Logan City is being branded the drone delivery capital of the world.
Wing, the company which launched two years ago and is backed by tech giant Google, has grown to now deliver to 19 suburbs with a combined population of 110,000 people.
The firm’s head of policy and community affairs Jesse Suskin says it’s a long way since launching to two suburbs in 2019.
“Wing saw a 500% increase in deliveries worldwide in 2020 over 2019,” he said.
But Logan’s where the action is.
“Wing has already made more than 50,000 deliveries to the Logan community in 2021, with almost 4500 deliveries in a single week, during the most recent Queensland Covid-19 lockdown in early August, Mr Suskin said.
Over the past year, that equates to 10,000 cups of fresh barista-made coffee, 1000 loaves of bread, 1700 snack packs for morning or afternoon tea, 2700 sushi rolls and 1200 hot chooks.
“With celebrations and major events in Queensland being impacted by Covid-19 this year, we’ve also been pleased to be able to help deliver some of the joy of these moments through drone delivery,” Mr Suskin said.
“In April this year, as residents were asked to stay at home in the lead up to Easter, we delivered more than 250 chocolate eggs, bunnies, and hot cross bun packs to customers in Logan.
“Earlier this month, as the Ekka was cancelled, we delivered more than 500 showbags, dagwood dogs, fairy floss, and strawberry ice creams to give customers a little taste of Queensland’s favourite show from home.”
Wing has also started delivering to businesses, “to give staff from selected local businesses access to the convenience of drone delivery at work. “
“As Wing expands over the next year, we’ll continue to improve our service’s ability to meet the needs of the communities we serve and the local businesses we support,” Mr Suskin said.
“While local businesses currently co-locate with us at our delivery facility, in the coming months we’ll be exploring new delivery models, including co-locating our on-demand drone delivery service with businesses at their premises.”
Wing’s drones are custom-designed and can be ordered via the Wing app. Once at the customer destination, the drone slows down, hovers, descends to a delivery height of 7 metres above ground, lowers the package to the ground on a tether and automatically releases the package in the desired delivery area.
The drone does not land and there is no need to unclip or assist with the delivery of the package.
