Walmart, The US multinational retail corporation partners with a Virginia-based technical service – DroneUp, to enable fast deliveries via drones. The extended DroneUp service will serve six states and aims to deliver over 1 million packages by drone in a year.
Customers will be able to order a wide range of eligible items, including Tylenol, diapers, and hot dog buns, for drone delivery in as little as 30 minutes between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Customers can order items weighing up to ten pounds and they must pay a delivery fee of $3.99 to receive their orders.
Partaking shops will have a DroneUp delivery hub, including a team of certified pilots who will securely handle flight operations adhering to FAA guidelines. The customer packages will deliver directly to their yard through a cable that gently lowers and off-loads the package.
Apart from delivery service at Walmart, DroneUp will also provide aerial drone solutions to local businesses and municipalities for insurance, emergency response, and real estate. A local construction company, for example, can work collaboratively with DroneUp to track on-site job progress using aerial drone photography.
Following trial deliveries of COVID-19 testing kits, Walmart announced an investment in the 6-year-old startup late last year.
The retailer has witnessed practical solutions to deliver their customers swiftly after completing hundreds of deliveries across its existing DroneUp hubs at Bentonville, Arkansas.DroneUp’s delivery network will be expanded to 34 locations by the end of the year to reach 4 million US households in six states: Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.
Walmart is continuously opening its doors to automation and innovation. Earlier, It partnered with a symbotic automation company to automate its distribution centers and serve customers better.Walmart aims to serve its customers fastly while also preserving high quality and safety. The additional revenue from other services will help offset delivery costs and also benefit the entire drone industry by gathering more flight data as they collaborate to expand drone operations in a safe and regulated manner.
