remember how the future
drones were supposed to deliver all your stuff.
Well, apparently the future is now because walmart announced today,
it is expanding its home delivery service
to four million households across six states and adds the expansion
will allow it to deliver more than one million packages by drone
per year.
Joining.
Now to discuss is tom walker ceo of drone up,
which is the drone operator walmart is partnering with on this expansion.
Good to see you now. My first question is how will drone up?
And this expansion helped to improve Walmarts package delivery operations.
Well,
thank you for having me and understand that
the reason that we're partnered with walmart is
we share a similar set of ideals when it comes to how to do this.
First off, our number one focus is on safety.
Uh, second, our focus is on the customer experience. How can we provide
one more mechanism in that last mile that provides a convenient,
safe and affordable way for consumers to get products that they need quickly.
Um, and and, and, and efficiently. So take me through the process.
I order some soap, not from walmart dot com, because I'm not available there yet,
but I ordered from your website.
How does it get from the store
to a drone to my front door.
Absolutely. So the order is placed at drone up delivery dot com.
You go to the, to the site,
you put in your address and then depending on your location,
weather conditions and other things that will tell
you whether you're eligible for drone delivery.
Uh, if you are you place that order right there in the online and in the app,
um The product is then brought to the hub.
One of our handling managers will inspect it,
ensure that its compliant to be delivered by drone.
They will package it,
they will weigh it to ensure that it's the appropriate weight for delivery.
It will be placed onto the drone
um and then you'll get a text notifying you that the drone is en route to
your house to do the delivery and to have the everyone in the pets inside.
We fly a very safe route to the house to avoid flying over
people and moving vehicles um and and and flying as safely as possible.
Once we're over the home
Will lower down to about 80 to 100 ft, inspect the area,
verify that it's clear And then gently lower the package down,
set it on your back porch or or wherever is most convenient.
And then the drone turns around and heads back home
and you get a notification that your delivery is complete.
It's really just that simple.
We're averaging right now delivering between 22-25 minutes,
but consistently in under 30 minutes.
So is it like less than an hour from click to
to arrival
From the time you place the order and hit,
click complete the order until that packages delivered
to your house right now as I said,
is averaging about 22-25 minutes.
Uh,
that number continues to come down as we get more efficient in
the process of getting the product from the store to the drone
and we think it will eventually, our goal is to be down in the 15 minute range. Wow.
Alright, so walmart says the expansion comes after he completed hundreds
of deliveries in a matter of months across its existing drone up hubs.
So what did that process reveal about the viability of drone delivery?
Well, I think the most important thing that,
that it revealed was the consumer acceptance.
I mean, this was new.
Um, and I think they're going into this, uh, there was obviously,
and appropriately, some concerns of noise and,
and the drones flying over and the safety and would it become an annoyance.
And, and then, and then on the retail side,
would the customers really adopt this and embrace it as a new method for delivery?
And, and, and, and we've had the opportunity to prove both of those things the, the,
the acceptance into the neighborhoods, the number of repeat orders,
but more importantly, the number of people who drive up to the hubs
every day and say, when are you gonna be able to deliver to us?
And why can't we have this delivery
method at this particular location yet?
So we've seen really significant and positive, uh, embrace of this,
of this new delivery model.
Um,
and we've been able to demonstrate our ability
to do it safely effectively and safely.
I will just say that one last time because, you know,
at this point of this particular emerging model,
we have to demonstrate that it can be done over and over safely and that scale.
So I'm a drone operator as well.
I have a drone at my house and two things that I always think of,
two words I always think of when it's not safety is rain, wind,
how does drone up deal with those weather elements?
Do you guys close down for the day? What is it, how do you pivot?
So we actually have instant microclimate data
that will determine within a 15 minute
window whether or not we're going to be able to deliver a package.
So when you go on to place an order, um, we are evaluating the weather,
we're evaluating all the other environmental conditions.
Were evaluating things like are there first
responder activities going on in the area?
And if there are, we won't deliver because we don't want to ever put
uh, you know, put our drones in in a, in a, in a,
in a position where they could interfere
with first responders or public safety opportunities.
So there's a variety of factors that we're analyzing in real time.
So if if we know for a fact the weather conditions
are going to prohibit us from operating for an entire day.
We don't shut down. What we do is we take that day to do safety training.
So anytime we're shut down due to weather or other conditions, we're training,
we're training, we're training, but we do have those times.
Um,
those, those, those,
those types of events that are gonna shut us down are gonna get
fewer and fewer over time due to the evolution of our platforms.
But yes,
there will always be certain conditions in which case drones
may not be the most appropriate model for delivery.
So Walmart's drone deliveries will be filled from a total
of 34 stores by the end of the year.
Is it just walmart,
can I start buying stuff from best buy and
other things or are we sticking only with walmart?
What are the plans for expansion?
Well,
you're gonna start to see more opportunities
and other retailers that can be delivered.
Uh, we're also going to be expanding
into other types of deliveries.
So you'll see pharmaceuticals over the counter medications and, and, and,
and certain things like that.
You're also gonna see other retail deliveries. You're going to see food delivery.
We're doing a lot of testing right now in food delivery.
We think that the consumers are really going to like that for a variety of reasons.
Number one is the product is gonna go straight from the restaurant onto
the drone and then in the air and then delivered to you.
So it won't be sitting in somebody's car, somebody won't be handling it.
Um, the price for that delivery is obviously a lot lower and more importantly,
you don't have to tip tip a drone.
Um,
so you know, I think that you're going to see
other retailers.
Yes, but you're gonna see other types of deliveries very soon as well.
I know that in one place the top seller was hamburger helper helper.
So I'm very excited to see what else you guys can deliver. Tom walker joined up.
Ceo tom.
This is very interesting tech and I can't wait for
the future when I hear my package buzzing above me,
appreciate it.
Tom.