Seen a drone zipping around Ringwood? It’s very likely carrying a coffee from the local shopping centre to someone’s home. Even better, the beverage is likely to arrive piping hot, with latte art intact.

The flying coffee is possible because Melbourne’s first drone delivery service launched yesterday, a partnership between Eastland shopping centre, food delivery app DoorDash and Wing, the drone service operated by Alphabet, Google’s parent company.

When an order comes in via the app, Eastland cafes and restaurants prepare the food or drink and place it in a special cardboard bag. A Wing staff member takes it to a rooftop carpark that has been converted to a mini airport for 18 styrofoam drones, each weighing five kilograms and able to carry deliveries weighing just over one kilogram.

When a delivery is ready, a drone hovers and releases a tether; the food bag is hooked to the drone and it zooms skywards. The drone climbs to 75 metres and zips through the air at 110km/h to its destination, following an automated route to homes within a seven-kilometre radius.

On arrival, it descends to seven metres and lowers the bag to the ground, where it’s gently released. The tether is retracted and the drone returns to base. The promise is hot coffee, crisp fries and unmelted ice-cream.

Drone delivery via DoorDash has been operating since 2022 in Logan, south of Brisbane. “The quality control is really good,” says Wing spokesperson Jesse Suskin. “We’ve delivered tens of thousands of flat whites because customers know they stay hot.”

There are efficiency benefits too. “You save the car trip, it travels faster than a car and doesn’t stop for traffic lights,” says Suskin. “Drones run on battery and have no emissions. If you were to order a packet of spaghetti delivered by drone, the delivery uses less energy than you would boiling the water to cook it. In the same way you wouldn’t use a city bus to drive yourself around, moving a four-door car to buy a burger and fries doesn’t really make sense.”

“I could easily have imagined someone made it and passed it straight to me. Juice seems to love flying.”

Dani Valent

Drone services are regulated by the federal Civil Aviation Safety Authority, which has approved Wing Aviation to deliver food, drink and household items. As well as Logan, Wing launched in Canberra in 2022 in partnership with Coles. That service paused 18 months later: the capital’s scheme was hampered by raven attacks during nesting season and residents complaining about annoying buzzing.

The latest generation of drones is quieter and birds have been taken into account. “We work closely with bird experts to make sure that our operations don’t negatively affect bird life,” says Dave Ojiako-Pettit, the operations manager for Wing in Australia. “We avoid sensitive areas such as wetlands and find that birds just think our aircraft are other birds.”

The Melbourne delivery zone takes in 250,000 potential customers in 26 suburbs including Ringwood, Bayswater, Blackburn and Boronia. The flights from Eastland are completely automated, with routing controlled by a system called Uncrewed Traffic Management (UTM) which considers no-fly zones, weather and obstacles.

“The drone flies itself to your home, but we do have a pilot in the loop,” says Jesse Suskin. “Off-site pilots keep an eye on the weather and monitor the system.”

He doesn’t anticipate many no-fly days. “We are weatherised,” he says. “We can fly in the rain, and we have high wind tolerance.”

Melbourne is an obvious next step for Wing. “I can’t think of a city with a better food reputation in Australia or around the world,” says Suskin. “We’re excited to be part of it.”

But does it mean less work for delivery drivers? “Nothing changes for our [delivery contractors] who continue to make deliveries through the DoorDash platform.”

DoorDash Air road test

But is it any good?

I tried three items via drone delivery: a hot coffee, a frozen juice and a toastie.

The verdict

I’m always going to prefer to visit a cafe or restaurant for an in-person experience. However, for the novelty, efficiency and some environmental benefits, I can see the upside of delivery by drone.

It’s hard to say exactly how much the delivery fee is, because DoorDash builds the cost in, but in essence the cost to the consumer isn’t higher. If I was in the zone and desperate for a coffee, maybe I would welcome that whizzing whip in the air above my front door.