OK, so it might not be the utopian/dystopian vision of individual drones delivering parcels to your doorstep just yet…, but Royal Mail have launched a real-life drone delivery to a remote Orkney island.

Rather than a swarm of single parcel carriers, a large twin-engine drone is carrying mail between Kirkwall and North Ronaldsay in a trip of under 20 minutes. Up to 100kg of post can be carried on the journey of about 35 miles, travelling at more than 90mph, before being delivered to the 70 inhabitants (and presumably sheep if they’ve ordered anything) in the usual way by a local post worker.

Following the trial, this new technology can then be considered by Royal Mail to support deliveries to remote areas across the UK. Meaning it could be some time before a drone is dropping a parcel of at your office, but you can take advantage of the existing Royal Mail and Parcelforce team for your deliveries with a franking parcel solution.