| TECHNOLOGY & YOUR AGENCY |
Drones and Insurance:
What you need to know
by steve anderson
I
t seems like drones are
everywhere these days.
Recently I participated
in a 5K run that started in the
downtown square of my town –
Historic Franklin, TN. As the crowds
were milling around waiting for the
starting gun, I noticed a quad copter
– a drone – flying over the crowd with
what I assumed was a Go-Pro camera
capturing video of the event. The
operator was standing to the side with
an iPad strapped to his controller
watching the captured video.
The use of Unmanned Aircraft
Systems (UAS) or what we more
commonly call Drones, will rise
substantially within the next ten years
as many different people, businesses,
and industries find a way to use these
new aerial tools.
Examples are everywhere. By now you
have heard that Amazon and UPS
are exploring the use of them for
delivering packages. The insurance
industry is aggressively testing the
use of drones for adjusting claims,
property inspections, and gathering
underwriting information. It is
significantly safer to fly a drone to the
top of a house to inspect the roof for
hail damage than sending a person
climbing a ladder to do the same job.
The use of drones by commercial
companies will require the proper
insurance coverage. This is an
opportunity for insurance agents and
4
brokers to demonstrate their risk
management expertise and, at the
same time, create new business.
However, providing the proper
insurance coverage for a UAS is not
as simple as it might seem. There are
a variety of insurance liability and
coverage concerns, from personal
injury and invasion of privacy, to
fraud surveillance and gathering of
information, to the more traditional
bodily injury and property damage
exposures.
drone, uas or uav?
An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
(UAV) is an aircraft controlled by
an operator on the ground. An
Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)
is the entire system – aircraft,
controller, camera systems, and
software. The evolution of technology
surrounding UAVs has resulted in
the development of small vehicles
at a price point (under $2,000)
that makes them attainable for
commercial businesses as well as
individuals. I have several friends
who now own a “drone.” This has
led to a growing debate surrounding
regulations of their use, particularl