Saturday, October 24, 2015

Your New Postman - Drone by SingPost

It is sometimes remarkable to see new technology being applied to old school services, and in this case, an UAV aka drone delivering our letters. I guess hard-copy snail mail could be considered an old tech of communication in this world of instant messaging. So it is interesting to read about how SingPost successfully done a test trial to use drone to deliver letters (and a packet containing T-shirt) from Lorong Halus to Pulau Ubin.


I guess it is inevitable that technology will be used to improve productivity, and in this case, shortening the time needed to deliver mails and packets from the main island to Pulau Ubin. Via conventional methods, i.e. the postman taking a ferry, the actuakl delivery would take much longer compared to a 5 mins trip by this drone over 2.3km.

As a stamp collector, I am interested to know if special post marks, i.e. cancellation, would be used for such means of delivery? In the past, mails delivered via special means, e.g. hot air balloons, would have their own unique marks. It will be quite cool to have a drone shape cancellation mark on my envelopes.

For those interested to see how the entire process happened, with a special interview from SingPost, you could catch their video below (SingPost posted on YouTube):



Yes this is currently just a trial that was successfully conducted in the beginning of October 2015, where SingPost tested the idea with IDA, as well as with special approvals from the various authorities. Maybe in the not too distance future, this way of delivering letters would be common. I look forward to the day when a drone delivers letters to my house but hmm it is unlikely I guess, since I stayed in a HDB with the cluster of locked letterboxes.

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