Ecom Express is piloting drone deliveries to Delhi NCR

Delhi NCR-based Ecom Express has become the latest Indian logistics company to look to use drones for faster deliveries. The Warburg Pincus-backed startup will begin a drone delivery pilot in the Delhi NCR region this week, Ecom Express COO Vishwachetan Nadamani told Inc42.

The startup plans to expand the pilot in stages. After Delhi, it will be launched in Bengaluru and later in some parts of Chandigarh.

For the pilot, Ecom Express partnered with drone startup Skye Air.

Responding to a question about the type of parcels delivered via drones, Nadamani said: “At this point, we expect the categories that will be delivered via drones to be cosmetics, personal care products and medicines.”

How drone deliveries will work

Explaining the drone delivery procedure, Nadamani said the parcels would be delivered to the Skye Air home pod during Ecom Express milk delivery in a specific area.

For the uninitiated, a dairy is a daily fixed route taken by a logistics company to pick up and drop off packages.

From there, the drones, which can carry up to 5 kg, will carry the parcels to the delivery pod zone – located within a radius of 500 meters to 1 km from the recipients’ addresses. Skye Air delivery managers will then deliver parcels to customers on foot or by bike.

Pilot routes will be determined based on the number of shipments in the area and the drone startup’s reach.

“Firstly, the area must have a decent freight density and secondly, the route must be within Skye Air’s coverage. Whatever transport they are able to send, we will give it to them,” Nadamani said.

Ecom Express plans to start drone deliveries with 500 parcels per day for the first two weeks and then increase this number to 2,000 parcels per day.

Founded in 2012, the startup claims to deliver parcels to 27,000 PIN codes in 2,700 cities across the country.

Drone race in the Indian logistics market

Under the partnership agreement, Ecom Express will pay a fee for the delivery of the remote control to Skye Air. Nadamani, however, said drone deliveries could speed up shipments, help logistics companies generate additional revenue and improve ESG performance by reducing their carbon footprint.

“We are looking forward to seeing lakhs of parcels delivered by drones. At this scale it will impact costs, reduce carbon footprint, increase the safety net and reduce traffic. This is a better solution than traditional logistics,” he added.

This development comes at a time when many logistics companies are implementing drone deliveries to reduce parcel delivery times.

Late last year, Shiprocket also partnered with Skye Air for drone deliveries around Gurugram.

Founded in 2019 by Ankit Kumar, Swapnik Jakkampudi and Chandra Prakash, Skye Air is backed by LetsVenture, Chiratae Ventures and Agility Ventures. Earlier this year, the startup secured contracts from 10 government medical institutions implement your drone mobility solutions.

Earlier this month, publicly traded logistics startup Delhivery also said yes establishment of a wholly owned subsidiary to produce drones and provide air transport services for goods.

At the heart of it all is India’s growing drone market. According to a report by Inc42, IThe Indian drone market is expected to reach a size of $13 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 21% from 2022 to 2030. Two drone startups – DroneAcharya and ideaForge – have also gone public in the last few years.