Flirtey, 7-Eleven to elevate drone delivery beyond novelty act

Flirtey drones and the 7-Eleven convenience store chain have been busy ramping up their drone-delivery service agreement since delivering the first iced “Slurpee” drink to a customer in Nevada this July. The partners have now announced the completion of 77 autonomous drone deliveries to customer homes in the United States.

With Amazon completing its own automated delivery earlier this month, followed by the promise of a meaningful scale-up in the coming months, drone delivery seems to be moving out of the “novelty-act” phase towards economic viability.

Flirtey said that it conducted “regular weekend deliveries” during November 2016 from an undisclosed 7-Eleven store to a roster of select customers who placed orders with a custom app. Along with listing all items available for delivery, the app also notified customers when their drone was loaded, when it departed the store and when it arrived.

On average, customers received their packages by Flirtey less than 10 minutes from the point of order. It follows that customers overwhelmingly opted to continue the delivery services.

“We have successfully completed the first month of routine commercial drone deliveries to customer homes in partnership with 7-Eleven,” said Flirtey CEO Matthew Sweeny. “While other companies in this space are shipping jobs overseas, Flirtey’s goal is to make delivery instant and, in the process, create jobs at home for hardworking Americans and veterans.”