Are you establishing your drone program or business? As you put together all your business needs, you’ll find that getting drone insurance is essential both to your financial management and safety efforts.
Before we get started, if you are searching for drone insurance in the United States, where you are paying as small as $7 per hour to $500 per year to $1 million on liability coverage, in that case check out SkyWatch AI – they are the best on-demand drone insurance provider in the United States.
As a business owner, insurance is always critical as it exemplifies responsibility and accountability.
When it comes to being a drone business owner, this added layer of responsibility is all the more essential because let’s face it – flying a drone poses a fair share of risks.
Whether you crash into an object, person, or have a drone flyaway, you want to mitigate the damage on your side by making sure that you have the right coverage.
The essentials of drone aviation insurance are pretty simple.
While liability insurance covers third-party bodily injury and property damage caused by your drone, hull insurance covers physical damages caused to your drone’s body.
Other coverages can include indoor operations and specific coverage for mounted equipment.
But make no mistake, aviation insurance is not to be taken lightly. As with any type of insurance, reading the fine print is a must, and you should never assume you are covered for anything without checking.
Having homeowners or commercial general liability policy is not always enough, as it is not guaranteed to include you for your drone operations with the needed aviation liability.
Many of these policies specifically exclude aviation liability on their terms.
Drone insurance types
Let’s discuss what types of drone insurance are available:
Drone Liability Coverage
The basis for a drone insurance policy is composed of liability coverage. In most cases, it is the minimum requirement.
Drone liability limits start at $0.5M; however, the standard liability limit for most commercial drone businesses is $1M.
Businesses who work with large production agencies, infrastructure, government departments, or construction companies are likely to get special requests that require larger liability limits, even up to $10M.
Liability insurance via an on-demand provider such as SkyWatch can run as low as $7 / hour for $0.5M to $1M in coverage. Also, you can pay by the year or month.
Hull Coverage
Drone insurance doesn’t stop at liability coverage. As drone technology gets more advanced, the price for investing in it increases.
If you are an owner of an expensive drone or piece of equipment, you should also be concerned about getting physical damage protection.
Protecting your equipment and drone against physical damage, theft or loss, is part of what is called as hull coverage.
Though not usually required by clients, hull coverage can be added to liability policies.
Hull coverage is rarely bought on its own, so many pilots choose to add it to their insurance plan.
So, its true, liability coverage gives you the credibility needed to establish yourself as a commercial pilot and also allows you to mitigate potential risk.
Yet, adding hull coverage onto your policy truly gives you that added benefit and peace of mind when flying, knowing you have the most comprehensive plan to protect you, your business, and your drones.
Let’s talk about pricing
Of course, this peace of mind does come with a price. Yet, similar to the drone industry, the beauty of drone insurance is that it is innovative.
Unlike the traditional insurance policy, drone insurance can be flexible and on-demand.
Today, pilots are allowed to activate their insurance on their needs, even on-the-go directly from their mobile devices.
While an annual insurance policy was the go-to option 3 years ago, today, pilots also have the freedom to choose between hourly, daily, and monthly policy plans.
This flexibility allows pilots to optimize the coverage based on their needs, without even needing to consult with a broker and precisely budget their expenses.
Paying for what you need, when you need it, helps eliminate unnecessary costs and also help you price your work to your end-client.
Drone insurance costs can vary significantly based on many factors including but not limited to, required liability limit, desire to add hull coverage, flying location, and duration.
Depending on your type of coverage and provider, some per flight plans may start at $5-10/hour, whereas monthly policies can begin from $40-50/month.
Understanding insurance terminology
Insurance is not just an essential part of protecting your business, but can also be a tool to provide confidence to your clients.
To do that, you’ll need to obtain a certain level of knowledge and better understand your coverage.
While some insurance terms are unfamiliar to the individual policyholder, there are a lot of ways to make yourself familiar with the lingo.
You can start at this drone insurance dictionary and learn more about the different terms and definitions.
Seek expert assistance
Getting professional advice or technical support is also necessary.
If you have any particular questions about drone insurance, contacting an insurance expert for a brief talk can save you time and money.