JD.com reportedly testing drones for rural deliveries

Internet retailer JD.com has been testing the use of drones to cut delivery times to online shoppers in rural areas, according to a report on the China Daily website. According to the China Daily, JD.com has already completed a test drone delivery operation in Suqian, in the province of Jiangsu.

The report added that JD.com planned to continuing doing more research and then build a dedicated drone delivery control centre “to make the plans a reality, in the near future”.

But it seems that the drones will not be dropping out of the sky onto the rural shoppers’ houses. According to the China Daily report: “Rather than using its drones to deliver goods directly to shoppers, JD.com plans to employ them to transport goods from rural distribution stations to deliverymen based in villages.”