Drones are opening vast opportunities for companies to improve their inspection and monitoring procedures allowing progress to be made faster, safer, and with less investment. Drones are poised to replace many of the dull, dirty, and dangerous functions of inspection and surveillance. The main beneficiaries are civil and public entities that perform enterprise asset management and facilities/infrastructure management. Never is the benefit more evident than in the energy, telecomm, and construction verticals. However, to ensure the supply of electricity, gas and oil, wind, and many other regular tasks (roofing inspections, bridge inspections, construction progress, agriculture, solar site inspections, mine sites, landfills, safety inspections, cell towers, etc.), inspections of the installations are imperative. Because of their sizes and structures, it more feasible to take advantage of the latest technology of drones.
As the FAA sorts out the legalities of drone usage, there are existing options of either investing in the equipment needed to carry out aerial inspections or partner with an existing drone operator who has the knowledge and equipment needed to efficiently and effectively conduct the inspection and monitoring requirements. Contracting these projects provides the several advantages:
It will be the drone consultants that are legally operating within the guidelines of the FAA with the all the legal hurdles crossed (example FAA Section 333 Exemption which permits commercial use of drones within US Air Space for a fee). It will be these drone consultants that are knowledgable about your needs, fully insured protecting both you and them, and experienced with UAV's and their use. Some great places to start your search for drone consultants are:
As the FAA sorts out the legalities of drone usage, there are existing options of either investing in the equipment needed to carry out aerial inspections or partner with an existing drone operator who has the knowledge and equipment needed to efficiently and effectively conduct the inspection and monitoring requirements. Contracting these projects provides the several advantages:
- Contracting gets the work done and improves productivity levels of employees focusing on more important tasks
- Contracting provides immediate expertise which provides a better end product
- Contracting can be a cost effective way to defining costs and to not entertain the internal costs to hiring, developing, and retaining staff for both short and longer activities
- Contracting provides clear definition and certainty as all services are spelled out within the contract
- Contracting provides unique opportunities to build long term partnerships that allow for future opportunities of synergies and collaboration that are mutually beneficial to both parties
It will be the drone consultants that are legally operating within the guidelines of the FAA with the all the legal hurdles crossed (example FAA Section 333 Exemption which permits commercial use of drones within US Air Space for a fee). It will be these drone consultants that are knowledgable about your needs, fully insured protecting both you and them, and experienced with UAV's and their use. Some great places to start your search for drone consultants are:
- Arcadia Sky - www.arcadiasky.com - "The Drone Hire Marketplace"...Signup for operators (pilots) and customers was easy and straightforward. So far, I receive roughly 1-2 requests daily for bidding opportunities for drone jobs.
- Droners.io - https://droners.io/ - "Get Anything Filmed by a Drone"...Signup as a pilot was very easy and their customer service was second to none. Since signup (3 days ago), I have not received any drone jobs to quote, however, am anticipating the frequency to dramatically improve in January 2016 according to their customer service.
- Thumbtack - www.thumbtack.com - "Consider it done"...Signup was a breeze with the iPhone app but their web interface is bad and not customer friendly for migration between pages. I do receive several (3-5) thumbtack opportunities daily but these appear to be very general in nature and nothing that I have quoted.
- Fly4Me - http://fly4.me/ - "The Future of On Demand Drones is Here"...signup was a little confusing as this website requires a pilot license entered versus an FAA Section 333 Exemption approval docket number as the other websites requested (ArcadiaSky and Droners.io). Signup process seems to loop and I have yet to complete.
Great opportunities abound for business growth for those drone consultants willing to continue to evolve and stay on the cutting edge of technology. According to the Business Insider, 12% of the estimated $98B in aerial vehicle spending over the next decade will originate from commercial purposes. Within the US, Defense spending will expand from $10B to nearly $13B and civilian usage will expand from $2B to nearly $6B. Civilian compounded annual growth rates will approach nearly 20% between 2015 and 2020 as drone purchasing surges. Obviously, growth, growth, and more growth.
With all this said, all insiders believe the drone industry is poised for an explosion of growth spurring more spending, more jobs, advanced technology, and improved methods of completing projects and tasks that once were not feasible or attainable, required an employee to complete potentially exposing that employee to risks, or required long project cycles increasing the overall cost of doing business. Drones appear to be one answer. However, finding and partnering with the right drone consultant is a must, BUT can easily be done. Sometimes, the answer is right above or right below...
Cloud Vision
With all this said, all insiders believe the drone industry is poised for an explosion of growth spurring more spending, more jobs, advanced technology, and improved methods of completing projects and tasks that once were not feasible or attainable, required an employee to complete potentially exposing that employee to risks, or required long project cycles increasing the overall cost of doing business. Drones appear to be one answer. However, finding and partnering with the right drone consultant is a must, BUT can easily be done. Sometimes, the answer is right above or right below...
Cloud Vision