Green light for DPDgroup’s “regular commercial” drone delivery service
France’s General Directorate for Civil Aviation (DGAC) has authorised DPDgroup to operate a regular commercial drone delivery service. According to a statement posted today (15 December) on the DPD website: “For the first time worldwide, a regular commercial route makes it possible to deliver parcels by drone.
“Once a week, the DPDgroup drone travels between Saint-Maximin-La-Sainte-Beaume and Pourrières, in south of France (Provence region). The route makes it possible to delivery items to a cut-off incubator of companies including a dozen start-ups specialized in technology. Their parcels now delivered by Chronopost and DPD France will be sent by drone from the Pick-up point in Saint-Maximin.”
DPD has been testing drone deliveries for some time – and it uses a model where the drone deposits and collects parcels in a “delivery terminal” which “protects access to the drone during landing and take-off phases”.
Yesterday, Amazon attracts significant media attention when it posted a video showing its first fully-automated Prime Air drone delivery completed in the UK earlier this month.
