Royal Mail is now delivering letters and parcels by drone to the Orkney Islands in a new UK-first project.
It’s teamed up with Skyports Drone Services for the new I-Port project, which will help reduce emissions and provide an uninterrupted delivery service in bad weather.
The project will initially run for three months, with the intent to extend in the future.
Carried out in partnership with Orkney Islands Council Harbour Authority and Loganair, it’s the first UK drone delivery project which can be conducted on a permanent basis under existing regulatory frameworks. This is due to the unique landscape of Orkney and the proximity of the islands to one another, which allows for flights to be conducted using extended visual line of sight (EVLOS) permissions rather than beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) permissions.
Letters and parcels will be transported from Royal Mail’s Kirkwall delivery office to Stromness, from where Skyports Drone Services will conduct drone deliveries to Royal Mail staff on Graemsay and Hoy using its Speedbird Aero DLV-2 aircraft, able to carry payloads of up to 6kg. From these locations, postal workers will then carry out their usual island delivery routes.
The service will help circumvent the impact to traditional delivery services from the weather and geography of Orkney. Examples include pauses in the schedule for the ferries – which used to transport some mail – during poor weather
The project is one of the nine winning projects of the Freight Innovation Fund Accelerator, a programme funded by the Department for Transport and delivered by the Connected Places Catapult to support innovators with grant funding and business advice. Skyports received £150,000 of grant funding to test Orkney I-Port operation as a part of the programme.
Alistair Carmichael MP for Orkney and Shetland said: “Obviously, these schemes are still at trial stage and so we should temper our expectations. Even so anything that helps to maintain the universal service, especially in areas of the isles which are more difficult to reach, is something that we should give a chance to support. Royal Mail remains a critical part of keeping the isles connected – and local knowledge and care are vital to that network.”
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 more 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.”
