Use of Drones for Postal Delivery
in Switzerland
Janick Mischler
Open Innovation Swiss Post

Who is Swiss Post?

Das Ideenmanagement der Schweizerischen Post
Swiss Post

Swiss Post Ltd.

PostFinance

Post Offices

Swiss Post Solutions

PostLogisitcs

PostMail

PostBusDevelopment & Innovation

Swiss Post – Innovation for the future
Speedy Shopping

Mobile Payment

Self-Driving Public Bus

Drone Delivery inSwitzerland – what
have we done so far?

Technical Proof-of-Concept•

One year ago, we met Matternet – a drone manufacturer from Silicon Valley- and discussed possible cooperations in Switzerland.

•A technical proof-of-concept should be implemented to test the capabilities
of drone delivery in Switzerland.

•Could drones be a delivery method of the future?

Slide 6

Project setup
First test phase in July 2015 in the Seeland region has been completed- Flights of up to 9.5 km were conducted successfully- No incidents, no drone crashes- Positive perception among the population and in the newspapers- First fully autonomous drone flights in Switzerland

Slide 7

Project setup
The drone used for the Proof-of-Concept had the following
specifications:- Quadrocopter- Capacity 1 kg for up to 10 km- about 40 km/h
- Autonomous flight

Slide 8

Good box

Slide 9

Route planning

Slide 10

Flight operation via smartphone

Slide 11

Takeoff command

Slide 12

Live-Tracking

Slide 13

Worldwide press perception

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A success story•

The technical Proof-of-Concept was a success. In only a few months, webuild up the know-how about drones and proved that this vehicle may be an
opportunity for the future.

•The press perception was incredible.

•So, we decided to accelerate the drone project and to look for moreadvanced applications in business cases.

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Drone Delivery inSwitzerland – whatare we doing now?

We are thinking about potential
business cases
Industries / Markets• Sensing• Entertainment• Transport & Logistics• Surveillance• etc.

Slide 17

Switzerland – special topographic situation

Lakes

An opportunity for drones!

Remoted areas

Mountains

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Internal Business Cases: Swiss Post Logistics• We believe that drones are useful to deliver parcels handle these special topographic
situations.
• By law, Swiss Post has to serve every household, even in rural, remoted or mountainareas.
• By drones, the delivery is more effective and no longer depending from roadconditions.
• Especially in mountain areas, drones can make deliveries faster.

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External Business Cases: Courier and express deliveries• Today, it takes about 2 hours to pick up a parcel in a mountain area and to deliver itto the nearest town
• Employees are very expensive in Switzerland, therefore time is the cost-driver
number one.
• We aim to offer drone transportation for less than 1 Swiss Franc (about 1 US-$) per
kilometer. That’s much less than by classical transportation vehicles.
• Such transportation can be useful for example for medical purposes.

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Possible solution: Drone network in mountain areas• Mountain villages get connected with nearby towns by drones.
• Delivery time and cost may be reduced dramatically=> We are talking to potential customers

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Enabler: A new, very advanced hexacopter drone
Our upcoming drone enables many businesscases in Switzerland!
• 30 km range• 10 kg payload• Arbitrary size of payload• Fully autonomous flight and parcel pick up
Coming soon:• Fully autonomous battery swap

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New drone from Skycart – Prototype

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Drone Delivery in
Switzerland –challenges and outlook

Current regulations
Airports• No flight zone 5 km around airports• Special permits required
Airspace control system• How to avoid collisions, f.e. with helicopters, aircrafts or other drones?
Flying above highly populated areas• Getting the approval to fly over cities
In Switzerland, we are very happy about the cooperation with theregulator (FOCA) as they support us to enable the use ofautonomous flying drones.

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General concerns
Reliability of drones• How reliable are drones over time and under different weather conditions?
• Gather long-term experience
Acceptance• How will people think about a wider use of drones?
• How is the acceptance by companies and customers?
Building up the delivery chain• How to deliver and pick up parcels?
• Integration in existing deliver chains• Process concerns

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What’s about the business model?
•Drone delivery is in its infancy and it will take some more years to get awide acceptance. In the meanwhile, you should not talk about money,
otherwise you may kill the growth of this new technology.

•However, we think that some day, drones may be offered as a service.

•Eventually, drones will not replace our postmen as they are very efficientin highly populated areas like towns, but drone delivery is very suitable for
special deliveries.

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Drone Delivery in
Switzerland – what’s
next?

Implementation of business cases

Complexity2025?

20172020?

2016

Market coverage
B2B-Link

B2B-Network

B2C-Hubs

Full B2C

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The next big thing – presented by Swiss Post soon(?)•We plan to implement different business cases in Switzerland.

•The first B2B solutions may be implemented in Spring 2016.

•… and finally, we hope that these drone applications will result in similar
headlines as our Proof-of-Concept did in Summer 2015:

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Thank you for your attention.