky’s the limit when it comes to using drones in the port area. Incident prevention and control, for instance; or water pollution; firefighting; monitoring port operations or damage."

According to Allseas PR manager Jeroen Hagelstein, the offshore industry could also benefit from this new delivery option: "With this pilot, we want to test whether drones could be an effective means to quickly and efficiently deliver materials to our vessels. Helicopter, for example, are not always available on every location."

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