Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

France Becomes First Federal Postal Service To Use Drones To Deliver Mail (vice.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the heads-up dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: The French postal service is beginning an experimental drone delivery program to deliver parcels on a nine mile route once a week. After the program gets approval from the French aviation regulatory authority, the federal postal service will be the first to ever use drone delivery on a regular route. The drones used in the French postal service experiment have the capacity to fly up to 12 miles carrying about two pounds maximum, going around 19 miles per hour. They are also equipped with parachutes for safe emergency landing in case something disrupts the flight. The eventual goal is to reach rural or mountainous regions that are otherwise difficult and expensive to get to using cars. The drone mail delivery program has been a project of the DPDgroup, Europe's second largest international parcel delivery network, operating as a subsidiary under the French national postal service. The DPDgroup had been working on this program with Atechsys, a French drone company, since 2014 in the south of France. "The first commercial line represents a new step in the program," DPDgroup said in a press release. With the testing phase now over, the experimentation phase is all set to begin. Currently, those participating in the experiment to receive parcels are non-residential, including over ten tech companies. The done routes stretch over the southeastern region of Provence, going between Saint-Maximin-La-Sainte-Beaume and Pourrieres.

5 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. France does not have a Federal Postal service by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    France does not have a postal service referred to as Federal.

  2. France, federation? by orient · · Score: 5, Informative

    France is not a federation, it is a unitary sovereign state.

    --
    Laudele lor desigur m-ar mahni peste masura.
    1. Re:France, federation? by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Informative

      I wouldn't call it being pedantic. While the United States is a federated government. Where we have 50 states with their own set of rules and constitutions with a federal government to oversee the states.
      France's government isn't like the US. And its postal service isn't federal.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  3. My thoughts exactly by raymorris · · Score: 3, Informative

    My thoughts exactly. Someone said it's pedantic to make note of this, and one could argue that *because* the error isn't related to the point of the story, the error should be ignored. Perhaps so.

    However, it is important that in general people remember that a federal system is *not* a national government like France has. A federal system (compare "federation") has a group of independent states/units who grant the union government powers in specific areas, for specific purposes. The power of a federal government can be at most level with the power of it's members (though member states can delegate *specific areas* to the common government and defer to the federal government in those specified topics.

  4. history of innovation by DavidMZ · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, the french postal service has a history of innovation (e.g. le Minitel), and has handled very cleverly the changes brought by internet (less mail, more packages): they are now the #2 package delivery provider in Europe.

    Sending drones instead of people to remote areas is a good idea: there are fewer regulations than in the cities, and it is probably more profitable too than sending people.