Drones Could Deliver Your Pagliacci Pizza and GNC Vitamins

Drone company Zipline could be delivering your next pizza or vitamin shipment thanks to its latest expansions across the US. Zipline on Wednesday announced signing deals with Pagliacci Pizza and wellness brand GNC, as well as with Associated Couriers.

Seattle pizza chain Pagliacci will use Zipline’s drones to deliver pizzas, salads, drinks and other sides off its menu in a new custom pizza box that fits inside the drone. And of course the hot food will all be delivered “while it’s still hot,” said Matt Galvin, co-owner of Pagliacci. 

The pizza purveyor is offering drone deliveries in the greater Seattle area, saying its food will arrive to customers “faster than ever before.” While Pagliacci is keeping on its delivery drivers, too, adding drones is part of its push for carbon neutrality.

Zipline says its delivery service is up to seven times faster than getting your goods delivered by a ground vehicle, as well as being “nearly inaudible” and better for the environment.

Zipline’s Platform 2 drones, called Zips, fly above 300 feet to reach their destination. Zipline unveiled its latest drone in April, showing off an aircraft that can hover while it lowers a tether to accurately drop the package off to a small area like your patio, driveway or front steps.

The GNC deal will begin with customers in Salt Lake City, with other cities to follow, while Zipline is also announcing a partnership with Associated Couriers to begin delivering prescription medications to patients at long-term care facilities in Long Island, New York. Associated Couriers plans to expand the service across the US and then internationally.

The delivery company has already completed more than 600,000 deliveries to customers since 2016 using its previous iteration of drones. The Platform 1 Zips looked like an airplane and would deliver packages by parachuting them into to an area about the size of two parking spaces.

Zipline is far from being the only company experimenting with drone delivery — Walmart, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon and startups like Flyby Robotics and Manna have also run trials and performed delivery services.