Amazon Starts First UK Drone Delivery Service in Darlington

Amazon has become the first retailer in the UK to start a drone delivery service with a limited launch in Darlington, County Durham. Packages weighing less than 5lb (2.2kg) and containing everyday items such as beauty products, batteries and cables are now being delivered within a 7.5 mile (12km) radius of the company's fulfilment centre.

The company is convinced there is demand for ultra-fast deliveries and hopes to slowly expand the service. It will carry out a maximum of ten flights an hour, or up to 100 deliveries a day on weekdays. Eligible customers need a garden or yard for the drone to drop packages from a height of 12ft (3.6m).

One resident allowed the company to use an Airbnb on his farm for initial test runs. He said that at first it was a novelty, so orders were placed for items including pens, paper and chocolates. He added that people came just to see the deliveries. Since then the resident has ordered items he needed on the same day, such as rubber gloves and tape measures.

The parcels arrive in boxes the size of shoeboxes. The company has been developing the service for more than a decade.

The company uses its MK30 drone model in Darlington.

It has sensors to avoid obstacles including trampolines, washing lines, people and other aircraft. As the drone approaches each drop-off point it uses GPS to release the package. A vice president of Amazon Prime Air said the drone is effectively autonomous and can perform tasks that a pilot and ground crew would handle.

The company said it has a targeted level of safety measured in aerospace terms. It already operates drone deliveries in five U.S. states. In early February an MK30 drone hit the side of an apartment building in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, after drifting slightly following a loss of GPS signal.

The drone fell to the ground and broke apart but no one was injured. The company has since stopped deliveries to apartments of that type. The vice president said the incident was an example of lessons learned as operations continue and noted that 170,000 drone flights had gone safely.

For commercial drone deliveries to expand further, operators need to fly beyond visual line of sight. The company is doing so in Darlington while a remote operator tracks the drone from base and liaises with air traffic control when needed.

Darlington was selected because it has a mix of residential areas, major roads and an airport close to the fulfilment centre, allowing testing under varied conditions within a small area. The company has approval from the Civil Aviation Authority for a trial until the end of the year and has secured temporary protected airspace until mid-June, which is expected to be extended.

A council spokesperson said that due to the unprecedented nature of the scheme only temporary planning permission was initially granted to allow for testing of the drone delivery concept. The spokesperson added that it is great to see Darlington at the forefront of such a pioneering scheme which highlights the borough as an area of innovation, development and investment.

An associate professor of geography at the University of Reading noted that much of the demand for delivery services is in urban centres that are densely populated and congested. She said drone deliveries do not work well in high-rise buildings and that while ideas exist for rooftop deliveries and centrally located hubs, those solutions are not yet in place.

Drone deliveries are already being trialled by the NHS for blood supplies in London and by Royal Mail for packages to remote communities in Orkney. The company said customers have never asked for slower deliveries. The vice president added that if parents need fever medication for children they want it immediately rather than driving to a store.

In the UK the drones currently deliver within two hours while the current average in the U.S. is 36 minutes. The service remains at an early stage and residents gave mixed responses when asked about it.