Walmart’s same-day drone delivery debuts in three states with plans to expand to other states by the end of the year.
Key Details
- Walmart debuts same-day drone delivery in Arizona, Florida, and Texas with plans of adding three more states by the end of the year.
- Customer’s living within one mile of participating stores can receive items up to 10 pounds with a flat delivery fee of $3.99.
- Drone services will be in four stores in the Pheonix area, seven near Tampa and Orlando, and 11 near Dallas.
- Walmart plans to continue adding drone delivery to stores with a goal of delivering 1 million packages per year via drone delivery.
Why it’s news
Walmart launches same-day drone delivery in three states with drone delivery service DroneUp.
Walmart has big plans to deliver 1 million packages per year by drone and hopes to cover a network of 4 million households by the end of the year. The network includes houses in the current loop of Arizona, Florida, and Texas, with hopes of adding Arkansas, Utah, and Virginia by the year’s end.
According to Walmart, 34 stores across 23 cities will have drone services available by the end of the year.
“Drone delivery makes it possible for our customers to shop those last-minute or forgotten items with ease, in a package that’s frankly really cool,” says Walmart U.S. vice president of innovation and automation Vik Gopalakrishnan.
The drones are flown by a team of certified drone pilots operating under Federal Aviation Administration guidelines to successfully deliver goods to customers within a mile of participating stores.
Others adopting Drones
Walmart isn’t the only company attempting to add drones to its delivery fleet. Many companies are trying to add drones to cut back on emissions and deliver goods quickly and efficiently.
Amazon is also working on adding drones to its delivery services.
Amazon is continuously working to have the best new ways to get items to customers. Many consumers want their things as fast as possible, and Amazon is creating drones to deliver packages in 30 minutes.
Amazon recently announced a new drone which it hopes to have done by 2024 and making regular deliveries by the end of the decade. The drone is an 80-pound hexagon-shaped aircraft that can deliver packages in a short amount of time to highly populated cities.
The company says that the drone will allow Amazon customers to receive packages in a very short amount of time and will also be better for the environment. The use of drones will help cut back on delivery trucks and help slow the amount of emissions being given off.