---
title: "UPS Is Now Using Drones to Deliver Blood to a Hospital"
description: "UPS has launched a drone delivery service to transport blood and other medical samples across WakeMed Raleigh’s medical campus in North Carolina."
date: "2019-03-27"
modified: "2019-03-27"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ups-drone-delivery-blood-hospital"
categories:
  - "Drones"
  - "Robotics"
  - "Robots and Machines"
tags:
  - "drone delivery"
  - "drones"
  - "the digest"
  - "ups"
---

# UPS Is Now Using Drones to Deliver Blood to a Hospital

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ups-drone-delivery-blood-hospital.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Courtesy of Ryan Davis/UPS\</em\>*

## Saving Lives

The cargo for the first revenue-generating drone delivery in the United States wasn't an [Amazon package](<https://futurism.com/amazons-latest-drones-delivery-patent>) or [7-Eleven Slurpee](<https://futurism.com/flying-donuts-7-eleven-just-completed-the-first-commercial-drone-delivery>) — it was blood.

On Tuesday, UPS [launched a new service](<https://pressroom.ups.com/pressroom/ContentDetailsViewer.page?ConceptType=PressReleases&id=1553546776652-986>) using drones to transport blood and other medical samples between the various buildings at WakeMed Raleigh’s medical campus in North Carolina — and the speed at which the drones deliver the samples could literally be the difference between life and death.

## Fast Track

UPS's new service makes use of autonomous drone developer Matternet's M2 quadcopter, which can reportedly carry a payload of up to five pounds a distance of approximately 20 kilometers (12.5 miles).

Medical professionals at WakeMed’s nearby facilities load the drone's secure container with blood samples or other medical specimens, and the drone then follows a fixed path to the healthcare system's main hospital and pathology lab for unloading.

[According to *Business Insider*](<https://www.businessinsider.com/ups-first-revenue-generating-drone-delivery-with-matternet-2019-3>), this trek could take drivers up to 30 minutes depending on traffic, but UPS's unmanned drones can cut delivery time down to just three minutes and 15 seconds.

https://youtu.be/m2aHAgGjIiQ

## Scaling Up

For now, UPS expects the drones to make fewer than 10 deliveries per day on the WakeMed campus, but that could increase in the future — especially if the service proves as beneficial as UPS expects.

"This particular use case of healthcare specimens within the healthcare campus is not only critical in a just-in-time event, but it could be a life-changing event," Bala Ganesh, VP of Advanced Technology Group at UPS, told *Business Insider*. "The capabilities we bring to the table adds on to the capabilities for healthcare to provide better service and patient care to their patients."

**READ MORE:** [UPS just beat out Amazon, FedEx, and Uber to make America's first revenue-generating drone delivery](<https://www.businessinsider.com/ups-first-revenue-generating-drone-delivery-with-matternet-2019-3>) \[*Business Insider*\]

**More on drone deliveries:** *[Amazon’s Latest Patent Would Make Drones Responsive to Yelling and Arm-Flailing](<https://futurism.com/amazons-latest-drones-delivery-patent>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)