Popular online food-delivery giant Swiggy informed that it will pilot the use of drones for its instant grocery service, Instamart from the month of May. The online food delivery platform said that it will use drones to fill up stocks between dark stores from the location of the seller to the location to the common point which will be nearest to the delivery address of the users. This will essentially contribute to completing what Swiggy says middle-delivery layer. The dark store is a small fulfillment center that is used to facilitate ultra-fast deliveries.
In its post, on Friday, the food delivery company informed that the final deliveries will be completed by its on-ground fleet. It is estimated that the pilot project will initially be started in Bengaluru and Delhi NCR (national capital region). In a blogpost, the company stated, “The pilot is to evaluate the feasibility of drones for the middle mile use case, particularly for Swiggy’s grocery delivery service Instamart. Drones will be used to replenish stocks between seller-run dark stores and from a store to a common customer point. A delivery partner will then pick up orders from the common point and deliver them to the customer’s doorstep.”