How Drones can Facilitate Earthmoving

Brief

Drones are helping contractors efficiently track how much earth they’re moving on a site and how that work is stacking up against plans, observes Zach Pieper, director of operations for Quantum Land Design. With the ability to provide aerial views and serve as a new source of valuable data, “drones are another tool contractors can put in their toolbox to make more efficient and better decisions,” Pieper says.

Insight

Drones – the aerial eye of the jobsite – have become a very versatile tool for earthmoving operations. Among the benefits, increasing efficiency, productivity, and accuracy on jobsites. In addition, drones help reduce unplanned costs and rework throughout a project by providing a steady stream of jobsite progress data.

As drone technology evolves, the greater the return of investment in employing them, points out Zach Pieper, director of operations and co-owner of Quantum Land Design, a company that manages and prepares 3D data required for construction projects of any scale.“That is why is it important for those in the construction industry, especially in earthmoving, to learn about using drones,” he said. ​“Drones are another tool contractors can put in their toolbox to make more efficient and better decisions.

There are many situations where a contractor might need to keep track of how much earth is being moved, compare the current site to the planned site and figure out how many yards of earth still to be moved and where that dirt must go. Drones can be a very cost-effective way to do that.

Drones can also provide a very rich layer of data that can be added to your knowledge of a project and your ability to manage it properly. When it comes to drones, Pieper says there are two types of contractors.“One group I call drone curious. They think drones are interesting and they need to be learning about them,” Pieper said. “The second group are those contractors that already have drones and feel they are not utilizing them as well as they could be.