Key takeaways
- A price gap between two drone quotes is usually a scope gap. Until the scope is normalised, the cheaper number tells you nothing.
- Area is the first mismatch. One quote covers the area of interest, the other covers the whole parcel, and nobody said which.
- Accuracy is the second, and it is the expensive one. A stated accuracy with no verification method behind it is a claim, not a specification.
- Ground control is where the field cost hides. One bid includes placing and surveying control points, the other relies on on board positioning, and they are not interchangeable for every use.
- Count the deliverables and check the formats. Paying for files your software cannot open is a common and avoidable loss.
- Find the reflight and reschedule terms before you need them. Weather will eventually ground a flight, and the quote decides who absorbs it.
- Mobilization is often buried differently. One quote shows it as a line, the other folds it into a day rate, and the comparison breaks at that point.
- Compliance and insurance are not line items to skim. Certificate limits, additional insured status and WCB clearance are either there or they are not.
- Ask both bidders the same written questions. Their answers are more informative than their prices, and the way they answer tells you how the job will run.
Two quotes land on the same desk. One is noticeably cheaper. The reasonable assumption is that one contractor is more expensive than the other, and the reasonable next step is to pick the cheap one.
That assumption is wrong more often than it is right. In our experience most of the gap between two Alberta drone survey quotes is not margin. It is scope: a different area, a different accuracy expectation, a different number of deliverables, ground control in one and not the other, or a reflight clause that moves a cost from one party to the other. The two documents describe different jobs and the prices are therefore not comparable.
This is not a pricing article. If what you want is an explanation of why a drone survey costs what it costs, that is what drives the price of a drone survey. This is the procedure for the situation where the quotes are already in front of you and you have to decide between them.
Normalise first, compare second
The method is boring and it works. Put the two quotes side by side on one page, with a row for each item below, and fill in what each one actually says. Where a quote is silent, write silent rather than guessing, because silence is the finding. Then, and only then, look at the prices.
The nine places two quotes usually differ
1. The area, and which area
The single most common mismatch. Area of interest, parcel boundary, the active working area, the area plus a buffer for processing quality at the edges. A quote for one hundred hectares and a quote for the quarter section it sits inside are not the same job, and the edge buffer alone can be a real difference in flight and processing time. Ask for the area as a number with a plan or a file showing the boundary, from both.
2. The accuracy specification, and how it is verified
This is the expensive row. Accuracy appears in quotes as a single confident number, and that number means very little on its own. The questions are whether it refers to absolute or relative accuracy, whether it is horizontal, vertical or both, and above all how it will be demonstrated. An accuracy that is checked against independent check points is a specification. An accuracy stated with no verification method is a hope. The distinction is worked through in what two centimetres actually means, and it is worth noting that the tighter spec is not automatically the right buy. Buying survey grade for a progress record is paying for field and office time the decision does not need.
3. Ground control
Placing and surveying ground control points is real time on the ground, and it is the row most likely to explain a gap. A bid that includes control and a bid that relies on on board positioning will differ in price, in field time and in what the result can be used for. Neither is wrong. They answer different questions, as set out in how many ground control points you actually need. What you cannot do is compare them as though they were the same deliverable.
4. The deliverable list
Count them. An orthomosaic, a surface model, a point cloud, contours, volumes, a design comparison and a written report are seven separate products, and each costs something to produce and check. Quotes differ enormously here, and the cheap quote is frequently cheap because it includes two of the seven. The products themselves are described in drone survey deliverables explained. Separately, decide which of them anybody at your end will actually open, because an unused deliverable is pure cost.
5. Formats, projection and datum
The quiet one. A deliverable your software cannot read is money spent for nothing, and a deliverable in the wrong coordinate system or on the wrong vertical datum lands in the wrong place and looks like an accuracy problem. Specify the format, the projection and the datum in the quote rather than discovering them on delivery. Who can open drone deliverable files covers matching formats to the software your staff have, the coordinate system question covers the projection choice, and the coordinate system picker will get you to a sensible default.
6. Turnaround, and what resets it
A number of days is not a commitment unless it has a start point. Days from flight, or days from receipt of something you still have to supply. Ask what pauses the clock. What actually causes delay between flight and deliverable sets out the real drivers, and a quote that is honest about them is usually a quote from somebody who has delivered before.
7. Reflight, reschedule and weather terms
Find this clause now, because weather in Alberta will eventually ground a flight. Who pays if the crew mobilises and cannot fly. Who pays if the data comes back unusable. How many revisions to the deliverable are included. Hard operating limits are real and non-negotiable, as described in wind limits on a drone survey and the cold weather envelope in winter drone operations, so the only question is which party has agreed to absorb the consequence. A quote that is silent here is cheaper on paper for exactly that reason.
8. Mobilization and how it is presented
Drive time with a vehicle and a crew is a real cost on Alberta sites, and quotes present it inconsistently. A separate mobilization line, a day rate with travel folded in, a per kilometre charge, or nothing visible at all. Get both onto the same basis, and ask each bidder what happens if a second visit is needed. On a small site this row can dominate everything else, which is the subject of is my site too small for a drone survey.
9. Compliance, insurance and data
Not a price row, a disqualification row. Pilot certification appropriate to the operation, any authorisation the airspace requires, aviation liability with limits you have actually read, additional insured status if you need it, and WCB clearance. Reading a drone contractor's certificate of insurance covers what the document should say, the compliance check tool runs through it, and how to vet a commercial drone contractor covers the rest. Then settle who owns the data and what happens to it afterwards, per data ownership and retention.
Send both bidders the same five questions
Once the rows are filled in, there will be gaps. Rather than guessing, send both contractors an identical short list. The answers normalise the comparison, and the manner of the answers is itself information:
- What area are you quoting, as a number, and can you send the boundary.
- Is your stated accuracy absolute or relative, and how will you demonstrate it on this site.
- Does the price include placing and surveying ground control, and how many points.
- List every file I will receive, with its format, projection and vertical datum.
- If you mobilise and cannot fly, or the data is unusable, who pays for the return visit.
A contractor who answers these in a paragraph each is showing you how the job will be run. A contractor who treats them as an obstacle is also telling you something.
Comparing once the scopes match
With the rows filled in, the gap usually resolves into one of four things:
- Scope. The common case. One quote is smaller because it is doing less. Decide whether you need the difference. Sometimes the cheap quote is the right buy and now you know why.
- Risk transfer. One quote is cheaper because you are holding the reflight risk. That can be a perfectly good trade on a site next door and a bad one on a site three hours out.
- Capability. One contractor can meet a spec the other cannot, and the gap is the equipment, the processing or the compliance behind it.
- Genuine price difference. It happens, and once the first three are eliminated you can act on it with some confidence.
If you are writing the requirement rather than reacting to quotes, writing it properly once removes most of this work: see what to put in a drone survey RFP, or build the scope directly with the scope builder. Our own indicative ranges and what sits inside them are on the pricing page, and if you would like us to look at a competing quote and tell you what it does and does not include, send it over. We would rather you bought the right scope than the cheap one.