The UK’s first drone delivery service which can be conducted on a permanent basis has been launched in Orkney to provide locals with their mail.
Royal Mail and Skyports Drone Services have launched the Orkney I-Port operation to distribute letters and parcels between the islands, in partnership with Orkney Council Harbour Authority and LoganAir.
Mail will be transported from Royal Mail’s Kirkwall delivery office to Stromness, where the drone deliveries will transport items to staff on Graemsay and Hoy to allow postal workers to carry out their usual island delivery routes.
While the service will initially operate for three months, it could be continued on a permanent basis under existing regulatory frameworks due to Orkney’s unique landscape and the proximity of the islands to one another.
The drone service is expected to significantly improve service levels and delivery times to Graemsay and Hoy, as weather and geography can cause disruption to delivery services.
The use of electric drones for inter-island delivery will also bring significant safety improvements by ensuring postal workers can deliver between ports without risk.
The project has been funded by the Department for Transport’s Freight Innovation Fund and carried out by the Connected Places Catapult.
Chris Paxton, head of drone trials at Royal Mail, said: “We are proud to be working with Skyports to deliver via drone to some of the most remote communities that we serve in the UK.
“Using a fully electric drone supports Royal Mail’s continued drive to reduce emissions associated with our operations, whilst connecting the island communities we deliver to.”
Alex Brown, director of Skyports Drone Services, said: “By leveraging drone technology, we are revolutionising mail services in remote communities, providing more efficient and timely delivery, and helping to reduce the requirement for emissions-producing vehicles.
“We’re pleased to be once again partnering with Royal Mail to demonstrate how drone operations can benefit UK logistics on this project.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here