For those of you who are skeptical about whether drone delivery will ever become a common way to deliver your pizza or groceries, I’m there with you. Several key factors need to be in place to ensure drones can deliver items quickly, at low cost, and, perhaps most of all, safely.
One of the key hurdles to ensuring all of those things become a reality happened last week with the release of Draft Part 108 for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) by the FAA. Part 107, introduced in 2016, set the baseline rules for small commercial drone operations, allowing flights within visual line of sight under a certified remote pilot but leaving BVLOS missions dependent on case-by-case FAA waivers.
The new proposed rule brings with it a framework for BVLOS operations that replaces ad hoc approvals with standardized pathways. For industries like food delivery, the new rules could be the regulatory green light that turns pilot projects into citywide services.
Individuals to Organizations: One of the biggest changes from Part 107, which put the burden on individual pilots (requiring each to be certified and limiting most flights to visual line of sight), is that Part 108 shifts accountability to the operating company rather than every drone pilot. This change acknowledges that modern drone delivery (especially BVLOS), relies on automated systems, centralized oversight, and coordinated fleets, not one pilot per aircraft.
Permits vs Certificates: Operators will choose between two regulatory paths designed to match the scale and complexity of their operations. Permits will work for lower-risk, smaller-scale flights in less densely populated areas and come with a cap on the number of drones (such as a limit of 100 for delivery services). Certificates are geared for high-density, high-volume operations in urban environments, and will remove fleet caps in exchange for stricter oversight, safety requirements, and operational protocols.
Operations will be governed by five population density tiers, from rural (Category 1) to major metro cores (Category 5). Permits only allow access to Categories 1–3; Certificates are required for Categories 4–5. For food delivery, that means suburban and exurban rollouts first, with dense city markets requiring the more stringent certificate process.
A New Player: ADSPs. One of Part 108’s biggest changes is the creation of Automated Data Service Providers which are companies responsible for real-time airspace data. This data includes:
- Drone traffic and location tracking.
- Weather integration.
- “Strategic deconfliction” to prevent midair conflicts.
- “Conformance monitoring” to ensure drones follow approved routes.
Operators must connect to an ADSP, but they can also become their own ADSP if they meet the technical requirements.
There are a bunch of other changes – I recommend you check out this great writeup by Matt Sloane. For drone food delivrey, it will bring big changes, helping to take drone delvery from what is essentially a novelty service today to a scalable service.
The primary bottleneck has been regulatory: BVLOS flights, essential for covering enough ground to make delivery viable, were locked behind an unpredictable and time-consuming waiver process under Part 107. Part 108 changes all that. By creating clear, scalable pathways (permits for smaller suburban rollouts, certificates for full-scale urban operations), the FAA is giving food delivery companies a roadmap to expand without reapplying for exemptions every time they add new routes or drones. The introduction of Automated Data Service Providers means operators will have access to the real-time airspace management needed to safely run dozens or even hundreds of flights at once.
Add in the push toward autonomy, standardization of safety measures, and population tiering, and Part 108 looks less like the regulatory green light that could take drone food delivery from novelty to serious delivery option.
