Nevada company beats Amazon with 77 drone deliveries in November

When Amazon announced recently that it had made its first commercial drone delivery in England, some made a point of the fact that Amazon was not testing its Prime Air service in its home country. The more onerous regulations on commercial drone delivery in the US may have played a role in Amazon's decision, but that has not discouraged other groups who want to be involved in drone delivery. In fact, one company called Flirtey made 77 drone deliveries in November, which it revealed publicly after Amazon made its own announcement. Back in March, the company said it made the "first fully autonomous FAA-approved urban drone delivery in the US."

Unlike Amazon, Flirtey does not have its own e-commerce platform. Instead, the company teamed up with 7-Eleven to deliver things such as food and over-the-counter medicine. According to Agence France Presse, the first delivery was made in Reno, Nevada, where the company is headquartered, and dropped off a chicken sandwich, hot coffee and donuts. Since then, the average delivery time for a Flirtey drone has been under 10 minutes.

Flirtey's drone delivery system is similar to Amazon's. Products are packaged in unique containers for the drone to latch on. The drone uses GPS to find the consumer's address and then lowers the box to the ground. By seeking out third parties to work with, though, Flirtey's drones are less threatening to Amazon's competitors. Wal-Mart is also said to be testing drone delivery, but other groups that do not want to invest in such an enterprise will find it cost-effective to work with a company like Flirtey. Even if Amazon tries to expand by handling drone deliveries for other companies in the future, some retailers might not relish the idea of working with a competitor.

Fortunately, Flirtey proves there is plenty of innovation going on in the commercial drone space. It is not just large tech companies like Amazon working on proprietary technology. With FAA regulations loosening and Europe working on rules of their own, the commercial drone market will soon be a robust industry.