Drone Delivery Canada announces LoI with IDP Group

Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) with the assistance of its sales agent Air Canada, has executed a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI), effective December 14 with IDP Group Inc. (IDP).

Under the terms of the LOI, the parties are cooperating to work towards a binding 10-year term definitive agreement. The agreement will set out the terms and conditions respecting the company’s drone delivery solution using DDC’s Sparrow, Robin XL and Condor drones, DroneSpotTM depots, and its patented and proprietary FLYTE system, in a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. DDC will provide implementation and commissioning of the systems, training, technical support, ongoing managed services and remote monitoring from its Operations Control Centre in Vaughan, Ontario.

Anticipated projects on which the parties are focusing are for IDP to establish a commercial-scale drone depot and drone-specific third-party logistics (3PL) depot at its facility in Ontario, as well as multiple drone depots across the country, over the term of the agreement, with an initial focus of providing e-commerce solutions to remote Canadian indigenous communities, and an expected subsequent plan for a complete national drone coverage solution, and to use the drone infrastructure to provide support to emergency services & response, fire, health, security, surveillance, as well to use DDC drones as a means of delivering commercial products to suburban and ultimately urban areas. IDP is also interested in potentially incorporating DDC’s drone infrastructure into IDP’s SINA Building System that can provide temporary and long-term accommodations, institutional space as well as negative pressure mobile ICU and hospital solutions, with pre-qualification under the Canadian Federal Government’s Innovation Solutions Canada program. All operations will be conducted in accordance with the Canadian Aviation Regulations and Transport Canada flight authorisations.

“We are pleased to be working with IDP towards a binding agreement for their innovative logistics solution for remote communities, e-commerce, emergency services, and healthcare applications. IDP’s vision for a very broad range of drone delivery applications fits perfectly with the wide-ranging capabilities and use cases that the DDC solution can address. Market response to our solution has been very favourable in Canada and internationally, and we are pleased with our ongoing progress and momentum,” said Michael Zahra, president and CEO of Drone Delivery Canada.

Hamed Asl from IDP Group said, “In our view, a commercial-scale drone depot with a dedicated 50,000 sqft infrastructure and 10+ acres of land that can support multiple daily flights of numerous drones, is a giant leap forward in bringing goods and services to remote parts of Canada, as well as a big step in providing a nation-wide drone support network for a variety of other uses and needs. We can provide this exact infrastructure today at our headquarters, and by having Drone Delivery Canada with all that they offer on the table as partners, the right pieces of this unique and complex plan are coming together. This year we launched SINA Building Systems, a complete prefabricated building solution that can provide high end automation, technology and security and deploy within days, perfect for setting up drone ports across the country to refuel, pick up and drop off cargo and complete a coast-to-coast network. We plan to build on DDC’s existing DroneSpots and build larger drone ports to deploy across the country, and with the main drone port at our HQ, complete coast-to-coast drone coverage would be an exciting possibility.”