How Construction Drones Can Pay For Themselves

As part of our job in risk management, we keep a close eye on emerging technologies that we believe can help our construction clients to be more productive. We have talked about how drones can help with security, but we wanted to spend a little time pointing out the many other ways that drones can help you to reduce risk and pay for themselves over time. Drones are becoming more common in the construction industry, and it is important that construction company owners consider the many uses of drones to help their companies to be competitive.

Identifying Safety Hazards

There are several construction companies throughout the country that use drones exclusively to identify safety hazards. For example, a company may have a drone monitoring known accident areas and warning project managers of any developing situations. You can also use drones to see areas where the proper safety precautions are not being taken and correct those issues before someone gets hurt.

Monitoring Project Quality

It would be surprising to most construction company owners to find out how many accidents occur on a job site due to poor workmanship. Drones offer a unique opportunity to monitor the quality of work being done on a project and identifying problem areas before anyone gets hurt. You can also used 3D modeling software to create 3D prints of portions of your projects where poor workmanship has compromised quality.

Monitoring Delivery Areas

Most construction companies utilize stationary cameras to monitor work site delivery areas, but those cameras are limited in what they can actually see. If an ice patch forms at the entrance of your work site delivery area, then a stationary camera is probably not going to let you see that problem before an accident occurs. A drone can get a clear overhead view of your entire delivery area and let you see problems before they even occur.

Verify Inventory

While verifying the deliveries that come off of delivery trucks is not necessarily a safety issue, it is something that can save your company money. Many companies use drones to monitor the unloading and loading of delivery trucks at job sites to confirm that the materials being loaded and unloaded match the shipping paperwork. Something as simple as being able to actually see and verify deliveries from overhead could save your company a lot of money.

Employee Theft

Unfortunately, a risk that all construction companies have to deal with on a regular basis is employee theft. Once the surveillance cameras are set up on the job site, employees with ill intent can learn how to bypass the cameras and cost your company thousands of dollars by stealing materials and equipment.

A drone is an eye in the sky that, in many cases, nefarious employees cannot see. A drone used to monitor employee activity could catch and employee in the act and give your company all of the evidence it needs to get rid of someone who is taking money from your bottom line.

Commercial drones are becoming popular in the construction industry because they offer the opportunity to see parts of an ongoing project that could never really be seen before through surveillance cameras. When you know how to use drones properly, you
can reduce risk on your work site and increase your overall profitability.