Food and grocery deliveries by drone coming to Queensland this month

A fleet of drones will begin making sorties over Queensland homes this month, delivering everything from milk to hardware in minutes.

Wing, a Google-linked company, is expected to begin trial of its drone home-delivery service to houses in the suburbs of Crestmead and Marsden, about 30km from Brisbane’s CBD, by the end of the month.

The drones will deliver products from Extraction Artisan Coffee, Friendly Grocer Crestmead and Browns Plains Hardware. 

Wing has partnered with Extraction Artisan Coffee, Friendly Grocer Crestmead and Browns Plains Hardware for the delivery

Initially, delivery by drone will be offered free of charge for early customers who have to sign up for the ‘Early Flyer’ program. 

They will need to download the Wing app on their mobile phones, somewhat similar to other food delivery apps, to place an order. 

The expansion of Wing’s operations followed on from a trial delivering to 100 homes in Canberra since April.

The company recently received permission to expend into more suburbs in the ACT.

Wing chief executive James Ryan Burgess said the company had plans to launch it services into more Australian regions in future. 

Initial delivery with drone will be offered free of charge for customers singing up for its ‘Early flyer’ program. They will need to download Wings app on their mobile phones, somewhat similar to other food delivery apps, to place an order 

Project Wing first started trials on burrito-deliveries in the U.S. state of Virginia in 2016 and then moved its testing site to southeastern Australia last year.

But while the scheme has proved a hit with many, neighbours of some customers in the Canberra suburb of Bonython had made complaints.

Some had issues with the noise, others say the drones scare their dogs and one woman said she returned home to find hot chocolate she had not ordered outside her home after a customer entered the wrong address for a delivery.

‘Directly from that feedback we engineered new propellers and motors for our system to be quieter,’ Mr Burgess told Brisbane Times 

‘It actually changed the tone, drones are normally quite high-pitched, and we changed the tone to lower it to match noise people would be more familiar with.

‘Once we made that change to the quieter drone we saw the feedback shift from complaints to people wanting to use the service.’ 

Wings will be flying the quieter drones in Logan, however its services are restricted to day time only as they are in Canberra. 

Wing has been flying its drones to 100 homes in Crace, Palmerston and Franklin suburbs in Canberra on a trial basis since April this year