Eye in the sky: How Iprosurv is using drones to survey buildings

Drones, those little machines we see buzzing above parks and fields across the UK, have something of an unsavoury reputation. Whether it’s as dealers of remote death in the Afghan and Iraqi wars or causing huge disruption at Gatwick airport, people, understandably, are nervous about them and what they might be doing up there.  

But love them or loathe them, drones are increasing in popularity across the country with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) estimating there are around 130,000 registered drone operators in the UK, of which, nearly 6,000 are commercial.

And it seems they are poised to shake off their dark past and go mainstream in the commercial world with a range of organisations, from insurance and construction firms to local authorities and the emergency services, making them an integral part of their operations.

One of the first companies to recognise the commercial applications of drone technology was Iprosurv. Set up in 2014 by husband-and-wife team Rebecca and Shane Jones, Iprosurv uses a nationwide network of independent pilots to help insurers assess claims, allow property management companies to easily survey the condition of their high-rise buildings and, increasingly, assist the emergency services in search and rescue operations.

The drone technology Iprosurv uses is pretty nifty stuff, with the traditional aerial footage just the starting point. Using different data gathering devices, for example thermal and Lidar (light detection and ranging) imaging, drones collect data that is then transformed into different models that allow end users to inspect a property for damage in detail (up to 20mm) from their desk.

And it was from such a desk that the idea of Iprosurv was born. Rebecca Jones, who runs the business on a day-to-day basis, came up with the idea via her employment, at the time, as a mortgage adviser.

“In 2014, I was working at the Mortgage Advice Bureau and as part of that service we used to advise and arrange home insurance policies, so I was familiar with insurance and claims,” says Jones.

“My husband Shane had come across drones when he was in the armed forces and he was considering using them to survey buildings for a property business he was involved in at the time, and showed me a flyover of a village one day.”

Jones had seen the devastation that widespread flooding caused to homes and communities in her adviser role and, crucially, how long it took for insurance companies to get into affected areas to start the recovery process.

“I immediately thought that insurance companies really need to be using these things,” she says.

It was at that point that the concept of Iprosurv as an outsourced drone services business was born.

She got in touch with several of her contacts in the insurance industry to pitch the idea but while there was interest in the concept, none of those early contacts were willing to take the leap and actually trial the technology. A rapid adopter of change the insurance industry is not.

But Jones was convinced of the benefits and knew there was at least one firm out there that would take the leap and give her the case study she needed to convince others. So, she hit LinkedIn and began email pitching the idea to anyone who would listen until eventually “someone bit”.  

They conducted a trial, saw the benefits immediately and not only did Iprosurv have its first client, it had that all-important case study to attract the next client, and the next, and the next.  

By 2018, Jones was confident enough in the growth of the business to quit her job and go full time with Iprosurv.

“It was scary. You go from a six-figure salary between a couple, to zero,” says Jones.

“But I needed to do this, and I don’t really know why. Sometimes we all get into a rut and we want a new challenge, so it was a personal challenge to me. I didn’t want to be a wage slave and have people dictating to me. I wanted to be my own boss.”

She admits that looking back now, she had no real understanding of how difficult it would be but insists she has no regrets. Today, Iprosurv’s drones are being used by some of the largest insurers in the country who have slashed their customer response times in claims to a fraction of those delivered by a traditional approach.  

But convincing individual companies of the benefits is only part of the battle for Iprosurv, and indeed all commercial drone operators. There is still that dark image, that fear of privacy being invaded, that makes many people wary of their use.

And while the UK has some of the strictest drone regulations in the world (under the CAA), Jones believes that level of scrutiny and control is vital to gain the public trust and allow the use of drones to go mainstream.

“I don’t see the regulation as a disadvantage at all,” she says.

“If there were no rules, that would leave the airspace open to everybody and you can’t move an industry forward until you bring that rigour into it.”

Jones concedes that for many, there is an instinctive fear of Big Brother Is Watching You with drones and how their surveillance could be abused by authorities and businesses. But she insists that drones are just another, albeit more interesting, form of data capture.

“The drone is just a robot, a means of accessing data that was previously inaccessible. But the benefits are immense – you are removing the risk to human life in so many ways from construction to search and rescue. That has to be a good thing.”

Jones believes that drones will become so integrated in society, so run-of-the-mill, there will come a time when individuals don’t only buy the land their property sits upon but the airspace over it, to protect privacy. But for the moment, she is focused on getting the insurance industry to adopt drones wholesale and bring the benefits direct to their customers.

“There is a huge range of potential applications for drones, but I have not finished in the insurance space yet. We’ve only scratched the surface here,” she says.

“Ultimately everything is insured, and drones can be used to manage assets of all kinds, be that a house, a factory, farmland, a wind turbine or even an oil rig. It could be anything.”

And it is that applicability, that flexibility of use, that has her convinced that with the right regulation and a subsequent shift in public perception, drones will cease to be seen as threat, but instead, as an integral and beneficial part of all our lives.