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DRONES

Deutsche Post tests delivery drones

Just like Amazon, Germany's Deutsche Post-DHL is also testing mini-drones as a way to deliver packages across the skies to your doorstep, the group said on Thursday.

Deutsche Post tests delivery drones
Online retailer Amazon is also testing delivery drones. Photo: DPA/Amazon
Online retail giant Amazon sparked a marketing frenzy Monday in announcing a project to use flying objects more associated with warfare to deliver packages, maintaining it could be up and running within five years.
 
But Deutsche Post said on Thursday it too has a project that predates Amazon's, though the scheme is in its early stages.
 
"This is only a beginning," a Deutsche Post spokeswoman said, with the focus for now on using drones for home delivery of medicine.
 
Amazon on Sunday posted a video on its website showing a prototype. The body of the device is about the size of a flat-screen TV with eight small helicopter rotors lifting it in the air.
 
"I know this looks like science fiction. It's not," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told US broadcaster CBS when revealing the project.
 
US media reported that delivery giant UPS is also researching drone home delivery.
 

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POST

‘A new generation of stamps’: Deutsche Post rolls out QR-style tracking codes

German stamps will soon be kitted out with individual matrix codes to help stop letters getting lost in the mail, national postal company Deutsche Post said Tuesday.

'A new generation of stamps': Deutsche Post rolls out QR-style tracking codes
The new stamp reading 'digital change' and with a QR tracking code. Photo: DPA

Customers will be able to use the codes to track when a letter has arrived in the local processing centre and when it has reached its destination region, Deutsche Post said.

The codes, which are similar to QR codes, will sit alongside the traditional images in what will be “a new generation of stamps”, according to the company.

READ ALSO: How sending parcels in Germany changed in January 2021

“Stamps with matrix codes make our service even more reliable — and the stamps more interesting,” said Tobias Meyer, head of the company's German post and parcel division.

The first stamps featuring the codes will be rolled out from Thursday, with more to follow later in the year.

By 2022, they will be featured on all German stamps.

However, the codes do not allow for full parcel-style tracking and they will not tell customers whether a letter has actually been delivered.

DHL owner Deutsche Post reported record results in January as the pandemic fuels a package boom spurred by online shopping.

Revenues climbed five percent year-on-year to 66.8, buoyed by strong performances from the parcels and express units.

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