Amazon starts drone delivery
from West Deptford in mid-October.

Amazon plans to begin Prime Air drone delivery in parts of South Jersey in mid-October, flying lightweight packages from its West Deptford fulfillment center. A map shared by local officials puts the delivery area across parts of Gloucester and Camden counties, on a radius of roughly 15 miles that also crosses the Delaware River into South Philadelphia and some surrounding suburbs. Amazon did not specifically announce South Jersey as part of its rollout, though it is filling Prime Air positions in West Deptford, including ground handler, flight monitor, operations manager and safety and compliance officer.

Mantua Township Police Chief William Murphy said in an Aug. 21 post that Amazon held a virtual meeting with public safety leaders from around the region to discuss the plans. According to Murphy, the company indicated it will limit flights to a period beginning 15 minutes before sunrise and ending 15 minutes after sunset, and that the aircraft are authorized to operate below 400 feet. Mantua Mayor Bob Zimmerman told residents that whether they are for or against deliveries of this kind, the township has no say over the matter.

The service itself is narrow by design. Drones carry items weighing five pounds or less that fit in a large shoebox, a category Amazon says covers more than 60% of the products customers most frequently buy. Orders can arrive in as little as 30 minutes, although the company says most take closer to an hour. Prime members receive free drone delivery on orders of at least $50 and pay $2.99 for smaller ones, while non-Prime customers pay $4.99. Each Prime Air site covers a roughly 175 square mile radius, so one facility serves a number of towns.

For a homeowner, the interesting part is the shape of it. This is not a township-wide improvement or a road project; it is a circle drawn around a building in West Deptford, and a given address is either inside it or is not. Delivery speed has been turning into a location feature over the last decade, in the same category as fiber availability or a train stop. It is a small factor and it would be a mistake to oversell it, but it is the kind of specific that distinguishes one otherwise comparable town from another.