Unmanned aerial vehicles in last-mile parcel delivery: A state-of-the-art review

Mohamed, A., & Mohamed, M. · 2025

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A 2025 review places the strong figures 71 percent and 96.5 percent as promises in the literature, and in the same breath names variability in the data and a lack of experimental validation. The next hand will try to lift the figures alone. The card is here to stop that hand.

The abstract says the review covers seven domains: environmental performance, economic impacts, social impacts, policy and regulation, routing and scheduling, charging infrastructure, and energy consumption. It states that the literature promises drones will cut emissions by 71 percent and costs by 96.5 percent relative to truck delivery. In the same abstract the authors list, as knowledge gaps, variability in environmental and cost data, limits of two-dimensional modelling, and a lack of experimental validation.

71 and 96.5 are this review's summary of promises in other papers. They are not inputs to this guide's cost screen. Which primary study, under which assumptions, produced each percentage was not re-traced for this card. The McMaster affiliation is the authors' address, not a conclusion about Canadian regulation.