Monday, 28 Jul 2014 15:21 GMT

Drones, driverless cars and sign-makers [+vid]

Google are currently pioneering driverless cars in America which if successful could revolutionise transport and see thousands of taxi drivers and delivery people made redundant.

The knock-on effect to the sign-industry is potentially massive as every sign company has a van or a fleet of vans, trucks and company cars. If the future heralds driverless vans then clearly sign-makers could utilise them to run backwards and forwards between sites and workshops with tools and materials freeing up at least one worker per van.

The firm are already investigating the possibilities of how the system could work with deliveries made within minutes rather than days and the need for drivers ended

Meanwhile Amazon is looking into the future of transport is that of delivery by drone. The firm are already investigating the possibilities of how the system could work with deliveries made within minutes rather than days and the need for drivers ended. It is of course highly speculative at the moment but the trends are already there with our hourglass economy where three bands of workers are increasingly making up the workforce. Namely a large skilled workforce at the top that includes sign-makers, fewer semi-skilled workers in the middle and an army of unskilled personnel at the bottom.

These two possibilities may seem remote if not laughable at the moment but then who had heard of Amazon or Google back in the 1980s? Amazon say the drones would have a range of 10 miles and could be operating within five years in some sectors.

Your views on the future of the industry please to news@signlink.co.uk 

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Video: Below is a report on CNN about the possibilities of Amazon’s drone delivery service.