DoorDash (NASDAQ: DASH) and Wing have jointly announced the commencement of their drone delivery collaboration in the United States, debuting in Christiansburg, VA. This initiative enables select local customers to order eligible items from Wendy’s®, the inaugural restaurant partner in this pilot program, via the DoorDash marketplace and have them delivered by drone. This initiative follows the successful launch of a drone delivery trial program by DoorDash and Wing in Australia in 2022, which has since expanded to three locations in Queensland, boasting over 60 participating merchants. Notably, this marks the first instance of Wing integrating its drone delivery service into another marketplace.
Harrison Shih, Senior Director of DoorDash Labs, expressed enthusiasm about broadening the partnership with Wing in the U.S., integrating drone delivery into DoorDash’s ecosystem. He emphasized DoorDash’s commitment to advancing last-mile logistics by creating a multi-modal delivery platform that caters to all facets of their marketplace. Shih anticipates the value drone delivery will bring to the platform, enhancing efficiency, sustainability, and convenience for consumers.
Cosimo Leipold, Head of Partnerships at Wing, attributed the expansion of the partnership with DoorDash and the U.S. launch to the success observed in Australia. Leipold highlighted Wing’s significant milestone of over 350,000 deliveries across three countries and emphasized their dedication to offering a swift, economical, and safe service to partners to better serve their customers. This launch in the U.S. marks a meaningful expansion of the service and aligns with their mutual objective of enhancing the last-mile delivery ecosystem.
Starting today, eligible DoorDash customers in Christiansburg, VA, can select drone delivery when ordering from the Wendy’s located at 2355 N. Franklin Street through the DoorDash app. Once chosen, the order will be prepared and packaged at the Wendy’s location and delivered via a Wing drone, typically within 30 minutes.
This partnership aims to offer an innovative delivery solution complementary to traditional Dasher-fulfilled orders, providing a swift and eco-friendly option for small, short-distance orders. It also holds the potential for incremental order growth across the DoorDash platform. While initially available in Christiansburg, the pilot program plans to expand to other U.S. cities later this year.
The collaboration with Wing stems from DoorDash Labs, the company’s robotics and automation division, viewing automation as a strategic means to meet consumer demand and enhance platform efficiencies.
For more information about Wing’s operations and the U.S. pilot program, interested parties can visit the Wing website.
