Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd. (TYO:3382) 7-11 has announced that it made 77 drone deliveries in Reno, Nevada. This was a special feat for the convenience store chain considering that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has only successfully completed one drone delivery. While the online retail giant used its drone delivery unit, Prime Air, 7-11 partnered with Flirtey, a drone delivery firm based in Reno.
Another first
Besides beating Amazon by the number of deliveries, the convenience store giant was also first in line as it made its first drone delivery in July. Amazon was only able to make its first successful drone delivery last week. What also stood out is the fact that while the delivery by Amazon’s Prime Air took place in the rural parts of England, the deliveries by the convenience store chain took place in a city that is densely populated.
Making deliveries in a densely-populated urban area is more difficult than in a sparsely-populated rural area because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires all drones to remain within the line of sight of the operator and to fly at an altitude of less than 400 feet. To ensure compliance with the FAA’s regulations, the deliveries took place within a radius of one mile. Operators were also always on hand in case of emergencies.
“There was a Flirtey operator in the loop to take over if ever needed, but it wasn’t necessary,” Matthew Sweeney, the chief executive officer of Flirtey, said.
Tracking app
With the 7-11 drone delivery efforts, a special shopping app was used to track an order right from the preparation stage right to the delivery at the doorstep of the customer. On average, the time taken to prepare and deliver each order was ten minutes. The most popular orders were for over-the-counter drugs and medications, beverages and food.
Despite what would seem like a slow start for a company on the cutting edge of technology, Amazon has said it will roll out the Prime Air drone delivery experiment program to more customers in the next few weeks.
Shares of Seven & i Holdings rose by 0.72% to close at ¥4,546.00 in Thursday’s trading. Amazon fell by 0.08% to close at $770.60 in Wednesday’s trading.
