Some of the best-known companies in the world are unveiling new drones and announcing ambitious plans to use unmanned aerial vehicles to deliver everything from food to medicine to household goods. It’s important to remember that, while companies like Amazon have been discussing their plans for drone delivery, our much smaller, nimbler company is already doing it.
It takes navigating a series of legal hurdles just to get approval to fly a delivery drone over a highway, or to fly beyond the operator’s visual line of sight. Earning the approvals from regulators and local officials means working closely with government bodies in order to ensure the highest safety standards.
Quite a lot of companies are in the midst of this now. But someone had to go first.
So how can a relatively small company like Flytrex compete with the likes of Google and Amazon? Following the roadmap that many successful Enterprise 4.0 companies have used to disrupt horizontal industries, we offer a full-stack solution, not just a technology. We incorporate embedded AI, automate workflows and collect unique data sets.
This is why Flytrex is the drone delivery service that has already taken off.
The Nimble Startup
Flytrex was one of the first companies to get approval to fly a delivery drone beyond the operator’s line of sight, and amongst the first to get permission in the U.S. to cross a highway. We’ve been up and running in Reykjavik, Iceland since 2017.
We were a pioneer, and we’re not even a drone manufacturer. Flytrex is an AI-embedded logistics company that uses drones as a conduit for our robust data-driven navigation system, which can be operated by any trained retail or restaurant employee. This is an example of automated workflows at its finest.
Icelandic aviation officials were ready to work with a logistics company like us, and we were fortunate enough to find a great local partner in Aha.is, the largest e-commerce site in Reykjavik.
Working together, we launched a system that enables Aha.is to make five times the number of deliveries per hour than it used to make. Furthermore, we pleased their customers by offering them the most futuristic, high-tech, on-demand delivery system for food and retail goods in the world.
There are times when it pays not to be one of the Big Four technology companies. Flytrex worked with local partners to make history in a place like Reykjavik—all the while reporting back to HQ in Israel. That takes a nimble, adaptable startup.
The Demand for Drone Delivery
The world used to run on two-day shipping, which evolved to next-day delivery and then to where we are today: same-hour.
Using drones to make this happen is the natural next step in the process. The emergence of one-click shopping, which put the world at our fingertips, has taught consumers to expect instant gratification, and this extends to the delivery of goods. This has put tremendous pressure on retailers. The cost of on-demand and last-mile services decimate profits, and retailers must deliver what customers want when they want it—and somehow remain profitable. Drones offer a great solution.
They are not only effective for retailers looking to operate an affordable and scalable on-demand service, but by replacing gas-guzzling trucks, vans and motorbikes, these 100% electric drones can help reduce pollution levels and traffic congestion.
But how can this possibly work when regular people can deliver food with a car but only experienced pilots can operate delivery drones? The key to solving this conundrum is to design a system that’s as seamless and easy to manage as the one FedEx uses for its fleet of trucks, or that UberEats uses for its fleet of food delivery vehicles. This is what we built at Flytrex.—we have developed a cloud-based system where drones can be dispatched with the press of a button, piloted by your current delivery people, with no prior experience in airplanes or drones needed.
From a Crawl to a Run
In addition to making history by delivering goods straight to the backyards of the residents of Reykjavik, we notched another milestone when we started delivering beverages from the sky to golfers at the King’s Walk Golf Course in North Dakota.
We were thrilled to announce in August that, after working with local partner Causey Aviation Unmanned, we received FAA approval to begin food delivery by drone in Holly Springs, North Carolina as part of its Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Integration Pilot Program. Our route connects a shopping mall and an outdoor recreation center, and we’re set to turn a 20-minute round-trip drive into a five-minute operation, without burning gasoline. We’ll use our proprietary wire-drop system to gently lower packages to the ground from 80 feet in the air, and we expect consumers to love both the convenience and the spectacle. This operational data will provide the company with a unique data set that won’t just help us better serve our partners and customers in North Carolina, but all of our future partners and customers as well.
A lot of other companies are crowding into this space now, including several tech giants who are household names. Flytrex will be just one name out of many announcing expanded drone delivery operations in the U.S. in the near future.
But aviation officials and other regulators—not to mention local authorities in a range of different cities—will require even the most established companies to crawl, and then walk, before they run.
In Iceland–and in other places far away from the traditional seat of innovation–we were able to fly, perfecting the drone delivery experience. We formed new partnerships with local agencies, regulatory bodies and companies quickly, and dealt with turbulence as we encountered it.
Enterprise 4.0
Flytrex has a track record of doing what the big companies are only attempting to do now, and we have learned, sometimes the hard way, how to be a successful player in the era of Enterprise 4.0:
Establish your place in an industry by starting on a local level. Learn about your customers’ needs by working with them closely. Build trust with partners and customers by focusing on their needs, then gradually move toward larger scale operations. Work hand in hand with local government and regulatory bodies to ensure the highest standards of safety and professionalism, and to pave the runway for public acceptance.
Crawl and walk before you run, as regulators and local officials require.
Success in the era of Enterprise 4.0 means pushing the boundaries of almost every industry, which involves working closely with regulators and local officials and a range of other businesses.
Offering AI technology like robotics for intelligent automation is no longer enough — you need to deliver a complete solution. You need to put boots on the ground, and work closely with partners and customers to understand the pain points your product or service will solve.
This approach is the reason Flytrex was amongst the first to deliver goods from the sky to the hands of consumers.
