It’s indisputable: construction companies that use UAVs on their job sites experience tangible benefits like increased safety, improved communication, and productivity gains. As the boots on the ground, you’re probably familiar with the impact drones could have on your day-to-day tasks. Convincing management to adopt a drone program, however, is a much different story.
That’s why we teamed up with Mark Robertson, Field Engineer with DPR Construction, to talk about how you can sell the idea of a drone program to upper management.
Watch the webinar below, or read our recap below for how you can make the case to your stakeholders that drones are well worth implementing across your project.
Why UAVs?
Mark Robertson has been working with Skycatch for several years. Once people start using drones and the data they produce, it’s hard to go back to the old ways of doing things.
“We’re at the point where if we don’t have ‘em, we feel like we’re missing something.”
- Mark Robertson, DPR Construction
From cover photos and video fly throughs to 2D ortho photos and volume calculations, drones deliver value across the project cycle and help communicate valuable information to teams across the project.
Immediate Answers in an Emergency
Safety is #1 on projects, and preventing dangerous situations is a huge way that drones can add value to your job site. When you have an emergency, drones can be one of the fastest ways to get an assessment of a situation.
Mark Robertson described one critical situation in which crane treads sunk over the weekend after heavy rain. Using a drone, the safety team was able to figure out how tall the crane was, and if the nearby highway was within that radius. Instead of putting someone at risk to measure the ground distance, they used a drone to measure the height of the crane. Then they flew the drone to the highway, and used the distance from the remote control to determine that the highway was not at risk.
After the initial assessment, the safety team used the Skycatch orthophoto to annotate the danger zone, and communicate the situation the teams site-wide.
“In an extreme safety critical situation, the value of immediate answers is immeasurable. This could have endangered lives, not to mention cost us the entire project.”
- DPR Project Superintendent
Trust, But Verify
Traditionally, it’s the honor system with subcontractors. As projects heat up and change orders are fulfilled on a tight timeline, you might not have the time to verify the invoices submitted by the subcontractors. Using a UAV system and flying weekly makes it easy to establish timelines, and you can go back to verify work completed.
“We’ve gone back to review the Skycatch flights, and have actually found that some [subcontractors] were not being honest. And it did save quite a bit off that invoice.”
- Mark Robertson, DPR Construction
Getting The Buy In
When it comes down to it, it’s about convincing the right people. Starting a program won’t happen overnight, but in the long run, UAVs are the safest tools out there, are easy to use, and are extremely cost effective. Armed with the use cases in this webinar, we hope that we’ve provided you with enough ammo to get the ball rolling with your stakeholders.
“It’s not expensive to have a UAV program - it’s just not. The value that it provides - it doesn’t make sense if you’re not doing it.”
- Mark Robertson, DPR Construction
Ready to start your drone program? Have more questions? Or team is here to help. Give us a call at 1-866-SKY-4-ROI or email us at sales@skycatch.com. Thanks for watching our webinar, and we hope to see you next time!
