Zipline International Inc. (“Zipline”) is an American logistics company that is on a mission to deliver critical and lifesaving products precisely where and when ‘’ they are needed, safely and reliably, every day, across multiple countries.
The firm warehouses and delivers vital supplies to the last mile using autonomous unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) otherwise referred to as drones.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), nearly two billion people across the world lack reliable access to quality essential medical products such as blood and vaccines due to gaps in supply chains and poor infrastructure.
A functioning supply chain complete with procurement, appropriate warehousing, and end-to-end transportation, is critical to making sure that people have access to essential, quality medicine.
So, Zipline has keyed into this huge market. The company already has a hub in Nigeria and has set a target to build six more. This is following successes it recorded in Rwanda and Ghana.
With a report of 300,000 commercial deliveries averaging 1,000 per day and over 3.3 million units of products delivered since its launch in Rwanda, Zipline has touched the lives of 40 million people.
Facts:
With its current-generation aircraft offering fast and reliable delivery, Zipline prides itself as delivering:
- 80 km service radius (one-way)
- <30 min to deliver
- 1.8 Kg max payload
- Hundreds of deliveries per day
- Reliable in times of natural disasters like hurricane force winds, heavy rain, and extreme temperatures
- Zero-emission transportation powered by renewable energy
- Best-in-class safety standard rooted in design, protocols, and flight experience
How Zipline works
From the demo video shared by the time, when the team receives an order, the aircraft is packed and launcher accelerates the aircraft to 70 mph in 0.3 secs
Then, the aircraft navigates and flies itself to the drop location. The aircraft descends, drops the package, and returns. Upon return, a cable catches the aircraft’s tail. It doesn’t touch the ground.
This is impressive, and supports the claim that Zipline offers ‘best-in-class safety standard rooted in design, protocols, and flight experience’.
World-Class Warehousing
Basically, a warehouse is critical for medical service and other deliveries; receiving goods efficiently, storing temperature-sensitive products correctly, picking and packing. And this is where Zipline plays a major role.
Logistics chains for pharmaceutical products need to meet the highest security and quality standards. That is only possible with a distribution centre equipped to meet international standards and Zipline demonstrates this through the construction of GDP-compliant warehousing storage in a location where it operates. This helps to maintain ambient, cold-chain dependent products, and products with unique storage requirements.
They also have equipped supplier integration standard operating procedures to manage the flow of inventory and digital invoicing, at scale.
The Fulfillment & Customer Service centre sees receiving, picking, packing, shipping, order taking & management, training & aftercare, 24/7 customer support.
Nigeria:
On Sunday night October 16 2022, BBC had a screaming headline: “Nigeria floods: ‘Overwhelming’ disaster leaves more than 600 people dead”. Well, this situation calls for urgent attention and assistance that the people can get. That is where Zipline comes in to deliver essential goods to safeguard lives and property.
Recently Nigeria became the third African country to use Zipline’s drone delivery system following national-scale operations in Ghana and Rwanda, with operations in Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire set to be launched later this year.
One example of how they did it in Ghana: Seasonal rainfall coupled with annual dam spillage in the Northernmost part of Ghana often leads to the destruction of roads and bridges which makes communities inaccessible by roads.
During this time communities are entirely cut off from relevant health supplies causing residents to seek medical help in unapproved places.
Zipline is now the primary supplier of medical commodities to these areas and others that are cut off due to difficulties in the geographical terrain. As a result, facilities do not have to battle with lack of medical commodities.
In Nigeria, Kaduna State has begun to procure medical commodities – vaccines, medicines, and blood – through the government supply chain and distribute them via the newly established Zipline distribution centre located at Pambegua. This sounds good! And I heard that Bayelsa is coming on stream too.
With Zipline’s autonomous drone delivery service, health facilities can receive products within 45 minutes or less, rather than several days when using traditional, complex procurement systems.
Nigeria and other developing countries often lack adequate supply, correct doses and affordable medication at their health centres. In some cases, health ministries set up semi-autonomous entities such as a National Level Medical Store and Regional Medical Stores, to purchase, store and distribute medicine and medical supplies to health centres, hospitals and dispensaries across the country.
I had a brief chat with Catherine Odiase, the General Manager of Zipline Nigeria on the company’s plan for the country:
Zipline in Nigeria: What are the plans?
We are happy to be here in Nigeria after starting in Rwanda and expanding to Ghana. We are setting out with Kaduna where we are setting up fews hubs. One of them was launched in June and started commercial operations in August. Right now, we are saving lives in Kaduna. We have done over 3,000 deliveries so far.
How will Zipline’s operations benefit the economy?
Like I said, we have set up in Rwanda and Ghana; more locations are coming up in Kenya and a few others.
In any economy where we launch services we go there with a three point agenda, namely, transformation which entails transforming the healthcare system in the State where we operate. Secondly, saving lives; like I mentioned earlier, we are doing that in Nigeria already. Thirdly, building capacity for the indigenes of the State.
We employ the ‘locals’ in our operations in different hubs. We have done that in Kaduna and will replicate the same in Bayelsa by the time the hub is launched. We have other States in view; we are taking them one at a time.
What has been the experience with Kaduna operations?
It has been amazing. We have received results and testimonies. I mentioned one during my presentation when a woman was in labour and order came to our facility.
We had to deliver the medication in 10 minutes. In other words, we were able to save two lives within 10 minutes.
We are also creating a dashboard for data gathering that will assist operators in the health sector; not just for the facilities, but those in the government health sector will have enough data to work with. In cases of epidemic, the government can have data to work with, because they know what is being delivered in these facilities.
I have also said that we are creating employment. For instance, we have up to 35 drones in each hub; depending on the size of the location. Therefore, we hire people from the State, particularly from the sub-community where we are located.
We do capacity building because the people we are employing are trained in the academy on how to operate the system.
Each area has its peculiar challenges, what were your initial challenges in Kaduna?
The challenge, generally, is getting regulators to grant us the right to fly. It is not just regulations; we need security clearance for us to bring some of the equipment to the State.
So, before we can clear the equipment; even the aircraft, we need security clearance. And that is part of what we do in every State we enter.
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