The Good – drones bring value and opportunities

Drone technology can bring a lot of value to businesses: innovative and cost-effective ways to complete tasks that were performed by humans that took a lot longer, potentially dangerous, and more expensive to accomplish (ex. inspections of hard to reach places, surveying, substitute for old/expensive solutions for aerial filming/photography, having ‘eyes in the sky’ for documenting work, etc.).

Several industries realized the value right away and have fully embraced this solution, spurring a flurry of DSP (drone service providers) entrepreneurs and startups to provide these services. And as drones get solid traction and more use cases with many industries, the drone industry is projected to grow to $43 Billion by 2024, according to COMPTIA report, with a compound growth rate (CAGR) of 20.5%, greatly outpacing growth rates of many industries, including IT. So with such an opportunity, the Drone Service Provider (DSP) market is growing rapidly.

In short, drones are bringing a lot of growth opportunities and economic value for enterprises and entrepreneurs. But, because the industry is so new, regulations and standards (FAA, industry, state and federal, etc.) are largely still developing and changing rapidly, as are enterprise use cases, it can be hard to understand the landscape of the drone service providers (DSPs) if you are a business owner or a manager looking to hire them.

The Bad - Hiring a drone company or a pilot is like gambling

Let’s imagine this scenario: you are a business owner or a manager in construction, engineering, video production, marketing, etc. (in short, any industry that could use drones) and decided you want to hire a drone pilot to do a job for you. This job could be anything from flying a drone to document the progress of a construction site or proof of work, inspect an oil rig, showcase commercial real estate, shoot aerials for a video you are making, etc.

Finding someone you can trust your project to can be a challenge unless you have a vetted and proven drone company/pilot you employ or you have contracted with before. Most likely you will do a web search for a drone pilot or a specific drone service you are looking for, and then you will get numerous paid ads and search results offering those services.

And here is what you need to know about the drone services providers (DSP) market in the United States: the market is very new and fragmented, and it can be hard to navigate. There are only a handful of national enterprises that operate in this industry, the rest are either small regional and niche companies specializing in a certain service or industry (ex. oil, gas, AEC industries, aerial cinematography/video, real estate etc.), entrepreneurs (aka drone pilots that can cover several industries), or ‘uber for drone pilots’ drone pilot network platforms (such as Drone Base, Drone Hive, Drone Up, etc.). These companies all need qualified drone pilots operating for them in the specific location required by clients to complete the task, regardless of the industry.

Some of these companies grew out of drone pilots starting their own companies (so they are operated by them), but many grew out of a recognized market opportunity, so they need to find pilots to fly for them. This isn’t easy to do, as finding a good pilot is like looking for a needle in a haystack of people self-proclaiming as qualified drone pilots.

The truth is, it is easy to get into the industry and call yourself a drone pilot or a drone services provider company.  Commercial drones are within reach to purchase for under $2K nowadays. Anyone who wants to invest their time and some grit can study, pass and receive an FAA Part 107 commercial drone operator certificate, and put up a website to advertise their services. And voila, they have a drone services business presence that makes it look like they are legit!

In reality, this may be a company that doesn't have their own pilots, or is operated by a self-proclaimed pilot that has hardly flown before, who may not have a commercial drone pilot license, or insurance, and very possibly has never done the type of job you want to have completed. See our blog post Things to Consider Before Hiring A Drone Pilot for more details on this topic.

So, you are really gambling as you are trying to find someone you can trust in your specific location to do the job you require – the market of drone services providers is still new and is a bit like the Wild West right now.

Some companies out there (especially national companies serving oil/gas, telecom, and energy markets) are starting to employ and train their own drone pilots. These industries require specialized skills and services performed at a regular cadence. It is also easier to ensure that their customers will get quality service consistently when hiring and investing in proper pilot training. These companies train pilots to fly proficiently and execute specific tasks they require (video/photo, aerial inspections, surveying, and photogrammetry).

However, most companies do not employ their own pilots, so when you submit a request for your service through a drone pilot network company that doesn’t employ their own pilots, you will be dealing with a ‘middleman’ company that will connect you with a drone pilot, whether from their existing contacts in the area (someone they’ve hired before for another client) or from another area that will have to travel to your location (and therefore charging more, most likely). And if the job at hand is rather simple, not requiring specialized skills in flying, shooting high-quality video/photo, or gathering data in a specific way, it may be an effective solution for you.

But you should be aware that many of these drone pilot network companies do not vet their subcontractors properly, and in many cases, these pilots get paid low wages (the middleman takes a cut, of course). You will not get the best-qualified pilots to perform your task and will most likely have limited direct communication with them to prevent those pilots from acquiring you as their own client.

And while this business model of drone pilot network serves well as a marketplace to connect clients with pilots, these pilots may not be highly skilled and use the middleman service to gain proficiency (using this as paid training) before branching out on their own or being employed as drone pilots full-time for a company that has its own drone program.

The Ugly - You Take on Risks

So, if you have contracted with a company that doesn’t employ its own pilots or doesn’t vet them properly, what are the risks?

Here are the top 4:

1)      Fines. If you have hired a drone pilot who doesn’t hold an FAA Part 107 license or is operating outside of the FAA Part 107 guidelines (including not registering drones, flying without additional airspace authorizations when required, etc.), you are opening your company to potential FAA fines.

Recently the FAA fined a drone pilot $182K for repeated violations, as detailed in this Forbes article. While this may be an extreme example, you don’t want to get in ‘hot water’ with FAA or local law enforcement, let alone get your business dragged through the bad PR a drone incident could generate. Drones are still a new and sometimes controversial technology, so drone incidents tend to make TV, front page, and social media news.

2)   Damage liability. If you don't ensure that the drone pilot you hire has drone business insurance or puts your company as an 'additional insured' as an additional way to defer potential liability away from the client, there is always a potential that your company may be liable if something goes wrong. Drones do crash, can cause property damage and personal injury, and that cause could be anything from weather-related, technology failure, or pilot error, regardless of their skill and qualifications.

3)   Wasted resources (time and $). If you don’t have a way to communicate your requirements to the pilot directly, or don’t know their experience with the type of job and data output you require, that money you just spent may have been wasted – you may not get the output you need, or the quality of the output may not be up to your standards.

4)  Reputation. If you are the business owner and the drone pilot you hired didn’t work out in some way, you will learn your lesson and move on. But, if you are a manager within a company that oversees outsourcing these jobs, your career and reputation in the company and industry may be at stake.

To sum up, if you want to hire a drone pilot consider coming up with requirements to vet them, and/or ensure that the companies you hire vet the pilots according to your specifications. These requirements should include the basics and go beyond them, especially if you have a complex technical deliverable that will need to integrate into your workflows or you expect video of certain quality and professional photography output.

V1DroneMedia is owned and operated by its Chief Pilot Jason Damman, a professional airline turned drone pilot, with 25+ years’ experience in remote-controlled aviation, 20+ years in commercial airlines, and 5+ years in commercial drone operations. Jason is a drone and aviation practitioner and educator, performing complex drone jobs in various industries (see our Portfolio and YouTube channel for examples of our work), and is also a certified flight instructor, including training drone pilots.

Contact us for a consultation today. V1DroneMedia can help you complete a drone job, train your pilots, or help you to set up a drone operation of your own!