Prime Air

Amazon layoffs hit drone division

Just as Amazon Prime Air drone delivery was beginning to gather momentum, the service reportedly was hit with another key setback.

Confidential sources claiming to be familiar with the matter told CNBC that Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) drone delivery unit lost a “significant number” of employees as part of the company’s plans to cut a total of 18,000 jobs. 

The reported layoffs come less than one month after Amazon launched its first commercial drone delivery service in Lockeford, California, and...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/amazon-layoffs-hit-drone-division

Breaking down Walmart’s 2022 in drone delivery

A promise kept can be a rare thing in the world of business, and it’s important to take the word of CEOs and other executives with a grain of salt. 

But in the case of Walmart and its drone delivery service, company leaders have followed through on just about every prediction they’ve made.

The world’s largest retailer on Thursday released an assortment of statistics about its drone delivery network in 2022, revealing that it completed over 6,000 deliveries of items from ice cream to rotisserie...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/breaking-down-walmarts-2022-in-drone-delivery

Amazon drone delivery officially live in California, Texas

It’s official. About half a year after it announced Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas, as the inaugural locations for Amazon Prime Air drone delivery — and after nearly a decade of promises, innovations and setbacks — Amazon finally launched its commercial service last week.

David Carbon, vice president of Prime Air at Amazon, shared a LinkedIn post on Christmas Eve revealing the long-awaited news: “First deliveries from our new sites in TX and CA. Couldn’t be prouder of the...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/amazon-drone-delivery-officially-live-in-california-texas

Viewpoint: What drone delivery providers can learn from Amazon

Image of blue and white Amazon delivery drone on launch pad

This commentary was written by Shaun Passley, founder of ZenaTech and chairman and CEO of Epazz. The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Modern Shipper or its affiliates.

How would the world benefit from having packages delivered via drone? Wing, which is a subsidiary of Alphabet that is currently delivering small packages via drone in four cities, provides a pretty compelling list of the things that drone delivery could accomplish...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/viewpoint-what-drone-delivery-providers-can-learn-from-amazon

Amazon now authorized to fly commercial delivery drones

Amazon now authorized to fly commercial delivery drones (Photo: Amazon)

Since its inception, Amazon has been obsessed with the idea of expediting its delivery operations. True to that, the e-commerce behemoth has received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to operate its delivery drone fleets as part of its Prime Air brand.

The FAA issued Amazon Prime Air a Part 135 air carrier certificate using unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), of which drones are a segment. “The FAA’s role is to ensure that any UAS operation is performed safely. The FAA supports...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/amazon-now-authorized-to-fly-commercial-delivery-drones