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Zipline is on the move again.  Fresh from delivering medical supplies to remote areas in North  Carolina, Arkansas and Utah, the Silicon Valley-based drone company has just inked a partnership with Michigan Medicine (MM), an Ann Arbor-based health system, to deliver specialty pharmaceutical medicines across the Wolverine State.

The partnership is somewhat new for Zipline because its partner isn’t a hospital or health care center but a private drug company that plans to deliver its packages widely to individual consumers.  That also gives Zipline an opportunity to showcase its new “instant delivery” system, which allows for precise package drops to individual homes, eliminating the need for road vehicle support and reducing package delivery times to a matter of minutes.   It’s a perfect match at the perfect time.

Michigan Medicine chose Zipline based on the drone company’s reputation as the world’s leader in remote aerial package delivery.  Zipline first cut its teeth delivering vaccines and blood plasma supplies in Rwanda in 2016 but has since expanded throughout Africa and more recently, in Japan and into a growing number of US locations.  In fact, Zipline is one of the few drone companies to be granted regular waivers from the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations, which allows the company to fly in populated areas at lower altitudes and longer distances without the need for remote piloting and constant flight monitoring.   That also makes the company ideal for MM, because its deliveries, set to commence in 2024, could well spread  statewide.

Zipline has been anxious to test its instant delivery system in a US location for months. Until now, especially in Africa and Japan, the company has delivered packages with fixed-wing drones that speed past landing zones, usually open fields and forest clearings, dropping their payloads by parachute.  But with “instant delivery,” Zipline drones aren’t racing by their drop zones at low altitudes anymore.  Instead, they’re hovering above – far above, in fact (as high as 400 feet) – then gently lowering their packages encased in a “druid” – or plastic container – on a metal cable and resting it on doorsteps, porches and picnic tables with pinpoint accuracy – indeed, to any spot the customer prefers.

The payload capacity of the new drones is impressive – up to 14 pounds – and they can fly for 24 miles without the need for recharging.  They also come with specially designed propellers that reduce noise pollution – a common complaint with package delivery drones – to a bare minimum.  Michigan Medicine insists it’s not abandoning its brick-and-mortar pharmacies or eliminating road vehicle delivery completely.  But it’s looking to drones to speed delivery times for medicines that must be kept cold and delivered rapidly to patients with rare ailments.  Slow-moving trucks and vans require extra styrofoam packaging due to the road time required and they can’t always reach remote areas, especially during heavy snow or rain. Zipline drones avoid traffic delays and road outages, are weather tested, and the deliveries are faster and cheaper.

And they’re also more sustainable – about 97% more sustainable according to Zipline’s data.  That’s an important consideration for a forward healthcare company like MM concerned about its public image.

Zipline’s new partnership with MM will be closely watched by industry observers.  It’s a novel experiment that could, if successful, make  “last mile” deliveries far more drone-centric – and in theory, faster, cheaper and more sustainable than ever.  And with expanded BVLOS authority, they can demonstrate what properly managed drones free of excessive FAA regulatory control and oversight can do to save lives.