These Two Companies are Solving the Last Inch Drone Delivery Problem

After UPS received the FAA’s first Part 135 certification for drone delivery in 2019, especially BVLOS delivery, the possibility of commercialized mass drone delivery became a reality. Fast-forward to 2021, and Alphabet’s Wing announced it crossed 100,000 drone deliveries, a massive milestone for consistency and a scaled future.

As UAVs continue their path towards delivery validation in different markets, questions remain about where companies and municipalities should invest to build the necessary infrastructure for supporting numerous deliveries. One of the areas of concern include the last mile, or as Valqari calls it, the “last inch” stretch for drone delivery; as drones in the US and India begin delivering sensitive materials like COVID vaccines, or defibrillators in Poland, delivery operations need to ensure ease of delivery as well as safety of the package.

Valqari has focused on solving this issue, developing drone delivery stations for drones and traditional drop-offs, providing a platform for takeoff and landing, as well as storage for the package for safe pick-up. There’s reason to eye the growth of this solution, too; Valqari recently chose Draganfly, a 20+ year UAV hardware and software company, as the exclusive manufacturer for Valqari’s delivery station.

With this recent partnership and announcement, we wanted to gauge how these two drone solutions companies see the challenge of scaling drone deliveries, where the industry should invest at large, and how their collaboration is set to elevate the quality of drone deliveries. We sourced Cameron Chell, co-founder and CEO of Draganfly, and Ryan Walsh, founder and CEO of Valqari, for thoughts and direction.