Wings on wings: KFC and Roll’d launch drone deliveries

Food retail is taking to the skies to better serve customers, with drones delivering fried chicken, burgers, Vietnamese rice paper rolls, Bánh mì and even iced coffee in Queensland and the ACT.

KFC has partnered with Wing Australia to offer the deliveries from today, the second high profile partnership from the Alphabet-owned drone company after a collaboration with Roll’d was announced earlier this week.

Wing purports to be the world’s first on-demand drone delivery service, operating on three continents to deliver food, goods, medicine, and parcels via a 5kg drone that travels up to 110km per hour.

After Wing launched in Canberra in 2019, and Queensland’s Logan in 2020, residents have become familiar with the drones soaring overhead with up to 1.5kgs of groceries, pharmacy items, or hardware products en route to a customer.

The south-eastern Queensland suburbs that qualify for the sky-high KFC deliveries (made possible via the Wing app) are Kingston, Logan Central, Slacks Creek, Underwood and Woodridge, but Wing has set its sights on expanding further afield to make Logan the drone capital of the country.

Meanwhile, residents of Logan and Gungahlin in Canberra can order freshly prepared takeaway and drinks from Roll’d.

And it’s not just about customer satisfaction, Roll’d CEO Bao Hoang says — drone technology is also good for the planet, as modernising traditional delivery methods can help reduce CO2 emissions, road congestion and delivery inefficiencies.

“With drone delivery technology having the potential to replace 2.3 billion Australian vehicle kilometres each year by 2030, we’ll see huge national reductions in CO2 emissions,” Hoang says.

A study from AlphaBeta suggests drone delivery could grow retail sales in Australia by $2.2 billion by 2030 and slash delivery costs for businesses by up to $800 million per year by 2030.

And Wing isn’t slowing down, with more local collaborations on the horizon for the fast-growing drone company, hints Wing spokesperson Jesse Suskin.

“Wing made more than 100,000 drone deliveries in Australia in 2021, and we’re looking forward to continuing this growth, by expanding our service to more customers and businesses in 2022,” Suskin says.