Wing, DoorDash break into Virginia

Step by steady step, delivery drone technology is spreading across the USA, as it looks like delivery drone maker Wing and online food ordering and delivery platform DoorDash are becoming fast friends in their quest to claim a significant share of the market.

Having first hooked up for a delivery by drone project in Queeensland, Australia in 2022; the food delivery company has decided to join hands with Wing again as it sets to consolidate its operations in the state of Virginia in the USA.

Beginning with the town of Christiansburg a few days ago, DoorDash and Wing have selected some consumers to order eligible menu items from Wendy’s — the pilot’s first restaurant partner — through the DoorDash marketplace and have them delivered by drone.

Wing and DoorDash have not listed the qualifying items, but we are sure users of the DoorDash app will get the information upon opening it to shop from the Wendy’s alongside N. Franklin Street.

There, they will find a new option to have their meal delivered by drone on the checkout page. Once they select drone delivery and place their order, the package will be prepared and packaged at the Wendy’s location and delivered via a Wing drone, typically in 30 minutes or less.

“Expanding our partnership with DoorDash and launching in the US is a direct result of the success we’ve seen from our initial collaboration in Australia, where Wing has served tens of thousands of customers via the DoorDash app for over a year now,” said Cosimo Leipold, Head of Partnerships, at Wing.

“Wing has now made over 350,000 deliveries across three countries and looking ahead we are focused on providing a fast, affordable and safe service to our partners so they can better serve their customers. This moment continues our meaningful expansion of this service in the U.S. and advances our shared goal to better the last-mile delivery ecosystem.”

The two companies’ collaboration in Australia in 2022 and has since expanded to three locations in Queensland with over 60 participating merchants, marking the first time that Wing integrated its drone delivery service within another marketplace.

“We are excited to expand our partnership with Wing in the US to integrate drone delivery into DoorDash’s ecosystem,” said Harrison Shih, Senior Director of DoorDash Labs.

“At DoorDash, we are committed to advancing last-mile logistics by building a multi-modal delivery platform that serves all sides of our marketplace. We’re optimistic about the value drone delivery will bring to our platform as we work to offer more efficient, sustainable, and convenient delivery options for consumers.”

Wing first launched package delivery operations in Christiansburg way back in 2019, and in the company’s reckoning, the local community has played an integral part ensuring the success of drone deliveries in the area. In Wing’s words, the town then marks a perfect place for the resumption of its relationship with DoorDash in the US.

The drone delivery partnership with Wing was born out of DoorDash Labs, which is DoorDash’s robotics and automation arm. Wings’s drones travel around 65mph, then hover and gently lower clients’ orders right outside their doorstep using a tether.

The company says it has been buoyed on its delivery journey by a recent survey it conducted, which revealed rising acceptance for drone deliveries among consumers in the US.

“In our recent survey with 1,000 US consumers, we uncovered a rising sentiment for sustainable delivery,” the company says.

“46 percent want a more environmentally friendly option for single-item delivery (and) the expansion of our partnership with DoorDash is exactly the kind of sustainable option that people want for small orders, as a complement to larger orders traditionally fulfilled by Dashers.”

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