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UPS and CVS partner to deliver prescriptions by drone

Not to be outdone by its longtime rival FedEx, UPS has announced a partnership with CVS Pharmacy to deliver prescriptions by drone. The logistics giant has reached an agreement with CVS to use drones for a variety of deliveries.

Prescriptions by drone

Neither CVS nor UPS announced a start date for their deliveries by drone of prescriptions and other home goods, but they seemed to be in a hurry to get their press release out soon after FedEx, Wing, and Walgreens made their announcement earlier this week.

UPS was recently awarded Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval for operating a drone airline under Part 135.

UPS already has some experience delivering blood samples on the WakeMed Hospital Campus, but these plans with CVS seem to be far more ambitious, as the logistics company would potentially be making deliveries by drone over congested urban areas with a much larger range of products.

With the UPS and FedEx announcements in the same week, it sure seems that competition in the deliveries-by-drones space is heating up. Both companies are eager to get ahead in this new segment. Similar ambitions are probably driving CVS and Walgreens as well. But we will have to see how long it will take before we will see deliveries by drone become routine. Remember Jeff Bezos’ predictions?

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Avatar for Haye Kesteloo Haye Kesteloo

Haye Kesteloo is the Editor in Chief and Main Writer at DroneDJ, where he covers all drone related news and writes product reviews. He also contributes to the other sites in the 9to5Mac group such as; 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, 9to5Toys and Electrek. Haye can be reached at haye@dronedj.com or @hayekesteloo