Walmart delivery drones will soon be flying across Bedford and the surrounding area with City Council’s unanimous (6-0) approval Tuesday for the retailer to build two drone landing pads.  Council Member Rob Gagliardi was absent.

The landing pads, according to Council’s meeting agenda, are planned by Walmart to be located at the north side and rear of its location at Cheek-Sparger and Highway 121.

The agenda stated that the landing pads will not interfere with the store’s parking and will be “screened by fencing with landscaping offered for the west pad site.”  In addition, no public utilities or improvements will be needed and a nine-foot retaining wall will be included for the west side pad, the agenda stated.

Zoned as Heavy Commercial and located in the Master Highway Corridor Overlay District the Walmart property, the agenda said, is “an unconditional permitted use as defined in the zoning ordinance.

Initially, said Mark Bergmann, a drone delivery growth specialist at Walmart, the deliveries will be limited to the daylight hours of 10:00am to 6:00pm.  “As the operation improves and the seasons change, he continued, “we will adjust.”  But, he clarified, the drone operations will all be during daylight hours.

Addressing several questions from Mayor Dan Cogan and Council Member Joy Donovan Brandon, Tyler McNish, the head of US Customer Service Success at Zipline said the drones have completed more than 1.3 million deliveries.  He explained that Zipline designs, manufactures and operates fleets of drones for its partners throughout the U.S and around the world, including Walmart. 

Case studies, McNish explained, show that using drones saves time for consumers, reduces road traffic and “improves access and economic opportunities.”

“We’ve built a fully autonomous system,” he said, addressing the Council, that’s able to do everything from precision delivery to about eight pounds for a 10-mile radius.”  He said the operations will start with a two-mile radius and “eventually expand to the full 10-mile service radius.”