Foodpanda takes the initiative of delivering food by drones in Pakistan

 

Background:

Foodpanda is the most famous and successful food delivery company in Pakistan. You can order the food you love and they deliver it to your doorstep in very decent delivery charges. You have to order the food you want to have online by using their app. They use bikes for the delivery of food and you can pay them online or by cash on delivery.

Foodpanda in Pakistan is doing their job quite well. Most of their users are satisfied with their service. As we know, in Pakistan we have to face the traffic difficulties due to which sometimes we can not get the food that we have ordered in time. This was a challenge for the company so, they were trying to fill the gap in order to satisfy their customers.

Finding the opportunity:

On 12^th November, 2021 in F-9 park, Islamabad, Foodpanda used a customized drone to test the food delivery via air. Foodpanda is the leading food delivery company in Pakistan so, they have to sort out the hurdles that are faced by their users. The company find a gap due to various negative feedback regarding late deliveries of food. If your customers are not satisfied with your service then it would create many problems for you. Foodpanda find a gap and tried to find the opportunity to fill the gap.

Details of the Project (Pandafly):

In order to deliver the food in time, Foodpanda used a customized drone for the delivery of food. The test drive of drone was named as “Pandafly”. The event took place in F-9 park, Islamabad, Pakistan with the office of Mohammad Hamza Shafqaat, Deputy Commissioner, Islamabad.

Mohammad Hamza Shafqaat said that the E-commerce and use of technology in order to serve the citizens is the future and whoever will take such steps to facilitate the public, Islamabad civil administration will surely support him. He said that the district administration was trying to adopt new and innovative technologies by launching the City app in order to provide round about 40 services in different sectors to the individuals. Moreover, he said that with the access to various technologies in public sectors, the administration is able to expand the revenue from Rs. 4 billion to Rs. 10 billion per year.

Nauman Sikandar Mirza, CEO of Foodpanda said that the core ethos of Foodpanda is to constantly innovate, stretch the limits, and to find best solutions in order to meet the needs of the people. He said that before starting the actual drone deliveries for our customers, there are many things that need to be thoroughly evaluated including technical, operational, and legal matters. He assured that they are trying to sort out all these matters efficiently.

Idea behind the Pandafly:

The idea behind drone delivery is “faster deliveries over long distances”. A food package of round about 2.5 kilograms was taken from a restaurant on the one end of the F-9 park by a Foodpanda rider. The package was loaded into the storage bag of the drone and delivered towards the other end of the F-9 park. The package was collected by another Foodpanda rider. The package was distributed among the children of sweet homes that are invited for this event.

Advantages of the project:The innovation in technologies is the future of Pakistan. Pandafly is one of them. There are many possible outcomes and advantages of Pandafly. Some of them are as under:

• 
  With Pandafly, the company would be able to do faster deliveries over long distances.
• Customers will get their order in time because it will be delivered through drones.
• Customers that live in peri-urban and remote areas will be facilitated with this project. They will be able to order food online and will be able to get it in time because in such areas they have got very limited food delivery options.
• Drone delivery can save the logistics costs.
• Pandafly will help to promote the economy of Pakistan.
• Pandafly will improve the logistics efficiency because of the fact that the direct distance between two points is the closest.

References:

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/908368-pilot-project-food-delivery-through-drones-tested

https://www.dawn.com/news/1657718