UPS completed its first drone delivery with CVS in November 2019 in North Carolina. Since then, as part of the carrier’s coronavirus response effort, it has been testing the viability of drones to complete smaller-scale deliveries to medical sites or directly to consumers to facilitate ongoing shelter-in-place and social distancing measures in various states.
UPS’ Matternet drones allow for cold and temperature sensitive deliveries and have been used to deliver blood samples and vaccines in the past. However, due to federal and state regulations on flight conditions and routes, and engineering requirements that keep payload weights to under 10 pounds, scaling up drone delivery nationwide is a ways off from being mainstream.
