Here's how one new FAA regulation helps insurers
This program enables the insurance industry to gain speedy access to restricted airspace for drone use during emergencies.
Drones are nothing new to the insurance industry.
Using drones may have once seemed like a futuristic concept, but it is now becoming common practice for insurance inspections. In fact, insurers such as Allstate and Farmers have been using commercial drones to help communities devastated by natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey, receive claims faster and bounce back on their feet quicker.
Related: Hurricane season drives mass adoption of insurance drones
Regulatory shift
However, roughly 30% of homes in the U.S. are located in restricted airspace. That means, when disaster strikes, drones can’t reach all affected areas. But thanks to new policy updates from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), more airspace will be open for drones to assist claims adjusters under LAANC, or Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability.
The FAA’s LAANC program has enabled the entire drone industry and others, like insurance, to have access to restricted airspace within a matter of seconds, compared to the previous 90-day wait time. Since officially being implemented in April 2018, LAANC has been rolled out to three out of six regions in the United States already, covering airspace from Texas to Colorado to the entire West Coast.
In these regions, LAANC has already benefited insurance companies as drone operations companies, such as DroneBase, are now able to say ‘yes’ 99% of the time. Before LAANC, we had to say ‘no’ to 30% of U.S. addresses due to restricted airspace. At 30% ‘no’, insurers often felt they had to maintain a costly, old-school backup to their drone program, making it harder to see the true cost saving drone-based inspections can bring. At 99% ‘yes’, carriers have increasing comfort to fully outsource their field inspections and really see the cost-reducing impact of drone data to their bottom line.
Related: 9 essential facts about drones
Full speed ahead
After it rolls out to the entire country in September, the insurance industry will be able to leverage drone technology to help settle claims faster, more reliably, and more affordably in times of disaster or even in more routine scenarios.
Aerial imagery and data captured by drones are some of the quickest ways insurance companies can capture structural damage. However, investing in the technology and training for the internal team can be costly, time consuming, and difficult to scale. We work to create a positive return on investment by utilizing local drone pilots who are already trained and have the equipment. By hiring and dispatching a trained local pilot and capturing the visuals, drone operations companies help expedite claims. Thanks to LAANC, we can use drones to reach almost all addresses.
On July 19th, the fourth wave of LAANC rolls out to the Eastern South region including Florida, the Carolinas, Tennessee and more with the entire U.S. covered on September 13th. We look forward to seeing how additional clients are serviced through this revolutionary program.
Dan Burton is co-founder and CEO of DroneBase, which provides businesses including insurers with aerial information to make better, real-time decisions about their most critical assets. To find out more or contact him, send email to hello@dronebase.com.
The opinions expressed here are the author’s own.
See also:
14 things you need to know about commercial drones and insurance