Realities of Using Drones to Transport Laboratory Samples: Insights from Attended Routes in a Mixed-Methods Study

PURPOSE: Drones are an emerging technology with the potential to improve laboratory logistics. This study is based on the hypothesis that the implementation of drones will benefit from an understanding of the current system and that existing transport solutions should be optimized before drone solutions are considered. It focuses on carriers transporting biological material today by car along a traditional circular route. It aims to explore how the current transport service is organized, identify areas for improvement, and investigate carriers’ perceptions of how drones could be integrated into or substituted for their services. METHODS: A mixed-methods approach was applied, combining a questionnaire, shadowing of nine transport trips, semi-structured interviews, and time assessments. RESULTS: The carriers shared insights into how to optimize existing transport solutions in terms of structure, culture, attitudes, and overall functionality. Most carriers expressed in the questionnaire that they were little involved in innovation work. The time assessment revealed that not the driving times, but the loading times had the highest deviations from plans and thus represented the area with the greatest potential for simple improvements. Questions about the use and organizational impact of drones are generated, and their prospects are discussed from a broad sociotechnical perspective. CONCLUSION: Our concept was to broaden our understanding of implementing drones into existing systems in a fairly simple setting. Although improved logistics may take place without complex processes, future research opportunities such as the impact of drones on organizational processes and social dynamics in the adoption of drones may be needed if more complex systems are involved. The paper proposes experimenting with, and learning from, transport with “road vehicles” and drones in combination and suggests that improvements should be made to existing transport solutions before drones are implemented.