Walmart Strengthening Partnership with On-Demand Drone Delivery Startup DroneUp
Retail behemoth Walmart is strengthening its partnership with the on-demand drone delivery startup DroneUp in an effort to speed delivery and meet increasing consumer demand to have goods delivered to their doorstep.
Walmart Invests in DroneUp
John Furner, CEO, and President, Walmart U.S. wrote in yesterday's Thursday (June 17, 2021) press release;
“In our ongoing effort to get customers the items they want, and fast, we know it will take a well-coordinated network of delivery solutions that span the streets, sidewalks, and skies.
Some of these solutions are still emerging, but they’re already showing encouraging results.
Last year, we partnered with DroneUp, a nationwide drone services provider, to launch trial deliveries of at-home COVID-19 self-collection kits. The trial demonstrated we could offer customers delivery in minutes versus hours. Now, after safely completing hundreds of drone deliveries from Walmart stores, we’re making an investment in DroneUp to continue our work toward developing a scalable last-mile delivery solution.
DroneUp operates an on-demand drone delivery network that matches their database of more than 10,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certified pilots to missions nationwide. Since partnering with DroneUp last year, we’ve valued their technological expertise, world-class operations, and experienced management team – and their commitment to helping the FAA ensure the highest levels of safety with every delivery.
As a well-respected industry innovator, DroneUp was the first operator to use the FAA 107.39 waiver, an operation that allows for delivery flights to be conducted over people and moving vehicles. DroneUp operates commercially throughout the U.S. and is an authorized government drone services provider for 11 U.S. states serving public sector organizations.
Walmart already has a significant part of the infrastructure in place – 4,700 stores stocked with more than 100,000 of the most-purchased items, located within 10 miles of 90% of the U.S. population. This makes us uniquely positioned to execute drone deliveries, which is why our investment in DroneUp won’t just apply to the skies but also the ground. In the coming months, we’ll be beginning our first operation at a store in Bentonville, Arkansas.
In April, we announced a similar investment in Cruise, an all-electric autonomous vehicle company. Through these commitments, we’re learning how these technologies can get customers the items they need.
Conducting drone deliveries at scale is within reach. DroneUp’s expertise, combined with our retail footprint and proven history of logistics innovation, puts us right where we want to be for that day. Because when it comes to the future of drone delivery, we know the sky’s the limit.”
Handling Fast (Drone) Deliveries
Walmart isn’t the only company looking for alternative means of handling fast deliveries. Amazon is planning to launch its own unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) fleet, UPS and FedEx are invested in drone delivery, and Google’s Wing UAV service recently piloted an operation during the pandemic lockdown.
Related White Paper Series
Using Autonomous Robots to Drive Supply Chain Innovation
This paper details how new technologies are presenting promising opportunities for improvement across the supply chain and how autonomous robots and drones are poised to change the game. Download Now!
Applications of Drones in Warehouse Operations
Drones have particularly found applications in warehousing operations, this white paper reports 12 identified use cases of indoor drone applications in three different application areas: inventory management, indoor intra-logistics, and inspection & surveillance. Download Now!
Are Your Last-Mile Problems Really Last-Mile Problems?
In this paper, we show how to optimize delivery performance across your first and middle miles using the digital supply chain. Download Now!
More Resources on Drones
Related Article: Are Drones A Sky-High Vision For The Future of Logistics?
