Flytrex adds Automated Pickup system to speed drone delivery

Drone delivery startup Flytrex has announced an upgrade of the method it uses to upload food orders destined for customer households, as part of an effort to reduce processing and transport time and permit the company to continue expanding its aerial business activity.

Today Flytrex revealed the introduction of its Autonomous Pickup system for restaurants and other food retailers it provides drone deliveries to, swapping what had been the manual uploading of meals at central UAV operating locations. Instead, employees of partnering businesses will now attach prepared items to a secure hook lowered directly down from a craft hovering above their store, with goods then immediately flown and lowered to the yards, driveways, or residences of waiting consumers.

Flytrex says the innovation will cut considerable time off drone delivery of food orders – around five minutes from transport that usually ranges from about 15 minutes down to the company’s 2022 record mark of 12:32.

The new adaptation of its operation is the latest step in the startup’s evolution since it first began aerial services in 2017 in Iceland, to improving and expanding the networks of UAVs it currently oversees in several areas of North Carolina and Texas. 

“This announcement is a testament to Flytrex’s continued commitment to a future of ultrafast delivery for everyone,” said Yariv Bash, CEO of Flytrex. “What’s so unique about this innovation is its real potential to move the needle, with more and more businesses getting on board with an undeniably seamless and cost-effective process. This upgrade is a huge step forward in achieving our vision to provide drone delivery to the millions of residents across suburban America.”

Read: Flytrex reports enormous surge in 2022 drone delivery activity

The modernization of Flytrex’s loading process in its drone delivery activity follows the lead of sector giants like Wing and Zipline, which are creating entirely new, fully automated in-house client infrastructure and large grids of charging stations permitting decentralized UAV dispatching and transport.

While the new Flytrex Automated Pickup procedure won’t involve the same extensive ground structures those bigger, deeper-pocketed drone delivery peers have committed to – yet, anyway – it is similarly designed to fuel the company’s brisk growth rate by facilitating and speeding critical work phases.

That cadence was previously accelerated by Flytrex earning successive beyond visual line of sight flight authorizations, as well as permissions to overfly new urban areas. The resulting increase in range and flexibilities from those approvals allowed the company to enlarge its base of potential drone delivery customers by 138% last year alone, with a rise from 40,000 to 95,000 households. 

Read: Flytrex gets FAA okay to double drone delivery areas in NC, Texas

Last January, meantime, Flytrex’s longtime UAV operating partner Causey Aviation Unmanned earned the Federal Aviation Administration’s Standard Part 135 Air Carrier Certification, allowing it to operate and complete long-range on-demand commercial drone deliveries across the United States. As a result, the company now operates seven days per week, completing hundreds of flights every day between food retailers and customer households.