Australian Postal Service Tests Drone Delivery

Drone delivery has been discussed by major companies like Amazon and Google, but postal engineers in Australia are testing out drone delivery service to more efficiently deliver packages to customers in rural areas whose mailboxes are far away from their houses. This would eliminate the need for these people to travel far distances to obtain their packages. 

According to The Sydney Morning Herald a consumer trial of this delivery method “would use the drones to deliver parcels to 50 locations twice a week in an outer metropolitan location,” according to Ben Franzi, Australian Post general manager of e-commerce platforms and marketplaces. 

“We’re pretty confident that if we can get through this [trial] we’ll be able to offer this experimental service towards the end of this year,” Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour told the Morning Herald. “We will only bring [this method of delivery] into play once we are 100% sure that it’s safe and reliable,” he said. 

The delivery drones were developed by Melbourne company ARI Labs. They are fitted with a high-definition camera, as well as a parachute, alarm and warning lights which can be activated as a safety precaution if necessary. Encrypted data is sent back to the ground so engineers can monitor flight activity in real time, but ARI hopes to automate monitoring in the future.