Amazon launches Britain’s first drone delivery service as parcels begin dropping into gardens – NATIONAL NEWS
Amazon has launched Britain’s first drone parcel delivery service, bringing futuristic airborne shopping to the UK for the first time.
While the service has not reached the Midlands yet, customers living within 7.5 miles of Amazon’s fulfilment centre in Darlington, County Durham, can now have selected items flown directly to their homes by autonomous drones, with deliveries arriving in as little as two hours.
The service is limited to lightweight items under 5lb, including products such as batteries, cables, beauty items and household essentials.
The online retail giant believes British shoppers are ready for faster deliveries than ever before and says the trial could eventually pave the way for wider use across the country. For local resident Rob Shield, the experience quickly became a talking point.
Mr Shield allowed Amazon to use an Airbnb property on his farm during the company’s early testing phase and soon found himself repeatedly placing orders just to watch the aircraft arrive.
“Initially it was a novelty, so we were ordering everything under the sun,” he said. “Pens, paper, chocolates, anything to make it keep coming.”
The drones lower parcels, usually no larger than a shoebox, from around 12ft above the ground before releasing them into gardens or driveways.
“We’d have people come just to see it,” Mr Shield added.
Over time, he said the service became more practical than entertaining.
“You obviously start realising ‘I actually need something today’ like tape measures and stuff like that you’re always losing, we just order it and it comes.”
Not everyone in Darlington shares his enthusiasm. One woman told the BBC she would still rather have a parcel handed to her in person instead of dropped into her garden.
Another resident said she may test the service once before likely deciding to “stick to the old way”.
One local dismissed the idea entirely, describing drone deliveries as “nutty as a fruitcake”.
Amazon has spent more than ten years developing its Prime Air programme and insists customers increasingly expect rapid deliveries.
“The certainty is people have never told us they want their stuff slower,” said David Carbon, vice president of Amazon Prime Air.
“If you’ve got kids and you want fever medication, you want it. You don’t want to drive to the store.”
Although UK deliveries currently take up to two hours, Amazon says the average drone drop-off time in the United States has already fallen to just 36 minutes.
The Darlington operation will be relatively small for now, with a maximum of ten flights an hour and up to 100 deliveries per weekday.
The trial is being carried out using Amazon’s MK30 drones, which are equipped with sensors designed to avoid obstacles including washing lines, trampolines, people and other aircraft. Using GPS technology, the drones calculate exactly where parcels should be released as they approach each property.
“This is effectively an autonomous drone that can do what a pilot does in a flight deck. It can do what ground crews do, and it can deliver a package,” Mr Carbon said.
“We have a targeted level of safety that’s measured in aerospace terms.”
Despite Amazon’s confidence, experts say there are still major challenges before drone deliveries become part of everyday life. Dr Anna Jackman, associate professor of geography at the University of Reading, said densely populated towns and cities remain difficult environments for the technology.
“A lot of our demand for delivery services are in urban centres. They are very densely populated, very congested. And the reality is [drone deliveries] don’t work well in high-rise buildings,” she said.
She added that while rooftop delivery points and central hubs are being explored, “right now we’re not there yet”.
Customers in Darlington must currently have a suitable outdoor space such as a garden or yard to receive drone deliveries.
Amazon already operates similar services in five American states, although the programme has experienced setbacks. Earlier this year, one of the company’s MK30 drones struck the side of an apartment building in a suburb of Dallas after reportedly losing GPS signal. The aircraft crashed to the ground and broke apart, though nobody was hurt.
Mr Carbon said the drone had “drifted slightly” before clipping a gutter and said Amazon had since stopped making deliveries to similar apartment buildings.
He described the incident as one of the “things that we learn as we go along” and said the company had safely completed 170,000 drone flights overall.
The Darlington scheme has been approved by the Civil Aviation Authority as part of a temporary trial running until the end of the year. Amazon has also secured protected airspace for the flights, allowing drones to operate beyond the visual line of sight while being remotely monitored by operators at the company’s base.
Darlington Borough Council said temporary planning permission had initially been granted because of the “unprecedented nature” of the project.
“It’s great to see Darlington at the forefront of such a pioneering scheme which highlights our borough as an area of innovation, development and investment,” a council spokesperson said.
Darlington is currently the only location outside the United States where Amazon is testing the delivery system. The company selected the town because it combines residential areas, major roads and an airport within a relatively compact space, creating a useful environment for testing how drones perform in different conditions.
Amazon originally pledged to launch the service in 2024, but the rollout took longer than expected. Even so, the company insists drone deliveries are intended to become a profitable long-term business.
“We wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t commercially viable. It’s a business, right? Absolutely, it can be commercially viable, and that’s the goal that we’re going after,” Mr Carbon said.
What do you think about Amazon’s new drone delivery service? Would you trust a drone to drop parcels into your garden, or would you rather stick with traditional deliveries? Have your say by emailing the newsdesk or joining the conversation on our Facebook page.
Main Image: For illustration purposes only
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