Lately, we have seen a boom in home delivery and logistics services due to continual development in technology. The rise in eCommerce businesses and home-grown startups has caused an increase in the number of parcels and deliveries. Up to the present time its evident ecommerce is a part of everyone’s life today.
In the fast-paced life, customers have no patience for their orders to be delivered. Sellers look forward to quick deliveries to deliver more products. Quick commerce or 10-minute delivery by Zepto, Blinkit, and other brands is already gaining popularity and creating a buzz. Amongst this, Zomato recently said it would update its business model to provide food faster to its customers. Although the statement saw some criticism, with growing technology, you never know what’s next in the sack. With this in mind highly motivated individuals look for opportunity when they are criticized. Without a doubt there are many such example in history which we can raelate to.
Various retailers and service providers trust new fast, safe, and hassle-free order delivery methods. One of the newest additions to delivery and logistics services is drone delivery. A delivery drone is a drone that can be used to deliver goods, medical supplies, packages and parcels, and food. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed aviation reliability criteria for type certification for these delivery drones by 2020.
Delivery drones are redefining traditional logistics and have gained popularity in recent years. Drones are widely used to deliver lifesaving drugs, vaccines, and other drugs. As these drones reach remote and hard-to-reach places faster than road transport vehicles. In addition, drones have been used to quickly deliver food and parcels to most parts of the world.
Fact Check for Drone Delivery
Drone delivery companies are something to discuss in the rapidly growing food-delivery market of 2022. To incorporate this speed into services, companies are now focusing on commercial delivery drones, which can provide seamless delivery, expand their domains, and have competitive growth in the market. In the hope that drone delivery is the next big thing, it’s worth playing your bet on it. Not to mention early adopters will share equal risks and gains. Sooner or later this will be a part of our everyday life. To put it differently does not make sense, as it’s a straightforward thing for anyone to grasp. Together with collaborative efforts such ventures slowly make it big.
In 2020-2022, the drone market grew flawlessly as the solution of instant delivery or extra shipping cost. The global Commercial Drones market is valued at $14,829.5 million in 2021 and is expected to exceed $21,7043.6 million by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 56.4% over the projection period. Until new ways are not explored, the problem will exist. For the same reason, innovation is required. In light of this drone delivery solution is a new business.
There are various delivery-based businesses like Dominos, Talabat, Amazon, Swiggy, and more that are working with drone solution providers.
Top 10 Drone Delivery Solution Providers
1. Amazon Prime Air
Amazon Prime Air is a US-based multinational company that provides products and services related to cloud computing, e-commerce, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. The parent company Amazon has launched Prime Air, a drone delivery solution provider that offers seamless delivery by drone within 30 minutes of ordering. Amazon received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval in August 2020. Amazon Prime Air drones can deliver packages weighing up to 5-30 pounds within a 10-mile radius.
Drone delivery of pizza is one thing, but it was different when the world’s largest e-commerce company started toying with the idea of
Amazon plans to deliver a customer’s order in 30 minutes through its Prime Air shipping program. This blows away 2 days of Prime shipping and his 2 hour Prime Now shipping. In the event, this will reduce drastically. In the same way, it will work in various business segments.
Prime Air’s delivery program uses autonomous drones controlled by GPS. Drone delivery has the potential to give Amazon an edge over other logistics companies, as last-mile deliveries are the most expensive and time-consuming part of the delivery process. Significantly it will boost Amazon’s business.
- Founded Year: 1994
- Location: Washington
- Funding: 108 million
- Investors: AOL and Kleiner Perkin
2. Flytrex
Another name in drone delivery solution providers. It mainly deals in cloud-based on-demand drone-based e-commerce delivery services. Drones include features such as wireless drop mechanisms for package delivery, fixed delivery boxes for safe transportation of packages, GPS, –
- Founded Year: 2013
- Location: Tel Aviv (Israel)
- Funding: USD 60 M
- Investors: BRM Group, OurCrowd, Lukasz Gadowski, and many others.
3. Wing
It was the first company to be awarded airline certification by FAA with nearly 100,000 successful deliveries on all three continents. Wing’s drone delivery is a highly convenient service. It allows small packages, perishables, beverages, over-the-counter medicines, and parcels to be delivered to your home in minutes. These drones can carry about 3 pounds of weight and fly at 65 mph at 150 feet above the ground. In the long run, you may even order a truck to be shipped using a giant drone. By and large the possibilities are immense.
- Founded Year: 2012
- Location: Christiansburg, Virginia (U.S.), Helsinki (Finland), and Canberra and Logan City (both in Australia).
- Funding
- Investors
4. UPS Flight Forward
A subsidiary of UPS (United Parcel Service). United State Postal Services (UPS) is a US-based multinational company. It provides courier and logistics services worldwide. UPS Flight Forward is a drone delivery company, founded in July 2019. In October 2019, it became the first company to receive full “Part 135 Standard Certification” from the Federal Aviation Administration, operating an unrestricted drone delivery network in the United States.
In 2020, UPS Flight Forward and CVS partnered to ship prescription drugs from CVS pharmacies to The Villages, Florida, the largest senior community in the United States with more than 135,000 residents. UPS is also partnering with Wingcopter (below) to develop next-generation package delivery drones for various US and international applications.
- Founded Year: July 2019
- Location: Altana
- Funding: 10.8 billion
5. Wingcopter
Another drone service provider continually researching and working on drone delivery is Wingcopter. It is currently working on expanding delivery types for postal services, retailers, and e-commerce platforms to integrate into existing supply chains. It started as a drone manufacturer and has grown to offer drone delivery-as-a-service.
Wingcopter has already operated commercially in a few international markets, including Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean in partnership with Unicef for vaccine delivery to remote areas and in Ireland, where it completed the world’s first delivery of insulin by drone beyond visual line of sight. All in all its an innovative venture. Although this may be true still there are many obstacles in the way.
Founded Year- 2017
Location – – Funding $22 million
Investors: Xplorer Capital, Futury Capital, Expa, Hessen Kapital III, and Corecam Capital Partners.
6. Garuda Aerospace (Swiggy)
Online grocery delivery company Swiggy uses drones to deliver groceries as part of its Instamart feature. The company has partnered with Garuda Aerospace to use drone technology for food deliveries in Delhi NCR and Bangalore. Drones replenish inventory between seller-operated dark stores and “shared customer points.” Another key point is their applicability in various fields.
Garuda Aerospace focuses on the design, manufacture, and customization of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones for various applications. Whether you need event photography, agricultural surveying, reconnaissance, or surveillance.
- Founded Year: 2015
- Location: Chennai
- Funding: INR 1 cr – 100 cr
- Investors
7. Flirtey (Dominos)
In November 2016, when Domino’s used drone delivery partner Flirtey to deliver an order to a customer’s door at 11:19 a.m. in Whangaparaoa, New Zealand, 25 kilometers north of Auckland, drone-powered pizza delivery became a reality. A team of drone experts and pilots autonomously navigated Flirtey’s DRU her drone via GPS navigation to deliver the pizza.
Flirtey is a drone delivery company based in Reno, Nevada. The company conducted the first Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-approved drone delivery in the United States in 2015, the first FAA-approved urban delivery in March 2016, and a customer Made the first FAA-approved commercial drone delivery to your home. Flirtey also works with NASA to develop computer software for drone air traffic control.
- Founded Year: 2013
- Location: Reno Nevada
- Funding:$6.4 M.
- Investors: Menalo Venture, Qualcomm ventures, Y combinator Lowercase capital
8. Asteria Aerospace
Asteria Aerospace designs and develops drone-based solutions that use aviation data to transform business operations. Asteria has produced state-of-the-art, high-performance, reliable and robust drones for the past decade. It also develops visualization and analytics software solutions to transform aerial data from drones into actionable information. Our products and solutions are widely used by defense and homeland security agencies, civilian government agencies, and private companies. It is used in the security, energy and utilities, agriculture, GIS, construction, and mining sectors. Basically, all industries can use their services. If they don’t need it today, then they will require it tomorrow, for sure. By the time we realize they may acquire a large market. Generally, such opportunities are easy to address, as you have space to make mistakes. The first thing to remember is that as pioneers your mistakes will help you to learn.
- Founded Year: 2011
- Location: Banglore
- Funding: INR 8.07787 Lacs
- Investors
9. Matternet
As a drone shipping company, Matternet is well-known for its drone delivery services. The company provides an end-to-end drone deployment solution. It also supports its cloud platform, the M2 Drone and Station.
Matternet is currently working with approval from the Swiss Aviation Authority. This company has complete logistics operations in various cities with this permission and approval. The company uses drones that can easily transport payloads weighing 2 kg and 4 liters over a distance of 20 km.
Matternet’s proprietary software platform takes orders from customers. Next, create drone package delivery routes for your drones and monitor, command, and control them to operate your company’s assets.
- Founded Year: 2011
- Location: California
- Funding: $2.5M
- Investors: RattanIndia Enterprises Ltd.
10. SkyDrop
The SkyDrop (formerly known as Flirtey) is a turnkey solution provider of hardware, software, and patents for last-mile autonomous drone delivery. Flirtey a.k.a SkyDrop is a pioneer in the commercial drone delivery industry with a mission to make deliveries ready for everyone and a vision of safer, faster, quieter, cheaper, and greener drone deliveries. The company made history in 2015 when it made its first FAA-approved drone shipment in the United States.
- – Founded Year: 2011
- – Location
- – Funding
- – Investors
Advantages and disadvantages of delivery drones
Advantage
As discussed with one of the leading drone delivery solution providers Amazon, businesses can save on shipping costs, and consumers can also cut costs. Consumers receive their packages much faster and more reliably, increasing consumer confidence and encouraging repeat purchases. Shareholders of companies using drone deliveries to cut costs could see savings trickling.
Cons
Delivery workers will lose their jobs to automation, and those who do not will have severely limited career opportunities within the company. Consumers may raise privacy concerns, as drones will likely use GPS and cameras to locate homes and deliver packages.
The Future of Drone Delivery
So are drone deliveries ready to take off? In short, yes. With the drone delivery solution providers, and the drone delivery market looking to solve the problems associated with last-mile delivery. The healthcare industry is well-positioned to start reaping the first fruits of drone delivery services.
First of all, drone operators are restricted by the FAA from carrying cargo weighing less than 55 pounds. So the tiny package sizes of prescription drugs and medical supplies are perfect for drone delivery services. And tech companies like Amazon and Alphabet should look to partner with big retailers.
Conclusion
In conclusion we would like to share that the list above, is based on our analysis. And it may or may not be a great fit for your business. So its highly recommended to consult us for any of your project needs, so we can recommend the best payment gateway per your needs. With the changing demands of customers regarding online business, there are changes taking place accordingly. Nowadays, buyers expect fast and safe delivery of their orders. But delivery might get delayed due to traffic and other conditions. That’s why big e-commerce industries have initiated collaboration with drone manufacturing companies to accelerate their shipping system. This idea is not limited to online orders. It also helps to cope with medical emergencies by timely delivering medication and essentials.
The future of drones is shining bright in these changing scenarios. India is making its mark through drone startups to improve customer service, especially in the most crowded cities.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on the location. It is necessary to discuss with the local government whether the drone can be flown. Also, if a permit is required, it must be obtained before flying the drone.
Today, some of the most powerful drones can carry up to 2,500 grams, including the weight of camera mounts.
Drone flight time is usually 5 to 40 minutes. Flight times will vary depending on luggage weight, wind technology, flight tasks, and battery.
A normal drone can fly a distance of up to 1.5 km. However, the export system can reach a range of about 50 km.
