Chick-fil-A offers drone delivery service in its Florida location
What to look for in shipping fulfillment. A Chick-fil-A location in Florida is offering drone delivery service exclusively to local customers.
For a limited time, guests within a 1.2 mile radius of the Brandon/Valrico Chick-fil-A in Central Florida now have the option to have their spicy chicken sandwiches and milkshakes delivered via drone.
Drone delivery is available at the restaurant from Monday to Friday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m announced on social media last week. The fast food store hopes to expand to a 2-mile radius in the near future.
The restaurant partnered with DroneUp, a Virginia-based technology company that also launched a drone delivery service with a Walmart in Tampa last year. The Tampa Bay Times reported.
The popular fried chicken chain declined to say where it plans to launch drone delivery next.
“We are in the early stages of testing drone delivery at a small number of Chick-fil-A restaurants,” Chick-fil-A spokeswoman Chelsea Lee told the local newspaper in an email.
For special service, customers must select the “Drone Delivery” option in the Chick-fil-A app. Employees then load their food order into a box and attach the box to a drone outside the restaurant. according to a video Posted by the restaurant showing how the process works.
The drone then flies the food to its destination, lowers the box with a cable and gently drops it to the ground for the customer to pick up.
Drinks that are sealed before leaving the restaurant could also be delivered, the site said.
“I just got ours – it was super quick. The food was hot, perfect – thank you!!!!” One happy customer commented on the restaurant’s Facebook page.
Another posted a video of her delivery being dropped off at her home: “Most exciting thing ever,” she quipped.
Drones are the latest delivery innovation Chick-fil-A has tried. The the company announced Last May, autonomous delivery vehicles were tested in select restaurants across the country.
