Drones to deliver mails in France

Drone delivery is slowly and steadily taking off with many uses for human community. Besides being used in rescue and aid, drones are becoming increasingly popular in the commercial sector as well.

In a move along these lines, French postal service plans to start using drones for postal deliveries in a small experiment that will only operate once a week following approval from the French aviation regulatory authority, reports Recode.

A subsidiary of the French national postal service- DPDgroup is in charge of the pilot. The company has been testing its drone delivery service with partnership with drone maker Atechsys since 2014.

The experiment to demonstrate the viability and usefulness of drones in rural areas and mountainous terrains that are not otherwise easily accessible will operate on a fixed route that stretches between Saint-Maximin-La-Sainte-Beaume and Pourrières in the Provence region of France.

Apparently, presently it's not going to be any region specific delivery, rather some non-residential customers are participating in the experiment, including a dozen tech companies that can now receive parcels by drone.

Drone delivery has a lot of potentials to make local mail service more efficient and reliable. Also, don’t worry about, human jobs being threatened as they will be used only to ensure last mile delivery in difficult terrains and where it is ‘expensive by ground vehicle’.

Recently, Amazon also showcased a video of its first customer drone delivery in the British countryside. And in China, online retailer JD.com started the trial of its drone delivery program in November with a fleet of 30 drones that ferry orders to locations in rural China.