Home Care In Lockeford, CA

LOCKEFORD, Calif. -- When Amazon announced last week that it would begin delivering packages via drones for the first time in the United States, the news took many residents of unincorporated Lockeford by surprise.

Six months ago, Amazon contacted local authorities in this rural town to let them know it planned to launch its long-awaited drone delivery service here. But as of last week, many of the residents still didn't know about the plan.

An 82-year-old woman who lives directly across the street from the still-under-construction drone facility with her dog, horse, two ponies and small herd of goats said no one had mentioned Amazon's plans to her. The same went for two brothers busy converting the neighboring winery they recently purchased into a marijuana farm.

A man at a local archery shop commented jokingly, "Target practice!" when he found out.

Amazon often embarks on its projects covertly, using code names and negotiating tax subsidies in secret -- whether building data centers, corporate headquarters or new fulfillment centers. But the big reveal sometimes comes as a shock to locals, triggering fights between the tech giant and communities it aims to court.

In recent years, a Denver suburb, an island community on New York's Canadian border and a small town in Massachusetts have all rallied to stop development by Amazon after the news became public.

In 2018, after a hush-hush process to select New York City as one of its second headquarters sites, it scrapped the plan due to major pushback. Amazon is in the process of building its so-called HQ2 in Arlington, Va.

The team that chose Lockeford liked it because of its weather, rural topography, access to the highway and existing customer base, a former Amazon employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for retaliation, told The Washington Post. But the team also thought it was a good choice because there wouldn't be too much red tape.

It "felt sort of cowboy and do-what-you-will out there," the former employee said.

The company said it started reaching out last week to locals within a 4-mile radius of the site to find out who is interested in trying the program.

Those who sign up will be able to choose from a selection of items under 5 pounds being stored at a small nearby warehouse. The drones, which are 6.5 feet wide and almost 4 feet tall, are supposed to drop the packages on a predetermined spot from a height of about 4 feet.

There were some caveats: San Joaquin County, which houses Lockeford, is still processing its permits, and the company still needs to get sign-off from the Federal Aviation Administration.

But not all residents are ready to lay out the welcome mat.

"They're invading our privacy," said Tim Blighton, a cement contractor who lives near Lockeford and disclosed he once threatened to shoot down a neighbor's drone flying over his house.

He's worried about Amazon cameras seeing into his backyard. But Blighton added he wouldn't be interested in any kind of delivery from Amazon, which he said is "going to destroy our mom-and-pop stores."

"I'm not an Amazon guy," Blighton said. "I think they're going to wreck everything for us."

Amazon is cooperating with local authorities in Lockeford and working to obtain permissions, company spokesperson Av Zammit said.

The company's drone "does not capture imagery from underneath when it is flying to its delivery destination and back" and doesn't use that data for any other purpose. The drone project will add new jobs, too.

Some day, seeing Prime Air drones will be as normal as Prime delivery trucks, he said.

"However," he added, "if someone did shoot down a drone they would have broken the law."

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, made a big splash when he announced drone delivery on "60 Minutes" in 2013. But the company has struggled to deliver on its promise, so far making just one drone delivery in Cambridge, England, in 2016 before the team was disbanded.

In March 2020, Bloomberg reported, Amazon hired David Carbon from Boeing to speed the project along, and some employees clashed with his approach. Former flight assistant Cheddi Skeete has spoken out publicly about his safety concerns regarding Prime Air, which has experienced multiple drone crashes during test flights, including one in Oregon that started a 25-acre fire.

Amazon has tried to sidestep regulation and avoid FAA inspections following crashes, Business Insider reported last month. Asked whether the clashes between the agency and the company over its test site in Oregon could delay the drone launch, FAA spokesperson Ian Gregor said the agency "doesn't comment on pending certification projects or discussions with companies."

Zammit said the company's drones are tested in a "closed, private facility" and "no one has ever been injured or harmed as a result of these flights."

The Lockeford deliveries won't be experimental, he added, and will be offered under an FAA air carrier certificate to ensure the program meets the agency's "high safety bar." The company is working closely with local authorities, too.

The former Amazon employee familiar with Prime Air said the team is under pressure to accomplish some deliveries this year, or the future of the project could be under threat. Amazon denies this.

LOCAL RESPONSE

Some Lockeford residents said it could make sense for them.

"I've got a lot of room, why not?" said Tracy Clarke, a local Amazon customer who said she orders just about everything from the site.

Pam Coleman, who lives on a nearly 30-acre property not far from Lockeford, said the nearest town has only a few amenities.

"It might be better in places like that," she said.

Others were mixed.

Greg Baroni is an Amazon customer who lives close enough to sign up for drone delivery. But he said Amazon delivers packages to his house fast enough as it is.

"I don't think drones are needed," he told The Post. "They're taking jobs away from people who are looking."

Like Blighton, the idea of drones made him uncomfortable. "I don't want drones flying around my house -- we live in the country," he said.

The property where Prime Air will be based, which Amazon is leasing from a local concrete producer, was already zoned for distribution, according to Stephanie Yoder, a spokeswoman for the county. The county said the company is currently in the process of getting the appropriate building and business permits, adding that it will also undergo an environmental review via the FAA.

Amazon has a team that interfaces with local governments to ensure the community is open to its presence, the former employee said. It can also be a challenge to convince customers to participate in a program that limits what they can order and requires coordination with Amazon.

"It's a pain," the employee added. Zammit said customers will be able to order packages to be delivered by drones in the normal way.

Amazon has also announced plans to bring drone delivery to College Station, Texas, where the city council is scheduled to vote on the plan on July 14. But at a zoning commission meeting last week, members of the public voiced concerns about safety and noise.

Resident Amina Alikhan, who said if Lockeford was open to trying drone delivery first, College Station should "let them be the test site." But in Lockeford, many residents were surprised to hear their rural farming town had been picked for Amazon's program.

"I have a large amount of livestock and horses, and a drone would easily frighten the animals," said Naydeene Koster. "Horses will run straight through a barbed wire, or really any kind, of fence when they think they're in danger. I've seen horses kill themselves over a flying balloon, I'd hate to see the damage a flying drone would cause coming into their area."

"Lockeford is an old-school farm town made up of mainly old ranches," she continued. "So the idea of this newer technology invading your privacy while potentially scaring your animals is quite scary to many out here."

Zammit said the company has worked to reduce noise and will "work hard to minimize any potential disruption."

Lockeford resident Joy Huffman said her daughters order so much from Amazon that she gets a package delivered almost every day. Still, she's not sure she'd volunteer for the program.

"I wonder how it's going to work," she said. "Hopefully, the drone puts it in the right yard."

"I don't like the taking people's jobs away," said Jennifer Hoy, who moved to Lockeford from nearby Lodi about a year ago. "But I do want to check it out -- I'd like to see what it looks like."

But there are also those for whom Amazon, whether delivered by human or drone, is a nonstarter.

"My stepson worked for them, they don't treat their employees right," said Jay Jiminez, who stopped to pick up sausage in Lockeford last week. "If I go to order something and I see it says Amazon, I pass it by."

A man watering his garden just down the road from Amazon's soon-to-be drone launch site was also concerned about Amazon's poor reputation as an employer.

The man, who declined to give his name, said his wife orders from Amazon regularly. Asked if he'd be signing up for the drone experiment, he shook his head.

"They have too much money and too much power already," he added.

Amazon says it will begin delivering parcels to shoppers by drone for the first time later this year, pending final regulatory approval.

Users in the Californian town of Lockeford will be able to sign up to have thousands of goods delivered by air to their homes, it said.

The shopping giant has promised drone delivery for years but has faced delays and reported setbacks.

But it said it planned to roll out the service more widely after Lockeford.

"The promise of drone delivery has often felt like science fiction," it said in a blog post. "[But] later this year, Amazon customers living in Lockeford, California, will become among the first to receive Prime Air deliveries.

"Their feedback about Prime Air will help us create a service that will safely scale to meet the needs of customers everywhere."

Amazon said the drones will be programmed to drop parcels in the backyards of customers in Lockeford, which has a population of about 4,000 people.

They will be able to fly "beyond-line-of-sight", meaning they don't have to be controlled by a visual observer and instead use sensors to avoid other aircraft, people, pets and obstacles.

The aim is to get packages to customers safely in less than an hour, the retailer said.

'Within months'

In the past, Amazon has been accused of using the promise of drone delivery as a headline-grabber to push its publicity around its Prime membership service.

In 2013, former boss and founder Jeff Bezos pledged to fill the skies with a fleet of delivery drones within five years. And in 2019, Amazon said it would be delivering by drone to customers "within months".

In April, a report by news site Bloomberg alleged safety concerns over its drones - although the retailer said it "rigorously" tested its flights in compliance with "all applicable regulations".

In December 2016, the company ran an apparently successful trial in Cambridge, UK. A package was delivered, by drone, in 13 minutes.

Explaining how Prime Air deliveries would work, Amazon said: "Once onboarded, customers in Lockeford will see Prime Air-eligible items on Amazon. They will place an order as they normally would and receive an estimated arrival time with a status tracker for their order.

"For these deliveries, the drone will fly to the designated delivery location, descend to the customer's backyard, and hover at a safe height. It will then safely release the package and rise back up to altitude."

Related Topics

More on this story

Amazon’s drone delivery service was all talk and no action for nearly a decade, until this past December, when customers were finally able to purchase their favorite products and have them shipped via Amazon Prime Air. However, sources close to the project told The Information this week that Amazon’s drones have only delivered packages to fewer than 10 houses in two towns by mid-January.

This lull in deliveries is likely due to tricky clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which states that Amazon’s drones cannot fly over roads or people without case-by-case permission. Amazon has, so far, only been able to release drone deliveries in two towns: Lockeford, California and Coellge Station, Texas.

Read more

Lockeford has a population of about 3,500 while College Station has a population of over 120,000, and Amazon received FAA approval to bring Amazon Prime Air to these towns in November and December of last year, respectively. The Information reports that only two houses in Lockeford received three drone deliveries between them by mid-January, while only five houses in College Station received drone deliveries.

Insider reported yesterday that locals in the Texas and California towns expressed safety concerns after finding out that Amazon Prime Air would be coming to their backyard. One College Station resident allegedly worried about a drone “falling from the sky onto our home, onto our car, onto our children” at a public meeting. Amazon has touted safety as being paramount in Amazon Prime Air, but widespread layoffs at the company have apparently also crippled Amazon’s drone safety teams.

“We meet or exceed all safety standards and have obtained regulatory authorization to conduct commercial drone delivery operations. We welcome the FAA’s rigorous evaluations of our operation, and we’ll continue to champion the significant role that regulators play to ensure all drone companies are achieving the right design, build and operating standards,” Av Zammit, Amazon spokesperson, told Gizmodo in an email. “We’re excited to bring this service to customers. We’re making a limited number of deliveries in Lockeford and College Station, and continuing to expand over time. Just last week we received the FAA’s approval to start delivering to more customers in these locations.”

Safety concerns are not foreign in Amazon Prime Air’s development and rollout. In a lawsuit filed against Amazon, Cheddi Skeete, a former manager in the company’s drone delivery program, after expressing concerns over the safety of the drones after witnessing several crashes during testing. Amazon has previously told Gizmodo in an email that “[t]hese allegations are false and we look forward to proving that in court.”

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Since December, residents in Lockeford, California and College Station, Texas who order products on Amazon have had a chance of receiving them by drone.

But as of mid-January, only two households in California had received a total of three deliveries between them, and around five households in Texas had received packages, The Information reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the project.

The paltry numbers are surprising given the fanfare the company has drummed up about drone delivery.

In 2020, Insider reported that Amazon's Prime Air was issued an approval certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, to use "unmanned aircraft systems" in a commercial operation. However, the FAA actually included dozens of conditions and limitations that affect its ability to operate, which the company has downplayed until recently. In the summer of 2022, Amazon announced that it had decided upon Lockeford and, subsequently, College Station, as its test sites for drone delivery.

By December 2022, Amazon had begun making deliveries to customers in the two towns.

But a recent report by The Information's Theo Wayt which examined FAA records, along with comments from FAA representatives, and Amazon employees and representatives, found that the FAA is "blocking Amazon's drones from flying over roads or people without case-by-case permission."

That's curtailed the number of deliveries Amazon's Prime Air can make.

One reason might be because Amazon's drones are pretty heavy, coming in at 80 lbs when empty, even though the packages it can carry have a weight limit of 5 lbs.

"The possibility of Amazon's nearly-90-pound drone falling from the sky onto our home, onto our car, onto our children was nerve-wracking," Insider reported Amina Alikhan, a College Station resident, saying at a public meeting last summer.

A spokesperson for the FAA provided Insider with an exemption the FAA issued to Amazon on November 9, 2022 that maintains many of the restrictions it originally put in place in an exemption it issued the company in 2020, largely preventing the company from flying over roads and people without permission.

However, the FAA's exemption to Alphabet's Wing, and Walmart's drone delivery partners Flytrex and Zipline — whose drones range between 10 lbs to 40 lbs empty — allow them to fly over roadways, according to The Information.

Added to that, Amazon's drones have crashed several times during testing, with one igniting an "acres-wide brush fire" in 2021 Insider reported.

Amazon's rolling layoffs — the largest in the company's history— have also drastically whittled down the company's drone safety teams in Lockeford, College Station, and the test site in Pendleton, Oregon where the fire occurred, Insider reported, citing comments from former and current employees.

A spokesperson for Amazon told Insider via email, "We have built Prime Air as a service and technology with safety as the top priority. We meet or exceed all safety standards and have obtained regulatory authorization to conduct commercial drone delivery operations. We welcome the FAA's rigorous evaluations of our operation, and we'll continue to champion the significant role that regulators play to ensure all drone companies are achieving the right design, build and operating standards."

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Amazon made news this month by announcing it will start package deliveries by aerial drone to real customers in a northern California town. In the run-up to the U.S. debut, the company conducted extensive flight tests in Eastern Oregon, where it experienced occasional crashes. Amazon said Monday the upcoming rollout of commercial drone delivery signifies the refined technology is safe and no longer experimental.

The Seattle-based e-commerce giant announced on its corporate blog that the first U.S. customers to be able to order small items for speedy delivery by drone will be in Lockeford, California.

Lockeford is an unincorporated town at the north end of the Central Valley with a population of about 3,500. California Assemblyman Heath Flora, who represents the area in the Legislature, said it’s natural to ask, “Why Lockeford?” He sat in on an advance briefing Amazon provided to local officials.

“I think there were a couple factors: It was the FAA liked the location,” Flora said by way of explanation. “It was in good proximity to a major hub for Amazon (in Stockton). To have a community like Lockeford that is relatively rural, relatively open, not a lot of obstructions out there, it just seemed like a perfect fit.”

Flora added that he’s excited to have a front row seat for a potentially fundamental change in “how products move around.”

Crashes

Amazon is promising to begin flying drones over people’s houses less than a year after some of them fell from the sky. Documents obtained by the Northwest News Network and OPB via a records request to the Federal Aviation Administration showed an uncrewed Amazon aircraft crashed during flight testing on an almost monthly basis between May 2021 and this past February. An Amazon spokesperson said in an email the crashes involved a now-retired drone model, not the latest version to be used in California.

Amazon's package delivery drone weighs about the same as a power lawnmower – about 85 pounds, according to the specs on file with the FAA. The autonomous flying machine has a hexagonal wing surrounding six electric motors and propellers. Amazon says the drone can deliver items weighing up to five pounds that are no larger than a shoebox.

Northwest News Network and OPB requested FAA incident reports on all unmanned aerial vehicle mishaps at the Pendleton test range since 2018. We identified 10 crashes serious enough to be reported to the federal government and nearly all of them involved Amazon’s package delivery drone.

In April, Bloomberg reported on some of the drone crashes in Pendleton. Current and former employees told reporters that Amazon prioritized speed over safety during the development process.

The increased scrutiny hasn't slowed down business at the Pendleton UAS Range. Drone range manager Darryl Abling said the range is projecting 15,000 to 17,000 flights in 2022. That's more than double 2021's total.

Abling wouldn't discuss Amazon or any other range users specifically. But he said the number of reported crashes are small compared to the number of test flights Pendleton hosts.

“It's a drop in the ocean,” he said. “With that many operations, you'd have to have a significant number of incidents even to hit a threshold of a tenth of a percent. The number is extremely low.”

Amazon spokesperson Av Zammit reiterated in an email Monday that safety is his company’s top priority and that the drones are equipped with multiple safety features.

“We use a closed, private facility to test our systems up to their limits and beyond,” Zammit said. “With rigorous testing like this, we expect these types of events to occur, and we apply the learnings from each flight towards improving safety.”

Other concerns

Safety, flight hours and noise are among things on the minds of people in Lockeford who are in some cases still learning they’ll be on the cutting edge. That’s according to San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors Chair Chuck Winn, who observed a meeting of a municipal advisory council where the drone plan got its first public airing. Summarizing the audience’s mood, Winn said local residents are open to drone delivery if the FAA sets limits to maximize safety and minimize disturbance.

“I think they’re going to be very concerned in regards to the time that these drones will be flying, the locations, certainly the height and other things,” he said.

“Obviously there are questions,” Winn continued. “But I didn’t see an uproar or outrage in regards to this particular project.”

San Joaquin County spokeswoman Stephanie Loder said the county only has jurisdiction over building remodeling and land use at the distribution warehouse site in this case. The FAA retains sole authority over flight operations and has informed the county that the delivery drone operation still needs various federal approvals and specific airspace authorization before it can begin.

Amazon hasn’t given a timeline for the real-world launch of one-hour delivery by drone in the U.S. other than to say it is coming “later this year” to the California town. Amazon Prime Air won’t be the first to market. Competitors such as Walmart, Google Wing and UPS are already in the air with limited drone delivery trials in Sun Belt states.

After Lockeford, similarly flat, fair weather and low density College Station, Texas, could be the next place to see Amazon’s drones in flight over neighborhoods, judging from the advanced permitting process underway there.

During a recent planning and zoning commission discussion in College Station, an Amazon representative described the “sense and avoid” sensor package on the delivery drones that allow them to avoid other flying objects as well as make sure backyard dropoff zones are clear.

Amazon said that its delivery drones would fly in daytime only and travel between locations at an altitude of around 400 feet. In both Lockeford and College Station, Amazon told local officials its battery-powered aircraft would operate within a four-mile radius from the base station.