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It was only a matter of time before it happened and now, France is officially making use of drones to drop off packages to distant areas through their national postal service. The EU country isn’t the first to test out the concept of delivering parcels via drones. However, it’s the first to actually do so on a national level via a government agency.
The national postal service of France is called Le Groupe La Poste, and it has already started testing out the autonomous delivery of packages within the country, Futurism reports. This announcement came right after Amazon also conducted a successful drone delivery in the UK.
The drones themselves came from the local company that makes the UAVs called Atechsys, which one of the subsidiaries of the postal service called DPDgroup partnered with. The project has actually been in the works since 2014 and has finally come to fruition.
In terms of specifications, the drones can reach maximum speeds of up to 19 mph and reach vertical heights of up to 12 miles. The test route where the drone delivery service is being carried out covers an area of 9.3 miles, located near Saint-Maximin-La-Sainte-Beaume.
According to a press release by the DPDgroup, this is the first instance of an established, regular commercial route for delivery by drone. This goes a long way towards making drone delivery not only possible on a national scale, but also make it an everyday part of life.
“Once a week, the DPDgroup drone travels between Saint-Maximin-La-Sainte-Beaume and Pourrières, in south of France (Provence region),” the press release reads. “The route makes it possible to deliver items to a cut-off incubator of companies including a dozen start-ups specialized in technology.”
Drone delivery services are often considered the future of the delivery industry, making the transportation of goods a much more efficient practice compared to doing it by land. There are still plenty of concerns about air traffic conflicts, but once the kinks are worked out, air mail would take on a whole new meaning.
