Supermarket giant Coles will deliver groceries to customers via drone starting next month as part of a trial with Alphabet subsidiary Wing.
The drone delivery trial in South East Queensland begins next Wednesday, Nov. 2, and will cover the Gold Coast suburbs of Ormeau, Ormeau Hills and Yatala with orders from the Coles store at Ormeau Village Shopping Centre.
The Wing drone has a wingspan of 1.3 meters, weighs about 5 kg and travels at a speed of about 110 km/h. The Google sibling company was launched in Australia in 2019 as the first place to test the viability of commercial drone delivery after five years of development. The two main pilot sites are Canberra and Logan in Queensland, which supply coffee, fast food and roast chicken.
Last year, Wing reached a total of 100,000 deliveries and described Logan as “the drone delivery capital of the world,” with about 5,000 deliveries per week. Demand has continued to rise with over 120,000 deliveries in Australia this year.
Coles began a trial of drone delivery in Canberra in March this year and more than 5,000 deliveries have been made through Wing, including fresh fruit, milk, bread, eggs, snacks and cold drinks. Gold Coast’s store-to-door drone delivery is expanding to other nearby suburbs, delivering 500 groceries, including bread, fresh produce, ready meals, snacks, healthcare items and household essentials.
At the delivery destination, the drone descends to approximately 7 meters above the ground, lowers the package to the ground on a chain and automatically releases it before returning to the Coles store, where a fleet of Wing drones is lined up in the parking lot.
James Geddes, Coles’ head of network development and customer delivery, said they are delighted to expand the drone delivery pilot program to Queensland.
“The service will be an easy and effective way to deliver daily necessities to our customers’ homes in minutes,” he said.
“This new service reinforces our commitment to improve the way our customers shop at Coles by shopping anytime, anywhere, anyhow, while supporting our ambition to be Australia’s most sustainable supermarket by increasing the number of trucks on the road. to keep reducing.”
As part of its South East Queensland expansion, Wing will also offer Coles delivery from the rooftop of Grand Plaza in Logan, where it has been operating a drone delivery service for select on-site businesses for nearly a year.
Wing Australia CEO Simon Rossi said the company is investing in a series of pilot programs to enable large-scale drone delivery.
“Since launching our drone delivery service in Logan a few years ago, we have heard from customers in South East Queensland who are eager to see drone delivery expanded to their region,” he said,
“We are excited that through this pilot program with Coles, drone delivery will be available for the first time to residents of the Gold Coast city.”
Orders go through the Wing app. Delivery from Coles in Ormeau is available from 9am to 4.30pm, Tuesday to Sunday.