Google drone company spreads its Wing delivery service across Logan

A drone company which airdrops groceries and hardware goods, has spread its Wing delivery service further across southeast Queensland, despite noise complaints.

A drone company which airdrops groceries and hardware goods, has spread its Wing delivery service further across southeast Queensland.

Beenleigh, Holmview, Edens Landing, Waterford and Bethania have been added to the Wing service’s drop-off areas.

Hundreds more homes caught short of toilet paper, or need a rushed coffee or cooked chook will be able to dial a drone and get it delivered via a sky drop.

Wing, a subsidiary of Alphabet, which owns Google, used the Logan suburbs of Marsden and Crestmead as test fields when it started its Queensland service in 2019.

Wing’s spokesman Jesse Suskin.

That was expanded to Loganlea, Waterford West, Slacks Creek, Logan Central, Woodridge, Kingston, Park Ridge, Browns Plains, Heritage Park, and Regents Park.

With the click of a button, hundreds more households will be able to order anything from batteries, hammers, milk, bread and other groceries delivered to the front door via the air.

The drone flies to the address and then lowers a cable with the package at the end.

Slacks Creek’s Extraction Artisan Coffee, the Friendly Grocer at Crestmead, and Browns Plains Hardware have partnered with Wing, which has links to tech giant Google through its parent company Alphabet.

Logan families are already using the delivery service.

Blackout Coffee, known for its doughnuts and coffee, has also been added for their fresh salads, sandwiches, and baked goods.

Noise complaints initially dogged the service until technicians modified the craft.

Wing spokesman Jesse Suskin said the noise is about 40 decibels, almost half the noise level of a lawnmower.

Canberra residents gave the service the thumbs down in 2019 and that city’s Bonython Against Drones group, known as BAD, warned Logan residents: “don’t just duck for cover”.

Wing was forced to delay its Logan launch in 2019, after Civil Aviation Safety Authority regulations grounded drones in southeast airspace while the state dealt with bushfires.

The grounding followed the federal Department of Infrastructure and Transport granting the California-based company clearance for community demonstration flights.

Mr Suskin said the service really took off during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

“We saw a dramatic increase in demand as more people stayed home,” he said.

“The use of our delivery service grew 500 per cent in 2020 over 2019.

“In 2021, use of our delivery service in Logan has continued to grow; we’ve made more than 18,000 deliveries to Logan, with more than 1000 deliveries in just a few days during the most recent Queensland COVID-19 lockdown period, prior to the Easter long weekend.”

He said the company would continue to improve its service, expanding its merchant and product offerings and moving beyond Logan.