What is Drone Insurance?
Sometimes also called Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) or remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), drone insurance covers the commercial use of drones. If your drone is lost, damaged or causes loss, damage or injury to others, drone insurance covers your liability costs to a certain extent, depending on the policy.
What about recreational drone use?
Many drone insurance policies are designed for commercial purposes only. However, there are some insurance solutions that would cover recreational use of drones.
What types of insurance solutions are available for drones?
Drone insurance typically involves two main areas:
- Public liability – public liability provides (up to amount of cover required) in insurance cover for third-party damage and bodily injury claims arising from the operation of your drone.
- Vehicle and equipment – this is cover for an agreed value for the loss or damage of your drone and equipment you use to operate the drone (or carry with the drone, the payload).
Other types of cover for consideration include:
- Hull (the drone/physical UAV) including ground controls station/equipment
- Payload – anything the drone is carrying (as long as it’s allowed to)
- Non-owned (borrowed or leased/rented drones)
- Personal injury (copyright or privacy infringements)
- Transit extension to cover drone during transportation
- Spare parts
What types of incidents may be covered by drone insurance?
Here are a few examples of potential accidents where drone insurance could prove beneficial: :
- Damage or injury caused to a third party (property or people) during a crash
- Drone damage or loss due to loss of control resulting in a crash
- Damage or injuries caused to operating equipment, drone crew or bystanders
What affects the cost of drone insurance?
As with any insurance solution, your risk factors will inform the cost of your drone insurance. Factors that may impact the price of your drone insurance could include:
- Whether you own your drone or lease/rent it
- Number of flying hours you have logged / how experienced you are, any claims or history of drone loss/accidents
- The cost of your drone and equipment (needed for agreed value cover)
- The specs of your drone (micro, very small, small, medium or large)
- Whether your drone automatically records your flight data (for claims evidence)
- Where you operate your drone (i.e. over populated areas, over water, near hazardous power lines)
- Maintenance of your drone and whether you keep a log of completed maintenance
Drone insurance exclusions to be aware of
To keep your drone insurance solution valid, you must always operate your drone within any legislation and in a manner approved of by your insurer. Things that are excluded or may negate your claim could include:
- If you don’t log flights or can’t prove with flight log data what happened during an incident
- Operating your drone recklessly or in contravention of air safety regulations
- Not registering your drone (if it’s over 2kg) or displaying proper identification numbers
- Not logging maintenance changes and battery cycles
Do you need to follow any regulation if you fly a drone?
Whether you operate your drone commercially or for recreational purposes (unless it is a very small drone being operated over private property), you must always observe the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations.
Get drone insurance
Wereck Insurance Brokers can discuss your specific drone usage and provide you with a free, no-obligation quotation.
We understand your risks and are best placed to help you find an insurance solution that fits your needs, situation and budget.
Details to have on hand to help with an accurate quote:
- Purpose and primary location of use
- Physical attributes – including the type and weight, take off and landing configurations, control redundancy, overhaul/engine life, operational range, communication links
- Any CASA restrictions
- Details of the pilot or pilots and their experience
- Whether any risk/safety management systems are in place
- Details of any past claims
The game of drones is gaining momentum globally, changing the landscape (well, airscape) for both commercial and recreational users. The endless possibilities of drone use, from delivery services to aerial videography and even sheep herding are showing that the sky really is the limit.
As Insurance is a complex subject, please talk to us now for professional advice and to make sure your level of coverage is appropriate, adequate, and sufficient to your requirements.
The List of Risks or the range of insurances available is not exhaustive, if there are any particular risks that are possibly unique to your type of business and/or for any specific or special requirements, please seek our assistance and guidance.