No more tips: Just Eat Takeaway.com launches drone delivery in Dublin

Food delivery is now available by drone in Dublin, Ireland, where Just Eat Takeaway.com teamed up with Irish drone delivery operator Manna Drones Ltd to launch the new service.

“Customers will have the choice to receive their orders from participating partners via drones, which will be deployed from local delivery hubs operated by Manna,” the Dutch multinational online food delivery firm said in their statement.

They added: “Once the food has been loaded onto the drone, customers will receive their orders in as little as three minutes.”

The partnership aims to roll out drone delivery in other markets later. Just Eat Takeaway.com operates in 17 countries, including Germany, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland.

Just Eat Takeaway.com has been undergoing a rocky period. After delisting from the London Stock Exchange in December, the company announced in February that it was being acquired by tech investor Prosus in an all-cash deal, worth €4.1bn in total.

Online delivery companies are increasingly choosing to automate their services and lower their dependence on temporary staff, so-called gig workers, whose status and rights are often questioned. 

Just Eat Takeaway.com says that drones will improve operational efficiency and offer faster delivery times during peak hours.

In the US, Walmart and Amazon have already launched similar services. 

In Europe, Foodora Group – another food delivery brand and a subsidiary of Berlin-based Delivery Hero – is testing deliveries using robots and drones in Norway and Sweden. In Sweden, the firm teamed up with Swedish network provider Tele2 AB on this project.

Foodora aims to roll out GPS-based robot home deliveries across the Nordic countries by 2025 and 2026.