Customers near the Walmart Supercenter in Winter Haven now have the option of drone delivery of a few grocery items to their front yard in 30 minutes or less.
The service from the Walmart at 7450 Cypress Gardens Blvd. comes in a box with a 10-pound capacity. That’s about the weight of one carton of Red Bull in a box that fits about two loaves of bread.
So far, drone deliveries are only permitted within a 0.8-mile radius but as soon as the Federal Aviation Administration allows it, the aerial drop-offs could expand to a 2-mile radius of the store.
The drone hub in Winter Haven was announced in January as part of a national and statewide launch of the program in partnership with DroneUp LLC, a Virginia Beach-based company. But locals may have seen the drones buzzing overhead as the company started the hub in October.
“Over the past year, Walmart’s drone program has really taken flight (pun intended), a company press release said. “Walmart now operates in partnership with its vendors, 36 drone delivery hubs across 7 states – including Florida,”
The Florida locations are:
- Walmart Supercenter, 8745 State Road 54, New Port Richey
- Walmart Supercenter, 2140 Bloomingdale Ave., Valrico
- Walmart Supercenter, 7450 Cypress Gardens Blvd., Winter Haven
- Walmart Supercenter, 19910 Bruce B Downs Blvd., Tampa
- Walmart Supercenter, 1208 E Brandon Blvd., Brandon
Last year, the drone hubs completed 6,000 deliveries including the top five customer favorites, cookies, ice cream, lemons, rotisserie chicken, Red Bull, and paper towels.
So far, prescription drugs are not being flown but that is in the works for later this year. Some drone delivery hubs have been in operation for a year, including one in Walmart’s corporate hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas.
According to Keith Christensen, hub leader at DroneUp, customers in the vicinity of the Winter Haven Walmart can place an order via the website (droneupdelivery.com) between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily.
There are 10,000 eligible items for drone delivery including fragile items such as eggs. There are no minimum orders and the delivery fee is $3.99.
The drone hub employee then takes their smartphone with them inside the Walmart store and picks out the order for the customer, Christensen said. The hub employee enters each item they shop for on their phone and the customers can see in real-time how their order is coming together.
“Once the aircraft is airborne another update will go out to the customer saying that the drone is in the air and on its way to your house,” he said.
The drones reach a cruising altitude of around 223 feet after takeoff from the Winter Haven hub and hover over the delivery location at 80 feet after arrival. A winch lowers the box containing the items to the ground and it detaches once the box makes a soft landing on the ground. The winch system then releases from the box and recoils to the drone before the aircraft returns to the hub at 223 feet.
A visual observer in a marked van keeps the drone within sight throughout each flight, he said. As FAA regulations are updated, solo drones controlled only remotely may be allowed but not yet. The drone pilot regulations to become certified are covered under the FAA Part 107 guidelines.
“We have a visual observer as part of the drone team who is also an FAA certified pilot that goes out to the address … just to keep eyes on the drone and just make sure everything is safe and functioning at this point,” Christensen said.
Another pilot watches the drone from a video console at the hub in real-time, he said. None of the video is recorded at the hub for privacy reasons. The pilot also sees a radar screen showing any other aircraft within the local airspace.
“Safety and privacy are our number one concerns,” Christensen said.
The spot here in Polk County was chosen due to numerous factors including population density, weather, and purchase patterns. The location is more than five miles from the nearest airport. The drone does have an anti-collision device as seaplanes and helicopters could enter the same airspace.
Typical flights last between two to six minutes and the drones are grounded in any weather disturbances from rain, fog and low-lying clouds to severe summer thunderstorms. Customers will be blocked from ordering by the website when the hub grounds the delivery drones.
To build awareness of the drone delivery service, Christensen said the aircraft provide community service including delivery of water to thirsty bocce ball players at a nearby Winter Haven golf course.
The store manager, Taylor Fletcher, said the drone delivery service is definitely part of the future for her store, as many are already utilizing Walmart’s online delivery service to the tune of 3,500 per week.
“The customers aren’t just in the brick-and-mortar stores anymore,” Taylor said. “They’re ‘omni’ and they want whatever is convenient for them.”