Last night on 60 minutes, Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon was working on a new form of package delivery called . The service would essentially allow a new drone system to deliver packages to individuals within thirty minutes of ordering. It is undergoing practical trials right now but won’t likely be something consumers would see in the near future as their are lots of questions to sort out including FAA rules on the use of the drones.

Let’s look a bit at the practical aspects that limit its implementation. First, the package has to be of a size that can be packed and carried by the drone. That HDTV you just ordered is too heavy to fly. Size is also a consideration as it would have to fit within the designed carrier. Now many of the packages Amazon ships will be capable of this delivery but not all. Second, there is range to consider. The current drone has a range of roughly ten miles. This has severe limitations as most people do not live that close to an Amazon distribution center. In addition, that local distribution center needs to have the product ordered but not every distribution center will have all products in stock. Finally, what recourse do buyer’s have if there is some fault and the drone delivers the package to the wrong address, somehow drops its load in flight or the weather simply doesn’t permit the drone to fly?

Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of getting packages right away and it would be neat to see a drone come and drop it off. My son would love to see that and would be wanting me to order things all the time. I just don’t know how practical such a same day delivery service is going to hold up under practical use.