A Dublin drone delivery service has said it will be able to reach around half a million people in the capital by the summer as it expands to two new areas and is aiming to have ten bases serving a million customers in Dublin by the end of this year.
However, complaints about noise around its current west Dublin operation has led to calls for regulation of commercial drone deliveries.
Manna drone delivery service, which began operating in Blanchardstown just under a year ago, said it is now reaching more than 20% of the population of Dublin 15.
The company, which is based in a small concrete lot behind Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, makes up to 300 deliveries a day, within a 3km radius.
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Five large white drones drop food, books and over the counter medicines to customers within three minutes.
As business is booming, it has also opened a second base at nearby Junction 6 off the M50 delivering from food outlets based there.
Manna’s founder and CEO Bobby Healy said its popularity is primarily down to convenience.
“We started off in Moneygall, then Oranmore then Balbriggan, and now here. At our last location, 38% of the population used the service. Here, in half the time, we’ve already reached 22% of Dublin 15. So it is massively popular.
“Coffee is one of the most popular things, alongside ice cream, burgers and fries. It is just a way better way to get it. Instead of delivery drivers racing around housing estates, there are now drones safely flying overhead,” he said.
But in nearby Castleknock, some residents say they are being impacted by hundreds of drone flights overhead with evenings, weekends and Wednesday afternoons when local secondary students are on a half day, some of the busiest times for deliveries.
Among them is Peter, who does not want to give his full name, who lives about 100 metres from Manna’s second Blanchardstown base.
As he sits at his dining table looking out his back window, every few minutes a drone slowly appears on the horizon of the houses behind his garden, hovers and then proceeds past his property, its flashing red and green lights reflecting on his glass table as it passes by.
“From about half eight, quarter to nine, you can hear them coming in. It is an unusual sound. It is like a lawn mower going over your house or a moped. Even though I live close to the M3 motorway and I can hear the traffic, I can hear this more distinctly.
“It is just annoying, it feels intrusive. I did speak to Manna drones, and I stopped them flying directly over my house, but now they go kind of parallel to my house,” he added.
Peter says he sees the benefits of drone delivery, his daughter even tried out the service when it began, but he says he does not believe they are the most efficient way to deliver fast food.
“I see them talk about delivering medical devices. I am sure in the storm, it would have been ideal to deliver battery packs. It is a hugely valuable technology. But delivering a coffee or a piece of pitta or a bag of chips, I think that is a problem. They are creating a problem for a solution.
“I had a postman out this morning in an electric vehicle, deliver two packages, one to my house, one to the house next door, and has probably delivered 40 more along the route. He would have to fly a drone to deliver each one individually,” he said.
Manna is expanding to two more locations by the summer in Glasnevin and Tallaght bringing its service within reach of half a million Dubliners.
By the end of the year they are aiming to have ten bases serving around a million people in capital.
Two TDs for Dublin West, the Green Party’s Roderic O’Gorman and Ruth Coppinger of People Before Profit-Solidarity, have said they have received a number of representations about the drones and local experience indicates the needs to regulate commercial drone deliveries.
The Green Party leader said he is also concerned about safety as the industry expands.
“This new technology has benefits, but as it spreads to more areas, there is an urgent need for airborne delivery drones to be regulated.
“Drones make a distinct sound, as they travel through the air and as they rise and descend. While this noise could be tolerated on a once off or occasional basis, there are now ‘flight paths’ over certain estates in Dublin 15, where residents have to experience 20 or 30 drone journeys over them in a single afternoon,” he added.
“This can have a real impact on the use of their homes and gardens. Safety is another key issue. Right now, one company is operating drones in locations across Dublin. What happens if a second or a third company operates in the same area? If there is no regulation, there is no way to coordinate the activities of multiple commercial companies operating these machines,” Mr O’Gorman said.
Deputy Coppinger said she believes it could become a major issue across the country as more companies begin drone delivery.
“If this is a success, many other companies will also go the same route. Will our skies be as busy as our roads? So this needs proper discussion, regulation and consultation, and that has not been happening.
“I can see this becoming an issue for residents all over the country, and I think people are entitled to enjoy the peace of their own back gardens and of their own homes,” she added.
Twenty-five Blanchardstown businesses are using Manna and many believe drone delivery is the future for food consumption.
Among them is Linden Ferris, owner of Lindough’s Pizza at Junction 6.
He said that after just three weeks using the service it has increased his sales.
“It is a gamechanger for my business, because it is a lightning fast delivery service. It is cheaper than other services actually, so it ends up being cheaper for me and the customer. Maximum it would take three minutes to get delivered within 3km.
“So the pizzas stay hot and fresh like they just came out of the oven. It has had a really big impact on sales of my business,” Mr Ferris said.
Manna has said it is using a number of measures to reduce noise levels, that they had welcome further regulation, and that drone delivery has the potential for wider social benefits.
Chief executive Bobby Healy said it has received 53 complaints in the 12 months that its been operating in Blanchardstown, that it takes concerns from the community seriously and has engaged in extensive engagement with local residents and groups.
It also said it is regulated by the Irish Aviation Authority and is fully certified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and operates under strict aviation safety standards.
However, he said it would welcome more regulation of the sector.
“We used to fly at 45 metres at the start because of airspace limits. We now go up to 75 metres, so that’s largely fixed that issue of the noise. We also have new technology coming on board this month, brand new propellers that are two-and-a-half times quieter.
“So we’re quite confident that we’ve solved that issue, and that’s evident in the numbers. We’ve got one complaint out of 150,000 people in December, two complaints in January. That’s not a lot of complaints given the number of flights we’re doing and the number of people that live and work here.
“We are good citizens. We believe in good regulation, responsible regulation, and we’re co-operative in that regard.
He also said he believes the drones can bring wider social benefits
“The benefits, they’re huge. There’s no CO2 produced in our aircraft flights. It’s a very environmentally friendly service. We did a trial recently with defibrillator service. So we plan to roll that out everywhere we go, there’ll be a three-minute defibrillator service and that’s really important. So, there’s lots of beneficial societal outcomes of our service. It’s not just fries and coffee.”
