What seemed like two mundane deliveries is a very big deal for Indianapolis-based Dronedek, the maker of a high-tech mailbox capable of receiving items via ground or drone delivery.
The first delivery was standard mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. The second delivery was a Big Mac and fries from McDonald’s – delivered by a drone. Both deliveries were made August 8 at a pilot site in Lawrence.
The inaugural delivery in the pilot program demonstrated that for the first time Dronedek had gotten its mailboxes approved for deliveries by the USPS. The second showed that Dronedek has the original commercially available mailbox capable of taking drone – in addition to traditional ground – deliveries.
“This marks the first time anywhere that regular mail has been delivered to a smart mailbox,” explains Dronedek founder Dan O’Toole. “This is important because if the USPS agrees to use our smart mailboxes, it makes the Dronedek a one-stop-shop for all deliveries.”
The deliveries kicked off a pilot program to expand the use of Dronedek mailboxes initially through Lawrence on the northeast side of Indianapolis, then throughout the state and then the nation. The company is also eyeing global expansion – eventually.
Dronedek is taking it relatively slow with its launch. It plans to have 50 mailboxes in place in Lawrence by the end of this year. After a test phase, Dronedek plans to start an installation of 4,000 mailboxes at the end of 2023.
After that, a wider expansion is expected. “We’ve already had municipalities in Oklahoma and Virginia reach out, so interest is building outside of Indiana,” O’Toole says.
Dronedek appears to be on the leading edge of an emerging trend. Industry experts project double digit growth in the drone delivery sector in the next few years if regulations ease and guidelines are established. Companies like Amazon and Alphabet say drone delivery is the future of e-commerce fulfillment.
Last year, Dronedek – which was founded in 2019 – announced it is moving into an expanded headquarters in Indy and will grow its operations by hiring 85 people by 2025. That announcement came on the heels of a successful debut of its product at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Dronedek’s patented mailbox can accept a delivery from a drone and then store the package securely – and keep its content hot or cold. The mailbox can hold a variety of packages securely, including food and medication. Users, who are notified when a package arrives, use an app to open the mailbox for retrieval.
Dronedek is one of the first companies anywhere to focus on drone delivery for commercial and residential use. Its smart mailbox enables customers to fully automate their delivery process for the last mile. O’Toole secured patents for his mailbox ahead of the U.S. Postal Service and Amazon.
The news coverage from this month’s launch, including a segment on Fox News’ national morning show, is likely to increase the interest in Dronedek’s high-tech mailbox. The interest is coming at a good time for Dronedek. The company, which has already raised $7.5 million in venture and growth capital, has recently begun fundraising for a $5 million investment round.
The deal Dronedek has with the USPS took a year to forge, according to O’Toole, and negotiations involved trips to Washington D.C. to talk to USPS higher-ups there as well as meetings with state and local USPS officials.
“The United States Postal Service is a bureaucracy, and there are a lot of checks and balances,” O’Toole states. “So you have to meet with a lot of people to get things done. But what we’re doing resonates (with the USPS).
“This was a significant development for our company because the USPS is the only organization that touches every single address every day. No organization matches the bandwidth of the USPS in terms of mail and package delivery. If the USPS decides to deal with something in a big way, everyone else falls in line. That’s why this is so big.”
There were 10 USPS officials at Dronedek’s pilot deliveries this month in Lawrence.
“They believe in what we’re doing,” O’Toole emphasizes. “They’ve become real cheerleaders for this technology.”
Apparently, they’re not alone.
“Right now we’re in conversations with several major global delivery and logistics companies,” O’Toole says. “We’re talking to large e-commerce companies too.”
