Despite being one of the largest industries globally, construction remains somewhat inefficient in time and money expenditure. Many projects go over budget, go past schedule, or both, mainly because construction companies are slow to adopt new and emerging technologies that can largely alleviate the traditional limitations of the industry.

At Construction Technology Partners, we’ve dedicated ourselves to offering and supporting time and money-saving technologies, such as iDig grade control, Futtura tools and technology, and Hemisphere GNSS, to firms big and small. But the one tool we’ve found that benefits any construction group is drone survey services.

Utilizing drone technology can streamline your construction projects in a multitude of ways. We’ve outlined the most important ways drones can keep you on schedule, on budget, and improve worker safety. Best of all, adopting drones for these uses is incredibly simple, even if you’ve never used drones on the worksite before.

1. Deeper Levels of Planning

Drones can significantly simplify your pre-planning, including construction surveying and layout. When collecting visual data, they can gather images and video from multiple perspectives in less time than a human team can. Construction groups most commonly rely on aerial survey companies for this purpose. Aerial surveying via drone has cut the lead time into a fraction of its former rate, and now offers highly accurate results for a fraction of the cost of traditional manned aerial surveying.

Drone topography is the best way to catch potential problems on the site before starting work on the project. You can see trouble areas, like uneven terrain, that you can then address before beginning construction. Drone topographic mapping can also give you a picture of how the final project will look in the surrounding area.

2. Increasing On-Site Safety 

Worker safety is of the utmost importance on the construction site, but ensuring workers have comprehensive training is only part of the issue. Changing conditions on the worksite can pose a serious threat to worker safety, as can security issues. Performing regular inspections with drones can spot these potential dangers before they cause harm.

Traditionally, workers have performed regular inspections of their sites to spot potential problems. However, their limited perspective makes it easy to miss glaring issues that drones can catch. Because they can give you an up-close view and a broad look, drone inspections add a greater level of strength to your safety checks.

3. Better Communication with Clients

Understandably, clients and stakeholders want frequent updates on a job’s progress. Usually, managers do this by giving them an on-site tour or a personal flyover to show them progress. Both options have strengths and weaknesses but ultimately only provide a limited view of the progress made while potentially impeding work and taking time out of your (and the client’s) schedule.

You can use drone data to offer comprehensive video and photographs of your progress in high-definition and at little cost. Video feeds of a survey can maintain the feel of a live tour without clients having to visit the site. Some sites make regular, frequent surveys with drones to better show real-time project progression.

4. Better Project Management

Delivering on everything a client wants is vital, but doing so on time (or faster than expected) gives you a competitive edge over other construction firms. Working more quickly for the sake of it often leads to shoddy work and cut corners, however. Balancing expectations with quality can be difficult for a project manager if they can’t get a broader perspective on their team.

Using drones to monitor progress can help you see where your team is excelling and where they may need to redouble their efforts. Keeping tabs on labor doesn’t need to be an invasive process. Instead, you can compile visual data of your crew’s progress to see what areas may be lagging. From there, you can communicate with your workers to find what the problem—and solution—is.

5. Save On Costs

With all of the money you’re spending on materials, construction equipment, and human resources, you might be wondering how you can fit a tool like drones into your plan. Unless you have a qualified operator, you’ll need to rely on a drone company to perform the tasks you need. You may be wary and see this as an added expense, but you need to consider how the benefits of drones on the construction site will keep more money in your pocket at the end of the day.

Ultimately, drones save you precious time. Whether you’re collecting data to show clients, finding ways to improve worker safety, seeking ways to make labor more efficient, securing the worksite, or performing on-site inspections, drones can perform all these tasks faster and more efficiently than doing so manually. You can significantly reduce the paid hours you would spend on having your crew do these tasks by training one team member or hiring one experienced drone pilot.

Let Construction Technology Partners Modernize Your Workforce

Drone technology will continue to change how construction companies operate for years to come, but the longer you wait to adopt these tools, the more ground you’ll lose to your competitors. Instead of leaving money on the table, talk to our team at Construction Technology Partners.

As experts in current and emerging construction technology, our team can help bring you up to speed on all the ways to work smarter. Our services include GPS site setup, aerial mapping and survey, 3D data prep and design, company training, and general consulting. Contact our team now to discover how our expertise can bring your company to the next level.