Europe is flying ahead of the US with various major real-life practical tests of deliveries by drones as postal operators move faster than the likes of Amazon and Google to turn ‘drone delivery’ into everyday reality.
Deutsche Post DHL, Swiss Post, France’s La Poste, Spain's Correos and Finland's Posti are just some of the European CEP players currently pressing ahead with projects to test whether autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can reliably deliver small packages in real conditions. Most see the technology's potential for niche usages such as deliveries to remote areas rather than as a mass-maket operation.
After testing its ‘Parcelcopter’ for short flights carrying packages with urgent medicine from the North German coast to the holiday island of Juist in winter 2014/15, Deutsche Post DHL will this week launch a follow-up project in the Bavarian Alps.
Meanwhile, the ‘Swiss drone’ project, combining Swiss Post, Swiss WorldCargo and US technology firm Matternet, is also set to move forward. Oliver Evans, former head of Swiss WorldCargo and now with Matternet, told freight news portal The Loadstar last week that the three partners would carry out ‘payload’ trials from an airfield near Geneva in the next few months.
In France, La Poste’s express parcels unit DPDgroup has tested drone flights with small parcels in the Alpes Maritimes region, including a 'drone delivery terminal'. Spain's Correos has started testing parcel delivery via drones in the mountainous northern province of Asturias while Posti tested deliveries from central Helsinki to an offshore island.
In the USA, both Amazon and Google are working on drone delivery projects but have been held up by tough regulations restricting flights to short ‘line-of-sight’ distances. In December, Amazon unveiled a new 'plane-style' Prime Air delivery drone which it hopes to use for rapid deliveries from urban distribution centres.
Among other projects around the world, Australian firm Flirtey has tested a commercial flight in Auckland, New Zealand.
