Japan Post is moving quickly with its plans to introduce mail drone delivery services in the country, and has staged its maiden parcel drop to a private home following the company’s first flight over a populated area.
Japan Post said it made the delivery flight on Friday when a drone made a two-kilometer mission to a home in Okutama, a rural area located about 75 kilometers west of Tokyo. The company said the five-minute journey took only a third of the time road vehicles usually need to make the trip.
Read: Japan Posts seizes BVLOS rule tweak to launch drone deliveries
The trial was a sign of how eager Japan Post is to introduce UAVs in transporting mail, and followed hard on its announcement in late December to begin testing of the craft this year.
The ability of Japan Post to prepare drone delivery among its services to clients was vastly aided in early December by the government’s decision to ease restrictions of so-called “Level 4” operations. Those pertain to beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights over residential areas.
Initially the company said it would take advantage of that liberalization by experimenting with UAV activity to island destinations and in mountainous areas. But Friday’s BVLOS drone delivery in Okutama marked Japan Post’s decision to go even faster with trials in populated zones on the country’s main islands.
Officials say they’re hoping to work toward a launch of regular aerial services to households around the nation as a means of avoiding the notoriously clogged traffic in larger cities and towns.
When it made its first announcement its 2022 closed out, Japan Post unveiled the new delivery drone it plans to use – a quadcopter developed by partner ACSL Ltd, a Tokyo-based maker of fully autonomous craft for BVLOS missions. The UAV can carry up to five kilograms of payload over total distances of 35 kilometers on a single battery charge, increasing flight time of previous test craft by a factor of over three.
Several commercial logistics companies, and even a few retailers, are working toward rolling out drone deliveries in Japan. According to Asia Nikkei, one of the largest groups involved with that, Sagawa Express, is conducting trials with the goal of offering aerial services in 2025.
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In the hopes of encouraging drone delivery activities by private companies and state agencies like Japan Post, the government is working on a unified uncrewed air traffic management system that will orchestrate UAV and future advanced air mobility craft like air taxis. It has yet to be decided whether operation of that navigational structure will be overseen by pubic administrations, or entrusted to an outside company.
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