Anticipatory Dispatch of UAVs to Pre-staging Locations

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

• determining an expected demand level corresponding to a demand for a first type of a plurality of types of transport tasks for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), wherein the first type of transport tasks is associated with a first payload type of a plurality of payload types, wherein each of the UAVs is physically reconfigurable between at least a first configuration corresponding to the first payload type and a second configuration corresponding to a second payload type of the payload types;
• determining, based on the expected demand level for the first type of transport tasks, (i) a first number of UAVs having the first configuration and (ii) a second number of UAVs having the second configuration;
• and
• at or near a time corresponding to the expected demand level, providing one or more UAVs to perform the transport tasks, wherein the one or more UAVs include at least the first number of UAVs with the first configuration.

A method comprising:

• determining, by a control system and for a geographic area, an expected demand level corresponding to a demand, by item providers in the geographic area, for transport tasks for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs);
• determining, by the control system, based on the expected demand level, one or more pre-staging locations within the geographic area at which one or more of the UAVs can land prior to initiating one or more of the transport tasks;
• and
• before a time corresponding to the expected demand level, dispatching the one or more of the UAVs to the one or more pre-staging locations.