Flock Reveals Insurance Data Insights From UK Drone Pilots

It’s always nice when companies in the emerging drone industry share some of the insights they have gleaned from working with commercial pilots. These fact-finding missions tend to be a good barometer of how things are going. You can’t beat real-world data, after all. We’ve enjoyed covering Kittyhawk’s insight series, for example, which you can read more about in the links below:

• Kittyhawk Insights: Drone Operations Platform Offers an In-Depth Look at LAANC
• Kittyhawk Shares Insights on Most Popular Drone Models

Last week UK insure-tech startup Flock published findings from their own treasure trove of customer data, looking in particular at what steps commercial pilots in the UK take to keep insurance costs down while using the Flock app.

Flock’s Key Findings

In case you didn’t know, the Flock app crunches a number of different metrics to provide pilots with on-demand quotes for individual drone flights. The startup partnered with German insurance giant Allianz earlier this year and has raised over £2m from investors so far.

Flock provides insurance policies for professional and recreational pilots. The research from Flock found that, on average, Flock pilots will compare 15 different risk-dependent quotes before they purchase a policy. In practice, this means they will adjust things like the proposed date, time and flight plan of a particular mission. 

This real-time risk assessment is having results. Pilots are using the data to fly safer. Flock says that the average Flight Risk Metric decreases by 4.5 from the start of the process to the end. In a matter of seconds, pilots are able to determine where and when it is safest to fly and save money. 

On-demand insurance means different things to different pilots. Some want to nab a policy on the day, but others are happy to book one in advance. Flock states that 45% of their flights are booked in advance using the company’s Flight Planning Tool.

With the tool, Flock pilots can gauge predicted risks up to ten days in advance of a mission. The result is that Flock pilots typically save 15% on each policy as a result of assessing their original plan, reducing their risk and making amendments to lower that risk.

Malek Murison

Malek Murison is a freelance writer and editor with a passion for tech trends and innovation. He handles product reviews, major releases and keeps an eye on the enthusiast market for DroneLife.
Email Malek
Twitter:@malekmurison

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