As with other insurance policies, drone Insurance protects you in the event of damages to your drone and liability claims. Drone insurance rates will depend on how trained you are as a pilot. The insurance provider requires you to have maintenance logs, operating manuals, and proof of any purchased add-ons along with the proof of training. These factors will influence your insurance rates, as your company will offer you lower rates if they consider you a safer pilot. Currently in the US, it is not required to have insurance for drones for personal use; however, it is required for commercial use.
The potential uses of drones that can be insured by companies include homeland security, law enforcement, fire and rescue, emergency response, accident assistance and traffic patrol, construction, protection of nuclear, water, and electric facilities, agriculture, shipping, highway and railroad maintenance, national parks, archaeology, videography and movies, news, and real estate.
Drone insurance for commercial use offers these types of coverage:
- Liability – before adding any other coverage to your drone insurance, make sure to purchase liability coverage. This coverage will protect your company in the event of claims related to bodily injury and property damage.
- Hull – this coverage will protect your business from financial responsibility related to the physical damages to your drone. Usually, the amount of coverage is discussed with the insurance provider and is calculated based on the “agreed value” of the drone. Some companies will adjust the agreed value of the drone according to the current price on the market.
- Payload – this coverage is useful if your company owns several sensors or cameras designed to be carried by the drone. The coverage protects your company from financial responsibility in the event of damages to the payload equipment.
- Ground equipment – you can add ground equipment, such as laptops, tablets, cases, ground stations, remote controllers, and other related items to your drone insurance policy.
- Non-owned coverage – this coverage protects the equipment not owned, but leased or rented by the business. You can add non-owned liability coverage, non-owned hull coverage, and non-owned payload coverage.
Personal injury – this coverage provides protection against slander, libel, copyright infringement, and violation of privacy. This coverage is rather recent, but should be considered to be protected in the event of related claims.