The Bengaluru-based Swiggy has announced that it will begin using drones for its Instamart rapid grocery delivery service in May. Using drones, the company plans to restock goods between dark storefronts, from the seller’s position to the common point closest to the customer’s delivery address, completing what it terms the middle-delivery layer……………… In order to expedite delivery times, the Dark Store is a small fulfillment center.
Swiggy stated in a blog post on Friday that the last deliveries will be made by its on-ground fleet.
Bengaluru and Delhi NCR are slated to be the first cities where pilots will be conducted (national capital region).
To see if drones can be used for middle-mile delivery, particularly for Swiggy’s food delivery service, Instamart, the trial will be carried out.” Seller-run dark stores and a store in a common customer location will both use drones for stock replenishment. Customers will subsequently be able to pick up their items at a common location and have them delivered to their door by a delivery partner,” the business added in the blog post.
Garuda Aerospace, Skyeair Mobility, the ANRA Technologies, and TechEagle consortia as well as Marut Dronetech have been chosen for pilots by Swiggy.
The pilots will begin immediately at Garuda Aerospace in Bangalore and Skyeair Mobility in Delhi and the NCR.
This time around, the ANRA and TechEagle consortia, as well as Marut Dronetech, will begin and work on plots following the first tranche’s learnings. An ANRA Technologies-led consortium of which Swiggy is a member has gained government permission to begin BVLOS drone trials in India, ETtech reported on June 16, 2021.
Garuda Aerospace and Skyeair Mobility will begin the pilot in Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR. Expansion in the region and beyond is expected based on the current progress.
“We are embarking on an adventure that is both thrilling and taxing. When it comes to drone deliveries, “we look forward to engaging with our partners and leveraging these pilots as a stepping stone in unearthing potential,” Swiggy wrote on its blog.
345 players applied to Swiggy’s RFP for the drone delivery service, according to the company’s announcement.
In the end, the RFP was awarded after a lengthy evaluation process that included legal, financial, and technical rounds.” We’ve narrowed it down to four vendors in two tranches that have a mix of drone hardware capabilities, capability to grow, investment in innovation, R&D and the overall capacity to deliver service,” Swiggy said.
Source: The Economic Times
