Royal Mail trials drones for deliveries to Scottish islands

Royal Mail is putting drones to the test to deliver mail between two remote Scottish islands.

Drone flights are running between the remote isles of Islay and Jura in the Inner Hebrides to assess their ability to dispatch post in a more reliable, efficient and environmentally friendly way.

The multirotor drone, which can carry payloads of up to 6kg, transports mail that’s usually taken over by ferry in a Royal Mail van.

This is the sixth time that Royal Mail has tested out drones and the first trial where postmen and women load and unload the drone.

It’s also the second time that Royal Mail has used Extended Visual Line of Sight (EVLOS) flying. This allows drones to travel further than the standard Visual Line of Sight by using ‘trained observers’ to ensure the unmanned aircraft keep a safe distance from other air users, structures and any hazards.

The trial is being funded partly by a £250,000 grant from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to showcase the potential for drones to enhance public services.

The weather and geography of the Inner Hebrides can impact the ability to provide an uninterrupted delivery service. Problems include ferries – used to transport some mail – often being cancelled during poor weather due to the challenges of docking safely.

Royal Mal, which has a Universal Service Obligation to deliver next day to each of the UK’s 32 million addresses, is exploring drones as a more failsafe method to deliver to remote communities.

The trial is being run in collaboration with drone specialists Skyports and Argyll and Bute Council to operate a number of essential services in Islay and Jura, including Royal Mail deliveries.

Chris Paxton, Royal Mail’s head of drones, said: “Trialling drones allows us to test out new ways of working to support our posties in delivering to the most remote areas of the UK. As parcel volumes increase, we are continually looking for new ways to provide a reliable, fast and lower emission service to all our customers no matter where they live.”

In 2020, Royal Mail became the first UK parcel carrier to use a drone to deliver a parcel. The package was successfully despatched to a remote lighthouse on the Isle of Mull with the help of a consortium of drone companies, including Skyports.

In 2021, Royal Mail also became the first UK parcel carrier to deliver mail to a UK island via an out-of-sight autonomous drone flight and to also trial the first inter-island drone flights in UK with a smaller vertical take-off and landing drone.