The media ‘silly season’ is August, where apart from the Loch Ness Monster and sightings of Bigfoot stories, occasionally a real gem emerges to warm the cockles of your heart.
U.S‑based Wing drone delivery released last week an absolute crackerjack which features two married octogenarians who live from in Christiansburg, Virginia. They ‘absolutely love’ the delivery service, which is a part of their ‘daily habit’. The couple hold the world record for the most number of home deliveries, now close to 1,200.
Susie and Paul Sensmeier, 84 and 83 years-old respectively, say drone delivery has been “a life-saver… literally.” Susie has vision issues, a recent bad knee and no longer drives. While Paul does use a car, drone delivery has helped him skip unnecessary trips. The couple even said the service has assisted them to stay in their home longer than they may have otherwise.”
While orders have been across the product board from playing cards and coloured pencils to toothpaste, sunscreen and Covid-19 test kits, food and meals have been way and above their most popular item.
The most-ordered items include:
- 371 hot meals from a local Mexican restaurant.
- 210 blueberry muffins from a local bakery.
- 107 bottles of orange juice.
- 93 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies from a local chapter.
The average delivery time of each order has taken 12 minutes and 14 seconds.
On the back of this story, Wing also announced last week a new healthcare delivery collaboration with Apian in Ireland. The company expects to begin working with hospitals and other care providers in Dublin later this year.
Over the coming months, Wing and Apian are to collaborate delivering healthcare for pharmacy partners to create a fast medical flight transport network in South Dublin. This operation is Wing’s second in Ireland, following the public demonstration services in the small town of Lusk, 12 miles north of the city.
This led to Irish news website www.independent.ie, interviewing Wing’s Chief Financial Officer, Ms Shannon Nash, who explained, “If I was going to take out my crystal ball, I’d say we’re looking at millions of deliveries in the next year to two.”
Nash then points out why South Dublin was chosen for the collaboration with Apian. “Dublin really kind of ticked all of the boxes. We worked with Apian to find the most relationships in terms of different hospitals and medical organisations and companies in an urban environment where we could fly in and really get the most out of this.
“But we have also been very fortunate to work with the regulators in Ireland, who have been very collaborative. Ireland is a great environment for drone delivery. The Irish regulators have been very forward thinking about working with companies like ours.”
While some may see Wing muscling in on Manna Drone Delivery’s growing business, focusing more on healthcare is a sensible step given Manna is strongest at delivering food and related products. Apian is a good partner too, as the company has experience transporting items such as chemotherapy drugs, blood samples, prescriptions and medical equipment between hospitals, pharmacies and care centres. The specific hospitals, pharmacies or medical providers haven’t yet been named as both Wing and Apian drum up interest.
Also, Wing believes the healthcare market is more profitable. Nash points out, “While people like getting coffee [via drones], being able to get antibiotics or something for a sick baby is something else. Right now, [deliveries] are being done by a car and a person in a car.
“The comparative cost of using an autonomous drone that weighs 11 pounds [5kg] is always going to be cheaper than using the car and the person. But also it’s speed. We hear from providers about how long it takes to get that much needed supply from a pharmacy to a hospital or from one hospital location to another.”
The drones to be used are the same ones employed for its months-long consumer trial in Lusk last year. They fly at a height of about 100 metres, at close to 100kph, for under 5km per trip.
Although, it means no night-flying and there won’t be any of Wing’s new Autoloader terminals, which allow for quicker, more accurate pickups, as part of the rollout. Nash also wouldn’t say how many flights would be part of the new service.
But the regulatory environment has moved to the point now where Wing, like Manna, can start progressing beyond line-of-sight monitoring from support staff, meaning cheaper personnel costs.
Nash continues: “This is a new industry. Whenever you’re doing something groundbreaking, there will be people who think that it’s going too fast and others who think it’s not going fast enough. We spend months and months working with various community groups. From there, you get a plethora of learnings that go into your next scale thing.”
Wing is one of the world’s biggest, and longest-running international drone delivery services. It has completed over 350,000 flights, mostly in Australia and the US. Wing will be operating a command centre in Dublin to oversee the flights and any technical issues that arise.
Given the size of the Irish market compared to the British one, it is likely the UK is the bigger target for Google’s sister company. Yet, as the independent.ie points out, the Wing deployment, together with increasingly bigger trials from Manna, means that Ireland has taken another step in becoming one of the centres of drone delivery in Europe.
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(News Source: www.independent.ie)
