DoorDash, Wing launch drone delivery service

The company is teaming with Google to fly drones that can travel up to 110 kilometres per hour across Southeast Queensland, ahead of a national roll-out.

DoorDash finds it wings in Logan, delivering groceries and healthcare products by drone from Wednesday.

American company DoorDash has become the second food delivery provider in Australia to utilise drones, piloting a new route in Southeast Queensland ahead of a broader national expansion.

DoorDash has struck a deal with Wing, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc, which will see as many as 50 drones operate at speeds of up to 110km/h in the LGA of Logan.

While Logan is home to about 400,000 people, the pilot will cover only about 10,000 residents across the suburbs of Berrinba, Browns Plains, Crestmead, Heritage Park, Kingston, Logan Central, Marsden, Regents Park, and Waterford West. DoorDash said the service would expand beyond an initial 7km delivery zone to surrounding areas over the coming months.

DoorDash and Wing’s fleet will operate out of what’s known as a dark warehouse – the supermarket equivalent of a dark kitchen – in which businesses store items solely for the purpose of delivery.

DoorDash Air delivery option seen within the mobile app.

Jonathan Bass, the global spokesman for Wing, described Logan as the “drone delivery capital of the world”, one where consumers had been quick to utilise e-commerce and online delivery providers.

“We’ve done up to 1000 deliveries a day and certain weeks in Logan. They’re very enthusiastic about new technologies generally but especially drone delivery. So it’s the perfect place to for us to start,” he said.

Wing, which has already established an app-based delivery service in Logan and Canberra, had made about 200,000 deliveries to date, he said.

DoorDash Australian general manager Rebecca Burrows said over the past three DoorDash had grown to cover about 80 per cent of the Australian population.

“You could say we’re in pretty much every city in town with over about 25,000 residents. We have around about 30,000 merchants on the DoorDash platform and we have around active 70,000 dashers,” she said.

The pilot would not initially include hot food but rather deliver grocery and healthcare items, Ms Burrows said.

Mr Bass said the drones could carry just over 1kg of weight and could fly 20km round trips. However at launch, the initial delivery zone will not be than 7km from the dark warehouse. The drones would deliver to predetermined drop zones, he said.

A DoorDash worker adjust a drone.

Mr Bass said delivery did not require customer participation, rather the drones would hover around 7m above the location and lower the delivery to the ground with a tether.

“We spent a lot of time perfecting that delivery mechanism so it gently lowers the package and it hits the spot really within a few centimetres each time,” he said.

Harrison Shih, DoorDash Labs director of product, said eligible customers would see within the app when placing an order if their delivery was eligible to be carried by drone. Customers could request new delivery zones but they would need to be cleared by DoorDash and Wing first, he said.

Originally published as DoorDash, Wing launch drone delivery service