DHL Courier To Use Parcelcopter Drone To Deliver Medicine To Isolated Island

The battle for air supremacy with last mile deliveries continues to get more interesting following Amazon with their Amazon Prime Air using air drones, Google trying out their own delivery service in the Australian outback to farmers, and now German courier company DHL are getting in on the action.

Eager to beat the technology companies to the last mile (quite fitting really) global courier DHL have announced a regular drone service to deliver packages by air. The pilot test program has been running as “parcel-copter” since December last year.

The quad-copter will run autonomously to carry small parcels over to the small island of Juist. It is a German island situated 12 kilometers from Germany in the North Sea. Just 2,000 people live on the island. The planned delivery operation to Juist will include medication and various other goods that are considered important to get there quickly.

To get around issues with other air traffic, the DHL delivery drone will be flying just 50 meters above land using an automated route to a special designated landing area on the island. A DHL courier located on Juist will then collect the package and deliver it by van to the intended recipient. The container used for the delivery was custom developed to handle adverse weather conditions by being waterproof.

Monitored On The Ground

The delivery drone will still need to be monitored from the ground to ensure there are no unexpected issues (seagull flying into one of the rotating blades?) Ground air traffic control will also be made aware of each drone delivery plan as well per German regulations for any air traffic.

DHL is already taking delivery orders for the parcel-copter to take regular flights over to the island which can ensure that the local pharmacy doesn't run out of vital medication when it is needed the most. The plan is to use the parcel-copter when other forms of scheduled transport like ferries and flights don't fit into the delivery schedule required.

Avoids Customer Risk of Rotating Blades

The second version of their parcel-copter is positive step forward for DHL. Delivering to a set location where local DHL staff can pick up the parcel and deliver it to the door gets around the sticky problem of customers not staying far enough away from the rotating blades of a quad-copter drone near landing or take-off.

Lack of Approval Elsewhere

The UK does not approve similar drones currently because of issues with line of sight provisions where the operator must be within 50 meters of the flying drone. But it is hoped by DHL that new software will allow a future version of their parcel-copter to act automatically to avoid obstacles in the air to reduce safety concerns. As a result such restrictions for drone use may be lifted by more countries in the future.

Amazon, Google and DHL

Amazon are using a similar method to DHL with their flying drone but lacking the personnel globally it is difficult for them to have safe landing areas for their drones like DHL can provide on their own properties. Google have taken a different approach using fixed wing drones and lowering parcels by tether in order to avoid concerns about safety for people on the ground. However, DHL have been the first to solve the problem with this limited operation.