Amazon rolling out drone delivery service in Chicago suburbs

Amazon customers in Chicago's south suburbs could soon see a drone drop off their package instead of a delivery driver.

The retailer said Monday that it would bring its Amazon Prime Air service to Matteson and Markham this summer, with deliveries taking as little as two hours.

The program is already in action in five other states; Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Michigan and Texas. The service first launched in Texas in 2022.

Fifteen drones, each weighing 80 pounds, will be stationed at each fulfillment center in Matteson and Markham. The addition of Prime Air will result in a net increase of 100 jobs, adding to the 6,000 total employees at both locations.

“We looked at high-performing fulfillment centers in our Amazon network and identified both of these locations based on their performance, as well as the customer reachability from those locations, and decided that this would be two great locations,” Sam Bailey, senior manager for economic development at Amazon, said.

More than 60% of the items at the fulfillment centers are eligible for delivery to residents within an 8-mile radius. Each drone can carry multiple packages up to a total of 5 pounds. They can operate in wind gusts of up to 30 miles per hour and in light rain, according to Amazon.

The FAA-regulated deliveries can only occur during civil twilight hours, or 30 minutes before sunrise until 30 minutes after sunset.

Bailey said drone delivery is estimated to cost shoppers an additional $9.99, or $4.99 for Prime members. Shoppers can choose different drop-off locations, such as their backyard or driveway.

“We go ahead and identify [delivery points] ahead of time,” Josh Brundage, senior manager of operations at Prime Air, said. “Every property is unique, but usually, there's two to three [points].”

The drones will drop packages from 12 feet in the air, Brundage said. A special honeycomb-style padding is used in the packages to keep items from breaking. But some goods, like fragile items, won't be eligible for drone delivery.

“There are certain items that we recognize that would not do well from that height, and so those are actually not eligible for the drone delivery,” he said.

Amazon plans to build a 20,000-square-foot launchpad in the parking lot of its Matteson and Markham fulfillment centers. The launchpads will serve as a home base for the drones.

"It's relatively low infrastructure for us," Brundage said on the setup required for its drone service.

The Prime Air team said it met with officials from Matteson and Markham to engage the community in the process.

“We are working through the permitting process,” Bailey said. “We've submitted our building plans. They're going through review and inspection there.”

While the drones use cameras for safety maneuvers, no video is streamed back to Amazon or stored on the drone, Brundage said.

A system similar to those used by air traffic controllers is in place to ensure drones from different providers don’t conflict with each other and can operate in the same area safely, Brundage said. Flight monitors are also based locally at each site and monitor every flight that goes out.