7-Eleven Drone Deliveries Keep Flying
IRVING, Texas — 7-Eleven Inc. and Flirtey continue to take their collaboration to new heights. Five months after the pair teamed up for the retailer's first drone delivery, 7-Eleven and Flirtey have completed 77 autonomous drone deliveries to customer homes in the United States.
The drone delivery service kicked off in July and was conducted in celebration of 7-Eleven's 89th birthday, as CSNews Online previously reported.
Flirtey is the first drone delivery service to complete regular commercial deliveries to customer homes in the United States.
According to Flirtey, the company conducted regular weekend deliveries during November from a local 7-Eleven store to a dozen select customers who were able to use a custom app to place their unique order.
Along with listing all items available for delivery, the interactive app also notified customers when their drone was loaded, when it departed from the store and when it was arriving at their doorstep, the company added.
Once an order was placed, 7-Eleven merchandise — including items such a hot and cold food, and over-the-counter medicines — were loaded into a custom Flirtey drone delivery container and flown autonomously using precision GPS to a local customer's house.
Once at the home, the Flirtey drone hovered in place and lowered the package. On average, customers receive their packages by Flirtey less than 10 minutes from the point of order.
All of the customers who participated stated they will continue to use Flirtey drone delivery service as operations expand, Flirtey added.
"Flirtey is the world's leader in the drone delivery industry and we have now successfully completed the first month of routine commercial drone deliveries to customer homes in partnership with 7-Eleven," said Flirtey CEO Matthew Sweeny.
"While other companies in this space are shipping jobs overseas, Flirtey's goal is to make delivery instant, and in the process create jobs at home for hardworking Americans and veterans. This is a giant leap towards a future where everyone can experience the convenience of Flirtey's instant store-to-door drone delivery."
In addition to these commercial deliveries, Flirtey and 7-Eleven are planning to expand their drone delivery operations in 2017.
Flirtey is a Nevada-based startup that has worked with NASA and top universities to create the technology and logistics systems for a mass-market drone delivery network.
Irving-based 7-Eleven operates, franchises and/or licenses more than 60,000 stores in 17 countries, including 10,700 in North America.