In May, Maersk Tankers, part of Dutch conglomerate Maersk Group—one of the largest and most established container ship operators in the world—announced that it had successfully tested the use of an unmanned aerial vehicle, commonly known as a drone, to deliver a small parcel to a tanker ship at sea. The drone was launched from a tugboat. The parcel was a small box of Danish cookies weighing less than three pounds.
While this may have been one small delivery for a company that moves millions of 20-foot-long containers per year, it represented a giant leap for compliance teams responsible for all aspects of global shipping, trade finance, and port operations.
