Asian convenience stores are known for the wide variety and high quality of their products – and now, 7-Eleven in Japan is adding 20 minute delivery to their offerings. ANA Holdings, Japan’s major airline consortium and the group behind ALL NIPPON Airways and Air Japan, is leading a trial of drone deliver at 7-Eleven Japan. The trial is taking place on Nokonoshima in Fukuoka City.
This article published in collaboration with JUIDA, the Japan UAS Industrial Development Association.
The trial project is part of the “Project for Building Business Models for Logistics Services Using Drones” in Tokyo, and serves to demonstrate the safety and practicality of drone delivery in suburban areas. The goal of drone delivery for 7-Eleven is to reach full-scale Level 4 (BVLOS flights over populated area) drone operations.
For this project, a drone takeoff and landing site was set up a the 7-ELeven Hinode Oguno Store. Customers we able to order products from 7-Eleven’s Net Conbini site, and orders were delivered to 4 different delivery destinations. In the future, drones will utilize the parking lots of existing stores to take off and 7-Eleven personnel will load the drones, which can carry up to 5 kg.
“There are currently no shops that sell general goods on Nokonoshima, so residents need to take the ferry to the city to do their shopping,” says a JUIDA translation of an article in Japanese journal Logi-Biz. “During the tests, it was found that goods could be delivered within 20 minutes of being ordered.”
Read more about drone delivery from Walmart, 7-Eleven, and the drone industry in Japan.
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