


“You know, in 60 years, we’ve never made a dollar delivering a pizza. “We struggle a little bit understanding the long-term economics in some of the aggregator businesses,” Domino’s CFO Stu Levy said on a call with analysts in February 2021. Read more: Domino’s Partners With Nuro To Launch Autonomous DeliveryĮven with Domino’s decades of bringing pizzas to consumers’ doors, the brand has not made a profit off of the delivery itself. In the spring of 2021, the chain announced a partnership with autonomous delivery company Nuro, which creates self-driving vehicles that operate on public roads, to launch robotic delivery in Houston, Texas. Related: Domino’s Pizza Drones Take Flight Again in New ZealandĪs far as automating the delivery process is concerned, the pizza giant is not only looking toward the skyways but also toward the roads. “Customers benefit from the convenience of having fresh, hot pizzas delivered with zero contact to their homes by electrically-powered drones, which also reduces traffic congestion and greenhouse emissions.” “We believe drone delivery will be an essential component of our pizza deliveries in the future,” Domino’s Group CEO and Managing Director Don Meij said in a statement when an expansion of the trail was announced in January.
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The trial is expected to go live in the months ahead. Most recently, on Thursday (June 23), Domino’s New Zealand drone delivery partner SkyDrop announced that it has completed production of the drone fleet for its commercial delivery trial with the pizza chain.
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Now, as demand for off-premises meals remains elevated post-2020, and as restaurants and delivery services have difficulty finding driver labor, it is even trickier (and more important) for brands to find a solution.ĭomino’s, for its part, an incumbent in the meal delivery space, has been looking to a range of different solutions to ameliorate its delivery woes. Let the pizzas fly.In even the best of labor markets, food delivery has never been the most solid business where margins are concerned. The company increased the payload of the SkyDrop drone up to 3.5 kilograms, increased the precision delivery altitude of the drone up to 60 meters and incorporated a parachute system for safety.Īnd now, the time is right. Since then, SkyDrop has been evolving its technology. At the time, the company said it hoped to expand drone delivery to Australia, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Japan and Germany.

But with the COVID-19 pandemic still around, it has the added benefit of being contactless.īack in 2016, Domino’s completed its first drone delivery after flying for about five minutes and dropping two pizzas into a couple’s backyard in New Zealand. SkyDrop's operational system for drone delivery includes two aircraft, one ground infrastructure platform, and one autonomous control station that the company said allows for a frictionless workflow at the store location.īesides being totally awesome, pizza delivered by drone offers perks like reducing traffic and CO2 emissions. The company said its drones will be able to carry orders like three extra-large pizzas, or two large pizzas with one soda and one side dish (including dipping sauce). SkyDrop, the pizza maker’s partner in aerial pizza logistics, said this week that it’s completed building the Domino’s drone fleet and that commercial tests will begin soon in New Zealand. It’s been nearly six years since Domino’s pushed drone technology to its logical peak by delivering a pizza, but now the dream is getting closer to becoming reality.
