Cory Graves
Amazon Now Offers One-Hour Delivery In Dallas.
The 30-minutes-or-it's-free days in the pizza industry may be long behind us. But, no, all is not lost for Dallas residents, some of whom can now get a freaking television delivered to their houses faster than some Chinese food — and without the added hassle of speaking to another human being, no less.
Earlier this week, Dallas became the fourth city included in Amazon's “Prime Now” program. (The service debuted in New York in December, and Baltimore and Miami were just added last week.) For members of the $99/year loyalty program, it's now possible to order “daily essential” items like household goods and other select items from Amazon.com and then receive them an hour later.
Here's how it works: For customers in 24 Dallas zip codes (see below), one-hour service is available for Prime members between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m., seven days a week. And while the one-hour deliveries will run $7.95 (plus an optional tip for the driver), deliveries of two hours or more will be free.
For now, the service is only available to customers in the following zip codes: 75038, 75039, 75061, 75062, 75063, 75201, 75202, 75204, 75205, 75206, 75207, 75209, 75215, 75219, 75222, 75223, 75226, 75235, 75242, 75247, 75261, 75390, 76155 and 76039. (Amazon says it will soon be adding more areas, too. Update: Aaaaaaaaand, they did.)
Make no mistake: As unbelievably fast as Amazon's new delivery service is, it owes none of its speed to the use of drone technology. The one-hour window is thanks to the fulfillment centers in Haslet and Coppell that the company built in 2013 — although, interestingly enough, those cities are absent from the list of zip codes currently serviced by Amazon Now.
The company is making some headway on the drone front, though. About a week ago, the FAA issued an “experimental airworthiness certificate” to Amazon to begin testing its drone technology outdoors. At the moment, the crafts are limited to altitudes of 400 feet, among other FAA-mandated restrictions. So it may be a few years before an unmanned craft drops any packages off at your door — and that's if it ever happens at all. Last month, the FAA proposed new rules that would prevent companies like Amazon from operating drones beyond the sight of the pilots controlling them.
