Drone insurance for surveying

A survey is flown in parallel strips, far from housing, over an area that often runs past a hundred hectares. In regulatory terms, nothing complicated. In equipment terms, another matter entirely.

Where the money actually sits

The sensor. An RTK module or an on-board scanner routinely costs more than the aircraft carrying it, and it does not survive a botched landing on uneven ground.

Then the distance. A flight line that runs out to the edge of radio range exposes you to the scenario almost no Belgian policy covers: the aircraft that does not come back and is never found. Policies then speak of mere disappearance, and exclude it.

What to check on a survey policy

That the sensor appears in the policy by name, with its value excluding VAT. An undeclared payload is not paid for, even when the drone is.

That hull cover applies over unmade ground, and at what excess.

That the question of disappearance has been put to the insurer in writing. It is one of the few points on which an extension can be negotiated, and it has to be done before the first job, not after.

What makes up the insured value of a survey outfit

A sloppy declaration of value gets paid for at settlement. For a survey outfit the list runs to four lines: the airframe, the RTK module or the scanner, the base station with its tripod, and the set of batteries. The ground station is the one most often forgotten, although it travels in the same case and breaks just as easily.

Declare values excluding VAT and at purchase price, not resale value. Depreciation is then applied under the rules of the policy, generally from the thirteenth month.

When the client asks for a certificate

Chartered surveyors, engineering consultancies and earthworks contractors almost always ask for a certificate of insurance before opening a site. The document states your policy number, the liability sum insured and the period of validity. We draw it up on request, free of charge, and it goes out the same day.

One thing to watch in public tender documents: some require a minimum sum insured above the one you hold. Better to find that out while reading the tender than on receiving the rejection of your bid.

The three things that set a surveyor’s premium

Three things weigh more than the others. The total value of the equipment carried, which is the basis for hull cover. The area you usually cover, which shows how far from your take-off point you work. And the number of remote pilots declared, since an all-pilots formula is not priced like a named-pilot one.

The exact figure cannot be given from a website: it depends on those parameters and on the insurer that accepts the risk. That is precisely what the quote form is for.

Read more: hull and payload cover in detail, and what the open category allows.