Walmart is starting to see demand pick up for its drone delivery service, as the giant retailer has expanded to 37 store-based deployment hubs in seven states and 26 municipalities, with 6,000 deliveries in 2022, an executive told attendees at NRF’s Big Show 2023 in New York.
Amazon, facing a continued slowdown in its ecommerce business and under pressure to boost flagging sales, is looking to sell excess capacity on its commercial cargo jetliners used to move goods among its network of warehouses here and in Europe. Meanwhile, both Amazon and Walmart announced multi-state drone delivery.
Belgium-based Dronamics, maker of a long-range cargo drone that can carry up to 770 lbs. of payload, is expanding its network by adding two new “droneport” locations at airports in Germany and Denmark, creating a total of 42 locations in 14 European cities. A partnership with DHL in APAC calls for deployment of 4,000 drones.
Just in time for the holidays, Walmart on Monday went live with drone delivery from one of three stores near its headquarters in Bentonville, AR, via partner and investment recipient DroneUp, with service running from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week, and deliveries coming in 30 minutes or less.
Walmart on Sept. 9 launched a second pilot drone delivery program, this time in Fayetteville, NC, using a control system from Israeli firm Flytrex, zipping grocery and household items to nearby customers. This is in addition to a program drone program Walmart launched in April in Grand Forks, ND, again with Flytrex.
Israeli drone startup Flytrex has begun a pilot program making backyard deliveries from a Walmart in Grand Forks, ND to about a dozen nearby homes, looking to expand the program to further-out properties there in the months ahead while keeping to current FAA restrictions to line-of-sight piloting.
Wing, the drone company owned by Google parent Alphabet, is piloting a drone delivery program starting next month in Christiansburg, VA in partnership with FedEx and Walgreens, the first time a retailer will offer this kind of service in the U.S.
Residents of a North Carolina town will be able to get meals delivered by drone as part of a limited test program sanctioned by the Federal Aviation Administration, as it takes baby steps toward broader approval of drone operations. Israeli drone service firm Flytrex is hoping the test program will expand to all kinds of deliveries, even to backyards.
If we’re looking to turn deliveries into a catalyst for environmental change, drones and autonomous vehicles will help, but we’re not quite there yet. In the meantime enterprises should focus on improving delivery efficiency, which means providing drivers with the most efficient routes and the maximum number of packages per run.
In late 2013, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos boldly proclaimed on the popular CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” that drones would be delivering orders for its customers within five years. But apparently, the future isn’t now according to a report in the Seattle Times.