Courier and parcel delivery services are taking to the air in the United States following a ruling by a federal judge which legalises the use of commercial drones. South African delivery companies in grid-locked cities like Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban will be watching developments with interest. In the United States companies testing drones commercially include Amazon, Domino’s Pizza, and FlowerDeliveryExpress. com, which conducted the first flower delivery by drone just before Valentine’s Day. However, the drones were grounded after the Federal Aviation Administration informed the company that commercial use was only authorised on a case-by-case basis. Shortly after the ruling the company had its drone programme back in the air. “This ruling legalising the commercial use of drones is unexpected and exciting news,” said Wesley Berry, CEO, FlowerDeliveryExpress. com. “I fully intend to resume testing in the next few weeks.” FlowerDeliveryExpress. com recently launched a consumer beta programme to test alternative delivery methods and other development efforts with a select group of customers before going to market.
