Grab launches drone delivery pilot for food orders with ST Engineering system

[SINGAPORE] Grab has launched a three-month drone delivery pilot in Singapore, serving the Tanjong Rhu area together with ST Engineering’s Unmanned Air Systems business, said the company in a blog post on Tuesday (Jan 6).

Grab’s drone delivery (Beta) service will run every Tuesday to Sunday between 10 am and 6 pm, with up to 28 drone deliveries a day.

The average flight time of a round trip is an estimated eight minutes. The service will pause during wet weather and public holidays. 

Drone deliveries can help reduce the effort needed to overcome geographical constraints that slow down deliveries and reduce efficiency. The Tanjong Rhu neighbourhood is separated by the Kallang River from a cluster of eateries, adding minutes to each delivery. 

Food delivery riders are still essential for the drone service, as riders will bring the order to a designated drone launchpad at Republic Avenue, as well as deliver the order after the drone lands at a designated site in Tanjong Rhu.

Over 20 riders have been trained on safe drone handoffs by ST Engineering.

The drones will not store any footage from navigation cameras and operate at noise levels comparable to a normal conversation, said Grab. This pilot is only for internal testing, Grab told The Business Times, and is not yet open for consumers to try.

This initiative follows a memorandum of understanding signed between Grab, the Department of Information and Communication Technology, the Department of Transport and property developer Megaworld Corporation on drone delivery in the Philippines in June 2024.

This MOU was for a similar hybrid delivery model where food delivery riders handled the pickups and drop-offs between dedicated drone landing stations, while drones took care of the in-between journey. Grab has yet to do any drone delivery in Philippines.

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The Business Times has reached out to ST Engineering for comments.