The race for becoming the primary drone delivery service in the United States is officially on! For the last year, drone delivery trials throughout North Carolina and West Virginia have set a precedent for how drones can be safely used to transport goods from one location to another. In response to local quarantine measures, retailers have been receiving waivers to use drones to deliver products to people’s homes. Just a few weeks ago, Amazon announced that they were finally rolling out a trial of their much awaited 30 minutes or less drone delivery service. Proving that they are as ready as ever to compete, Walmart announced that they too were ready to enter the drone delivery race.

Walmart quietly began drone delivery trials last April in Grand Forks, ND. Partnering up with Flytrex to coordinate the drones, Walmart set up a drone hub that could deliver small packages of groceries to nearby customer’s yards. With the success of the North Dakota test, Walmart expanded its drone delivery partnership with Flytrex to Fayetteville, NC earlier this month. Again, customers would be able to receive small grocery orders via drones directly to their homes. A few days after Walmart went public with the North Carolina test site, they announced a third test site.

Walmart’s next drone delivery program is set to commence near its headquarters in Bentonville, AR. This time Walmart has partnered with Zipline to deliver pharmacy related items to customers with drones. Zipline has become world famous for pioneering cost and time efficient deliveries of medical supplies with drones throughout Rwanda and Ghana. When the United States began enforcing quarantine measures a few months ago, Zipline founder and CEO Keller Rinaudo, expressed great interest in bringing Zipline back home to smoothly see American’s receive the medical supplies they needed without having to leave the safety of their homes.

Looking to stand out even further in the drone delivery sector, Walmart has announced a fourth trial to begin this fall. Several companies are now using drones to deliver personal items like medications, groceries, takeout meals, and basic necessities. But none of these companies have begun using drones to deliver one of the most needed commodities of 2020, COVID-19 test kits. In a first, Walmart will begin delivering COVID-19 test kits directly to customers with drones in North Las Vegas, NV.

The drones will be operated and supplied by DroneUp based out of Virginia Beach, VA. Covid-19 test kits will be supplied and shipped by Walmart using drones and logistics from DroneUp. Each kit will come with a pre-paid mailing envelope to send to Quest Diagnostics for results. According to a release from Walmart, the program will be available to those in a “single-family residence within a 1-mile radius of the designated Supercenters in North Las Vegas and Cheektowaga.” The release goes on to state that the drones will deliver the test kits to the customer’s “driveway, front sidewalk, or backyard of the customer’s home, depending on where there are cars and trees.” Sweetening the deal, even more, is the fact that Walmart is providing the kits and drone delivery as a free service for the time being.

Unlike other drone delivery program trials like those by Amazon and Google, Walmart will continue to outsource the drones and logistics for these deliveries. Walmart has looked into developing their own drones, and even has several patents in place for delivery capable drones. But, as the pressure for taking control of drone deliveries grows, Walmart will stick with what they know best…being the world’s largest retailer. That’s not to say Walmart won’t one day introduce their own fleet of drones, but for now, they are concentrating on proving the system works.

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