- Zipline has broken out in the drone market flying vital medical supplies like blood and vaccines in Rwanda and beyond. This is due to easier funding for healthcare and faster regulatory approval of unmanned flights.
- But the drone maker is expanding its commercial delivery business with partners like Walmart, and on Wednesday announced three retail deals: GNC, Pagliacci Pizza and Associated Couriers.
- The company says it should reach 1 million automated deliveries by the end of the year. Now it is 600,000.
Drone technology company Zipline, which has made a name for itself by flying vital medical supplies such as blood bags and vaccines over Rwanda’s rough terrain, has seen the commercial side of the business boom. With a deal with Walmart and a new drone design, Zipline is playing a big role not only in hard-to-reach places, but also in the retail and delivery worlds.
On Wednesday, the company announced a new delivery deal in the US. The deal is with GNC, a nutritional supplement and wellness retailer in Salt Lake City, and Pagliacci Pizza, a Seattle-area pizza chain in the greater Seattle area. Pagliacci and Zipline created a new custom-designed pizza box that fits two 13-inch pizzas and a side dish on the Zipline drone. Provides specialty prescription and drug delivery to Long Island long-term care facility patients.
A rendering of a P2 Zip charging in a docking station.
zip line
The deal is part of Zipline’s recent expansion into its home delivery business, which features a new drone platform known as the P2 Zip that can travel up to 24 miles each way from dock to dock to local communities in near-silent operation. We are making delivery. , can reach 99% of addresses, both urban and suburban, much faster than traditional ground-based delivery.
Zipline is far from being the first test case in mountainous and rural areas, trying to dispel the myth that drones can’t work in dense urban areas.
“When people mention cities, they always think of New York City and Chicago, but the reality is that most cities in the United States don’t look like Manhattan or Chicago. Phoenix, Denver, LA, Houston, or Dallas. In these locations, this technology can make a big impact in delivering 10x faster, half the cost and zero emissions.Ranked 25th on CNBC Disruptor 50 list for 2023 I was.
Zipline has been named to CNBC’s Disruptor list four times.
Rinaudo Cliffton said Zipline is already being offered in urban areas across the US where people don’t expect the technology to take off. His first two distribution centers are in Charlotte, North Carolina, and in Bentonville, Arkansas, home of Walmart.
Zipline drone flights were first launched in 2016 to support Rwanda’s National Blood Donation Network. According to a study published in The Lancet, this is an approach that can reduce blood waste by up to 67%.
Rinaudo Clifton believes that today’s delivery methods have similar inefficiencies and waste, and are particularly carbon-intensive. Citing an estimated 4 billion instant deliveries in the US alone this year, he says we will need many more drone deliveries in the future.
“We really think it’s inevitable to move to systems that are quieter, less intrusive, and actually better for the environment,” he said.
He added that there is a big gap between the logistics network approach used for most deliveries and the size and weight of most e-commerce packages (less than 5 pounds).
Earlier this year, Walmart announced that it had grown to 36 drone delivery hubs across Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia, with partners including Zipline, DroneUp and Flytrex, making 6,000 flights. Did.
Last week, Zipline completed its 600,000th delivery, aiming to operate more drone flights each year than most major U.S. airlines in just two years.
