Hey everyone, its Matt Williams, mr. mpw, calm and welcome to today’s, video something a little bit different. Today. We’re here at covered Road at John Heath insurance brokers, and we’re gonna have a quick conversation with Dan Dodd the aviation policies manager to talk about what it is that they offer and to get really the answers on A few questions about upcoming changes to regulations which may affect you and how you ensure your drone Dan welcome to the channel was great to have you here.

Thank you for for kind of volunteering or being voluntold. I guess, by about coming on just click on then starting off. If you just did kind of introduce yourself who you are, how long have you worked for the company yeah, it’s early, so I’m Daniel dot and the aviation manager here at cover drone.

I’ve, been with the company now for just over eight years, eight years, awesome, good stuff and out of those eight years. How long is it that you guys been offering insurance policies and services to the drone? The SWAT industry also that the first policy we sold as a company as Jonathan surance brokers was in 2007.

So before I started and and then we actually became cover drone as it is now from 2013. Okay, so quite a long time, then really all the way. Back from beginning of the well yeah, we probably ended up ensuring 100, if not the first or the operator in the UK, it came about Jonathan.

She wants brokers insured, a kind that imported drones from Germany and they obviously needed a product for their clients to buy them, so they can assure the drones and style so that’s. What we came in awesome – yes, oh yes, base spotting that Nisha.

I mean that first mover advantage was a big one to helping you guys get to the position that you’re in now. Yeah. Definitely getting there really here getting the policy set up before there’s, a lot of competition in the market, especially the lower end yeah.

It definitely helped us yeah great stuff, and you mentioned you’ve, been here for kind of eight years or so kind of, I suppose from ensuring that first person back in the day, roughly how many people on the kind of a combination, I guess Of the commercial and recreational side, how many policies have you guys got out there with people in the UK? At the moment? It’s, probably hard one to put an exact figure on, because we now do the annual policies and the sort of day by day stuff and it’s difficult, because any one day we might have more single day policies on than Another day and it’s in the multiples of thousands between the two and I’d, say it’s, hard about exactly four on that yeah.

Now that’s, cool that’s great. Thank you. Well, it’s, funny that you say about the kind of annual policy which I think traditionally from ourselves as drone operators, that’s always been the way that we’ve ensured ourselves, but obviously now there are different products Out there, so what are the different product offerings that you offer to your clients? So we like say we do the the usual annual commercial policies and which gives clients peace of mind throughout the whole year.

They’ve got their equipment and their public liability insurance because they ‘ Ve got another job on, but they also do the single day insurance anything from a day to a week, a month, three months, six months, the policy’s very flexible and they can also add in their different types of covers.

So, like said, the public liability is always a standard that’s, a million pounds minimum, and we can go up to ten million on that, and then they can show their equipment on there as well. This is all on the annual and on a day-by-day okay, interesting, and I think that’s, one of those things isn’t it.

We’re in the industry. Now it’s, definitely something that people are starting to think about more and more. I think it’s like do I get an annual policy that costs X, or do I get a monthly policy that cost this much a month, or do I get a daily policy or a per flight kind of policy type thing? Is there a crossover or when do you guys see it on average? That crossover would be, and I think that’s, a question that a lot of people have been asking those is you know how long do I need or how many flights do? I need to insure myself or before it won’t, make sense to jump up and just go to know what I’m gonna get an annual policy.

It’s, a good question. It’s, one that we get most days really, especially when clients coming around to renewal and they think they may not have used a drone that much in the last 12 months. They want to look at the day by day option and it’s, not always easy to put an exact figure on it.

There’s, an exact science behind it, because an annual policyholder may well have three or four drones of the issue or annually, but might only want to insure them one of those drones each individual day.

So as a rough sort of estimate, we somewhere between 15 to 18 times a year, but if you think about it by the time the client’s done that all the recreational find the practice flying and their commercial flights.

The majority of our policyholders would be better off on the annual policy. They might not see it when they originally purchase in. This is more small individual transactions which don’t sort of adults it too much, but throughout the year they probably find that an annual policy would be most effective way of doing it.

Interesting and while we’re on that, then so and I know that it’s – probably quite hard to potentially quantify because every one circumstances are different. I know for us certainly the reason. The primary reason we go with an annual policy and actually, even though we’re, not doing any commercial operations now we ‘

Ve still got a lot of drone equipment, so we have an annual policy that really covers us for that equipment. Even when it’s, not flying so that’s, the big advantage for us, which i think is important cuz a lot of people don’t seem to think about that.

I don’t know where the people are. I don’t know how people are insuring their equipment if they’re, taking out the daily policies and things like yeah that’s. One of the things that we discuss with them when we get a chance to speak to the clients, is that it like said earlier on.

It gives them that peace of mind if they’re. If they’re insured, it all year is insured in in transit, so for theft, accidental damage, obviously, whilst it’s in flight as well just gives them and that’s, what safety net, then clients may have it insured Elsewhere or other sort of computer policies, but just on the ground brought again the pain for that, so they’ve got to weigh or whether it’s worth just paying for an annual policy rather than short-term, drilled, specific and then an Equipment policy, it’s, it’s about that that they need to make sure they do properly yeah.

No, it’s really interesting. Like say, and some of that, perhaps people don’t factor in when they think I’m gonna buy this policy and it’ll, be six pounds for the day and it’s like yeah. But what happens if something happens to it in transit or you know overnight so, okay, I say sorry, just taking a little step back, we said, might be quite hard to quantify, but what would you say is the average price? For example, someone comes to you.

They’re, a new PF co-holder. How much would it cost on average, for an annual policy with all the standard kind of inclusions for a maverick for and Yogi’s Rufai there are some costs so and on an annual policy.

If a client came and took the million pounds with the Public Liability which meets the the minimum requirement from the CAA, along with just to make it round figures, a thousand pounds worth the drilling cover, they’ll, be looking at around about two hundred And fifty pounds per year, okay! So if you look at something, maybe the higher end.

So if they, if you purchase five million public liability and a 5,000 pound drone, it’s. Gon na be roughly seven seven five per year, so at the lower end, and in particular I’d, say that’s, come down quite a lot.

It seems since particular, when we first started kind of five or six years ago. It definitely yeah the minimum. Premiums on the policies have come down a lot over the last few years and I think at one point minimum premium to around six seven hundred pounds as many years ago, but yeah we tried to bring them down in line with the claims report.

So is the better soar claim ratio we get on it, the more discount we can get to the clients and better rates. We can get the underwriters so yeah. No, that’s. Brill again. I think it’s really important to get that message out to people that, because i think people who are in this mindset now whether they’re in the industry.

Perhaps because of what’s happened in the past or whether they’re joining the industry afresh. People seem to think that it’s like a thousand pounds to be a PFC. Oh, and you know now, which just isn’t the case, and you know most companies and it’s, a thousand pounds minimum to insure your drones.

So, actually here in those figures for an annual policy that’s, you know if the amount of risk, when you think about it, not just from the drone perspective, but the third-party perspective, that’s. Actually, not, you know comparative to a car and things like that.

It’s, actually quite affordable. Now, yeah. Definitely here in asking cloud come down a lot and it just makes it sort barriers to entry to the market a lot lower, so people can get involved in the industry.

Obviously, more more people in the industry, the more clients potentially that we’ve, got so yeah. It’s, going in the right direction, yeah definitely great stuff. So we kind of talked about the policies that you provide.

The costs of them have you got any there any metrics any data on kind of the per day or kind of monthly costs on the similar kind of equipment and yeah on the per day so and public liability only rich again would meet the minimum requirement.

So for a million pounds for the day we would charge just over five pound for the day and which is obviously next to nothing and make sure if you’re complying as a minimum. And if you wanted to add you drone on to that.

A thousand pounds you’re, looking at just over ten pounds per day, okay, of course, that’s, where you say that crossover comes at yeah, not too far down the line when you think about it, yeah yeah, so it doesn’t take too long to sort build up to the point where the annual one is yeah.

Okay, so say: let’s work our way down the process, then so we know kind of how much it’s going to cost. Roughly, what’s, the process with yourselves? If someone does say they want to come and they want to ensure they’re phantom4 with you.

Can they do online? They don’t on you know. By giving you a call there’s a few different ways, so they can. They can pick up the phone and give us a call, and we can do it all over the phone for them and that’s.

That’s. How we’ve, always traditionally done it, and we do have an online quote and by system, so they can go on to coober, Joan comm fill in all the details on their takes. Maybe five minutes to register and put the details in and get a quote and my so you can pitch us out directly on there and or you can do it via the approver.

Don’t fly safe app, so they can go into the app and select where they want to fly and from that they can then go purchase insurance either for the day or annual basis, okay, cool, so quite sleek and straightforward system, then really yeah.

Yeah it’s in again that’s changed a lot over the years to start with it as a proposal form until maybe a day or so to get the quotes back or it’s all been sort of streamlined. Now and it so, you can be on cover within minutes great stuff, and I think yeah, that’s, that’s.

Important isn’t it in the kind of dynamic nature of the business and the industry that that were in you know to be able to give you guys a call. I know we’ve done that in the past, with you, where we’ve literally called you said: oh, we need to insure this aircraft and you know we’ve been asked to fly.

Someone else. Can you put it on the policy in it and it’s normally done quite quickly, yeah! Well, that’s. What we try the always try to keep our reputation for good customer service and turning around things quickly, because we know it’s.

A dynamic industry like saying and people need things there and then, and if we can do it, then that’s, great yeah, perfect good stuff. Well, something we hope never happens to people, but you’re, an insurance company.

After all, you’re, covering people for if heaven forbid things go wrong. What is their kind of claims process say? Someone is fine, there inspire to on a set or something, and they have an accident or an incident.

What’s? The claims process and roughly how long is the average turnaround again? I know it’s. Probably. Can I how long with a piece of string, but on average, what would you say? I can give you a rough idea so and the claims process being.

First brought school is to go to the website coverage and calm and fill in there make a claim section on there. I’ll, ask you for general details so time and dates and the actual incident specifics was what ‘

S happened and an action film, film, supporting documents as well to send through welcome into the office, and we’ve got really slick claims process. Now it’s. All done in-house. We’ll, arrange for one of our authorized repair centers to collect the drone and do an inspection on that once they’ve done that and decide whether it’s repairable or is going to be a replacement drone.

Still a loss and we’ve, had all the information we need from the kind from yourself in this case and from there we’d, usually expect things to be settled within 24 to 48 hours. Obviously, there’s. Some examples where a drone may well be more specialist in nature it money to back to manufacturer in the different country, obviously, for things like that, we there might be a longer time frame, but actually getting a decision in getting a settlement offer from the underwriters from The point we’ve got everything we need is usually up to 48 hours.

Okay, and is that the same at the weekend, you have people available at weekends to answer the kind of claims the claims inquiry form can be submitted at the weekend and then it will be dealt with first thing Monday morning, so yeah, possibly worst-case scenario claimed winning Friday night, so we dealt with fearsome with the morning yeah and I think just throw a little bit of our experience in there and and I think it’s.

We ‘ Ve got a state this on the channel. This isn’t like paid for marketing for covered Rome. We were literally here doing some training with you guys and asked if we could do an interview and grab to you, but we’ve, always been covered by yourselves and the one kind of incident that we had where we had an elder eight that Just rolled on its back when one of the guys started it up, I know that happened on set.

They were on set with David Beckham and it happened on a Saturday afternoon and they put all the stuff in and by Monday afternoon, we ‘ Ve got another alter 8 on set, so it was. It was pretty slick and, like I said it’s, not a paid for promotion, but it’s.

We’ve, always been impressed with our customers. That’s. What we try to do as long as I mean that’s, what people are buying at the end of the day, the buyer claims service. No one wants to use a journey shoes, but when they get to the point they do, they want to make sure it works.

So as long as we can get the claims right, clients always gonna be happy yeah and that’s. It – and I think you know from our point of view we, you know you do shop around sometimes for the insurance and that kind of thing, but for us it was that, knowing that the claims process was there and obviously once you’ve experienced It which we hope no one ever does once you’ve experienced it.

I think it’s worth going out. So you know what we’re gonna. Do what we need to do to to get the right cover because it’s, an investment, I think insurance, and this is where a lot of people go wrong, and I say on the course: what’s? The first place you go to and looking for car insurance and it’s like you go on money, supermarket or whatever it is compare the market and you find the cheapest one.

But I still don’t think that’s, the right thing to do in the drone industry. At the moment, I think you still need to make sure the covers right that there’s competitors out there. There’s in any industry, but we’re, confident, as is with the best colors available on the market, and we do it at the right price.

And importantly, we give the right service so, like, like I said previously, is the claim service people are buying it’s like we can get that right, which we do. Then I’m, confident that people wouldn’t want to leave us yeah great stuff, and I think you know so that’s, the kind of claims process you say it’s kind of 24-48 hours is What you aim for, what’s, the? What your? What & #? 39 s, the craziest thing that you guys have been asked to cover or, like you know, the weirdest wildest, and it might not sound quite so crazy now, but it did back in the day before and it was so common.

But we ‘ Ve got asked to call that client he wanted to film on an iceberg. They were filming a live band performing and karma where it was. I saw somewhere like that yeah and by the time there was over water restrictions on the policy it wasn’t international coverage, so it was a real sort of strange one to receive out the bullying, and I think we were given 24 hours to Turn it around, but we did call for it.

We got it done in the end, so yeah that one on we do have another one that was kind wanted to film Chernobyl at the power point power plant, disaster area yeah, and they were told in no uncertain circumstances that if they fly over there and putting The drone back he’s, going to be contaminated, so they wanted just to cover the drones.

We didn’t. Do that yeah there’s a bit of a difficult one, especially you know it’s. Probably gonna be written off. That’s. It we want to give it good service. We go draw the line, someone yeah, that’s good.

I know we talked about it today in the training. But what is what are your thoughts on regulation changes because we know obviously drone registration was meant to be in by now and then started and it hasn’t done.

Yet we’re, not quite sure what state of players with that? It’s in a bit of a state of flux. One thing that we as opposed. Actually we don’t know what’s gonna happen, but one thing that we’ve, been told by the regulator, is that in June 2020, so just kind of what only eight months away now the regulations may be Changing such that people, don’t need to have what is currently the PFC.

Oh, they don’t need a permission to operate commercially. Now you know those others who are aware of it with EC 75 2004. It’s, as we have to have commercial insurance to a certain standard in place. Sorry insurance to a certain standard place to commercial air operations.

If we’re, removing that requirement for permissions, what impact, if any, do you think that’s, going to have on the insurance premiums, maybe and cover that you guys offer to people in the open category it’s? It’s, a good one, but I’d, say cuz.

Everything’s up in the air. We don’t exactly know what’s, gonna happen. As of yet and it’s, it’s, half what was to sort of plan for the future. I’m. How policies might change, but at the moment, as the positive agent set up is there to cover the client as long as they’re flying within the rules and regulations of the territory in which they’re flying in? So we don’t just cover client space in the UK, so we cover in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, where all the rules regulations are different.

So really as it stands, it’s already set up for it. It’s like someone off as long as. If that open category does become sort of enforced, then as long as the clients flying within the rules and regulations of that category, then the policy will react to it as it is and if there are any sort of larger changes with regards to requirement for commercial Insurance, whether it’s, a legal requirement, we’ve, got a few months to try and look at that one, hopefully anyway, as long as they tell us what we need beforehand here, great stuff, well, Dan! Thank you ever so much.

It’s, much appreciated thanks coming on the channel there, you go a little rundown of kind of insurance, the the things that the main insurer is now off, and I think, more importantly, knowing about what’s coming in the future.

You know big changes in the drone industry at the moment in the UK. Big changes to come, potentially, as always, we’ll, keep you up to date with all those things as they change as they get announced and again, thank you to to Dan and for covered Raven for allowing us the opportunity to come in.

If you do want to see anything from anyone else on the channel in particular, let us know if you want to come on the channel, please let us know we’re doing this, for you for the industry and we’re here To help everyone and come answer, the questions that we’ve all got.

If you’ve got any thoughts, comments, questions drop them down in the comment section below I’ve been Matt; Williams fly safe and blue skies.