NORTH RANDALL, Ohio — For years, talk of drones being used for deliveries was just that—talk. For residents in part of Cuyahoga County, though, it's now part of everyday life.
Outside the Amazon Fulfillment Center on the site of the old Randall Park Mall sits an airport of sorts in the parking lot. Inside the fenced area, a hive of activity unfolds as a fleet of 20 drones performs an aerial ballet, constantly coming and going and delivering items ordered, in some cases, just minutes before.
The North Randall location is one of 19 Amazon sites in the country offering the drone service, which operates only in daylight hours and only on days when weather permits.
"We offer a less than two hour promise. We've delivered in as fast as 30 minutes from a site like this and actually our fastest delivery time is actually 11 minutes," said Josh Brundage, Prime Air senior manager of commercial operations.
Amazon estimates that about 60% of the items it offers for sale are eligible for drone delivery within an 8-mile radius of the center. Those in the eligible area will be given the option to choose it at checkout.
"The customer orders just like a conventional Amazon order. If they're eligible for drone delivery it comes out at checkout and they select drone delivery," Brundage said.
"The next thing is they get an aerial image of their property with pre-determined points that they get to select where they want the package delivered to. So backyards really popular for privacy reasons, porch pirates, things like that."
The drones don't land with the packages; they drop them from around 12 feet up. As a result, each item is specially packaged in a Prime Air box.
"Because we deliver the package from around 12 feet there's honeycomb inserts and some extra dunnage inside to protect your item during the delivery," Brundage said.
To be eligible, an item must weigh less than 5 pounds and fit in the Prime Air box.
Brundage said many orders are for essentials people need quickly, with medication being a big one. He said one of the fastest deliveries was actually pet stain carpet cleaner for someone who couldn't leave their house.
The service operates nationwide, with sites in markets including Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Florida, Texas, Arizona and Louisiana. Hundreds of packages go out from the North Randall site each day, and thousands across the country when all the sites are combined.
The drones fly from sunrise to sunset, expanding and contracting with the seasons. Weather also factors into operations.
"We can fly into light precipitation, the drone can fly below freezing. So we can operate in some extreme weather," Brundage said.
Up close, the drones can be noisy. Some communities, like Shaker Heights — which is also in the Cleveland Clinic's drone delivery area — have acknowledged on social media that they've heard from residents with noise and privacy concerns and that they are gathering information.
While flight monitors are in place, the drones are autonomous and, like a commercial airline, operate under FAA regulations.
"We are a certified commercial carrier so just a conventional air carrier. All of our drones and the program are certified with the FAA," Brundage said. "We abide by all of those same rules that they and we also then obviously work with the local municipalities and governments to make sure that we're also looking for any issues they have locally."
In time, Brundage said, the awe of seeing the drones in operation for the first time turns simply into the norm.
"The cool factor turns into it really fits into people's routines and people really see the value and speed and it becomes just part of their normal Amazon routine," Brundage said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
