Legal ROC commercial drone rates?

[Chopperone]

I'm sure it varies quite widely by operation, machinery and location but how are commercial drone rates for filming calculated? Are they charged daily, half day or per hour. I would appreciate a ball park figure if anyone has an idea.

[Shepherd]

I'm sure it varies quite widely by operation, machinery and location but how are commercial drone rates for filming calculated? Are they charged daily, half day or per hour. I would appreciate a ball park figure if anyone has an idea.

Not really sure.

Every person I have ever heard, both legal and illegal operators, have had vastly different approaches to how and what they charge for drone work.

Unfortunately the subsequence of an unregulated industry, everyone applies a different standard.

[Chopperone]

Obviously a well kept secret!

[Shepherd]

Obviously a well kept secret!

So this is from my own experience and general observations/opinion within drones/aviation industries. This info is very generalised and speaks to business models 101 type of stuff.


The challenge is this... there are too many industries to blanket cover make Drone Rates for all the various use cases.

i.e. Filming work is normally charged either full day/half day rates, rarely per hour unless its a stupid high per hour rate, usually nothing is achieved in an hour so mostly defaults to a half day rate minimum. Unless its a big project, then its normally charged for the whole project which is broken up in milestone achievements, but pricing is dictated by either full/half day rates.

Then.... If you you are doing say agricultural work, they would largely charged for per hector/square meter coverage. That cost would include cost of chemicals required, equipment, maintenance, insurance, labour, travel and out of pocket expenses, etc. One could never say the final cost is charged per job/project where by the amount of coverage is an important factor when determining the price for the project. Whether it's with a manned aircraft or a drone.

Same with surveying work, normally easier to charge for area covered. Here rates would include say equipment, maintenance, insurance, labour, travel and out of pocket expenses, etc. Again there might be some industry specific things here as well that apply, not very experienced with the surveying guy and gals.

My point is all these above scenarios work within existing industries that already transacts as they do, so you need to keep in within how the "client" is procuring services normally.

The other thing that plays into account here is, "traditional aviation" and "drone aviation" operators.

If its from a "traditional aviation" operator, more often than not their pricing comes down to per hour rate. This fits in with how they conduct their business and usually charge for their other flying oriented services. With examples of =cases whereby they are say a sightseeing tour company and have a set packages with clear deliverables to fly around Table Mountain.

If it's from a "drone aviation" operator, i.e. never in aviation before but went through the RPL and ROC processes and now approved to operate. They normally come with a different mind set, this is where everything changes and everyone has their own business model as well as how they financed the business to begin with to determine a lot. Even the industry they came out of prior to starting an ROC provider will play a big role on how the approach their pricing model.

Then there is one more type of operator that really is like the ugly stepchild of the family, "Blanket ROC" providers. This is where the pilot signs up with a company with an approved ROC that allows them to book and fly jobs via the ROC holder, and is billed through the ROC holder. To join this you have a once-off onboarding fee and you pay a predetermined % of whatever you charge for the job/projects. So some of these pilots make up pricing based on what their clients budget is as they know x% goes to the ROC provider. Its more of a freelance approach, and the overwhelming majority of freelancers don't know how to build a business model or build scale within their business model. They focus on their monthly living expenses and they charge according to this.

I know I am not answering you specifically, but wanted to keep the conversation going with more details for anyone else interested in this topic.

Do you have a specific industry in mind that could narrow the conversation and focus on those pricing models for that market?

[Chopperone]

Now that is a comprehensive reply. Thanks for that effort, it makes a lot of sense. I’m hoping to get into filming commercials and maybe movies when my ROC comes through. I’m sure it's a crowded market and the pricing fiercely competitive, hence the question. I also understand why people maybe keep it under wraps. I have an aviation background so I don’t come in blind.