We know that Amazon wants to turn to drones to perform some of its deliveries in the future, but at the moment they are facing a bit of resistance from the authorities. However over in Switzerland, it seems that the government has no such issues and will begin testing a drone mail delivery system this coming summer.
The drones used will be quadcopters made by a company called Matternet. It will be able to deliver mail to houses and is capable of carrying as heavy as 2.2 pounds for a range of 12 miles on a single charge. That’s a pretty good distance as mail deliveries by postal workers are usually broken up into different neighborhoods to begin with, so while its range might be short if you’re planning a long-distance flight, it does seem to be perfect for local deliveries.
According to Dieter Bambauer, Head of PostLogistics, Swiss Post, “With drone technology, we are testing a possible means of transportation of the future already today. Swiss Post aims to always be in tune with customer needs.” The drones will be flying on a preprogrammed path to avoid any collision with other drones which will be generated by Matternet’s proprietary Cloud software.
Assuming the pilot program is successful, the Swiss postal service is expected to undertake a few more trials before making their decision to see how viable drone delivery services truly are.
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