The nation's largest drone network
DSR provides a national, searchable directory containing the contact details and profiles of trained, qualified and insured drone pilots who are available for hire within the UK.
Any drone pilot receiving payment for aerial work is legally required to have Civil Aviation Authority permission (PfCO), along with valid insurance documents. When hiring a drone operator, it is important to ensure you are using a safe and legal UAV pilot.
DSR has made the process of finding and hiring a legal drone pilot quick and easy. By ensuring that your drone pilot has their DSR pilot card, you can rest assured that you are employing the services of an approved drone pilot who operates in accordance with the UK’s aviation drone law. Anybody looking to hire a drone can simply search using a postcode or area and choose from the list of approved drone operators available for hire in that region.
How DSR have managed to become the UK’s Number 1 drone hire website
In less than 12 months DSR has become the UK’s Number 1 ‘go to’ website to find a safe and legal local drone operator. We launched DSR with a primary goal of supporting our safe and legal members who are located throughout the UK. All our members share the same battle of being undercut by illegal drone pilots who might be able to do the job for a tenner less but could spell disaster if something went wrong. Drone cowboys operating without permissions and insurance bring disrepute to anybody associated with them and the imagery.
DSR’s mission is to spread the message that it is unacceptable to commercially operate a drone without the mandatory permissions and insurance. We work hard to educate the public and drone relevant industry sectors that there are some important safety considerations to be aware of before hiring a drone.
All our members have been pre-checked for valid insurance and CAA permissions required for commercially operating drones.
DSR represents some of the best safe and legal drone operators in the country who are at the top of their game and true professionals in the aerial imagery industry. From a drone operator’s perspective, telling a future client you are a registered pilot with a registered aircraft offers huge peace of mind to the hiring public.
DSR – Coming up top in Google’s ‘Drone Hire’ Search
We enable our members to be found primarily by using Google AdWords. Google is without doubt the number 1 search engine within the U.K, so by joining DSR you are effectively letting us be part of your marketing strategy. Do a quick search yourself. Google “Drone Hire” or “Drone Hire – in any UK town” i.e. “Drone Hire London” and you’ll see the search results puts DSR in the top 3 of the advert results.
Since the DSR launch 11 months ago we have constantly come up in the top 3 search results on Google. How do we do this? We invest our members’ membership fees back into marketing them in a serious way.
Getting a company in the top 3 search results doesn’t just happen by magic. DSR pays a heavy price tag to be featured in the top 3 results. In fact, we are currently investing 100% of all members’ fees back into marketing our members services. The more members who join, the more we can spend on marketing our members.
Using Google AdWords is a strategy that is costly for us but totally worth it. It’s paying off for our members which is our main goal. Research suggests the top 3 paid ad spots get 41% of the clicks on the page.
In addition to marketing our members, each week we grow our drone hire website platform. Every week we make a point of blogging. This keeps us current and provides a much-needed voice on behalf of pilots that are safe and legal.
DSR Versus our Competitors
Here at DSR we recognise that there are other drone websites out there. Here’s how we stand out in the crowd:
DSR was the first drone organisation to highlight the issue of illegal drone pilots operating commercially without insurance or CAA permissions here in the UK. No other UAV organisation continues to highlight the increasing number of illegal commercial operators.
DSR is the only drone hire organisation to register not only its members but also its member’s aircrafts. This means that if a drone does ‘fly off’ it can be reunited with its owner!
Here’s what we do and don’t do!
What we do:
We make the process of hiring a legal drone operator QUICK and SIMPLE
We provide a national searchable directory of SAFE and LEGAL drone pilots
We are an open directory meaning we detail our members full contact details
We let the enquiring customer liaise with our members freely
We generate quality well paid work because users recognise they are hiring true drone professionals with the correct commercial operating credentials in place (CAA permissions and insurance)
Web users can browse profiles and contact our members directly.
Work is obtained fairly – based on their credentials, experience and often geography of our member’s location
No other UAV organisation continues to highlight the increasing number of illegal commercial operators.
We list and pin point on a map all of our members on our homepage. When we built the directory we wanted all of our members to be easily spotted and located rather having to make multiple clicks to find a member. This sophisticated map and drone search facility is quick and simple to use. No other drone organisation lists its members on its home page.
What we don’t do:
We are not a ‘let’s get the best quote and go with the cheapest drone website’. Remember ‘you get what you pay for’ applies to the drone industry too! Sites that provide quotes and encourage users to go with the cheapest are not good for our industry. This quashes creativity and devalues the potential of using the correct operator for the job based on their experience rather than price alone.
We would never ask our members to provide quotes and let the customer pick the cheapest. There is so much more to the drone industry than this. We are not the ‘bargain basement’ of drone hire.
We do not hide our members contact details like some other drone hire websites.
We do not take a cut of any of the business generated from DSR site usage. All the business generated is yours!
How one DSR job generated can lead to another
The commercial drone industry is still in its infancy. This means that businesses and organisations looking to benefit from the use of drones are open to collaborating with drone pilots. As the demand for drones grow so will the demand for drone pilots. But the key to success is being spotted in a crowded space.
Illegal Drone Operators – DSR’s mission continues
Here at DSR we are still being made aware of members of the public using their drone for commercial paid work.
So why would somebody flout the UK’s aviation rules?
The bottom line is because they think they can get away with it!
DSR is keen to prove illegal drone operators wrong. But the industry and those connected including the police, the CAA, DSR members need your help.
The drone industry relies on self-policing method. If you witness drone misuse for example a drone being flown recklessly. Or perhaps within a restricted air space such as an airport or nuclear power station then please report it on the police non-emergency number. Call the police on 101.
f you hear of an illegal drone operator carrying out commercial work without CAA permissions, then report them. Illegal drone pilots do not have commercial drone insurance nor have they passed the assessment to show they are a competent drone pilot. This is a disaster waiting to happen. One drone incident will set the whole industry back years!
The CAA make the rules and the police enforce the rules. This enforcement strategy better reflects the balance of capabilities between the CAA and local Police services. The Police often have greater resources, response times and powers of investigation than the CAA. To support this, the CAA has agreed that the Police will take the lead in dealing with drone misuse incidents, particularly at public events, that may contravene aviation safety legislation.
The police can look at flight records and the old chestnut ‘my friend was the pilot not me’ or ‘I wasn’t paid for it’ won’t work if you are found guilty of breaking the UK’s aviation law.
Join DSR and take your commercial drone business to the next level
DSR invites commercial drone pilots with CAA PfCO certification to join as a Pro Member.
DSR recognises that you need a return of investment on any membership.
With thousands of monthly web visits hitting the DSR website and with tens of thousands of pounds worth of business already generated for our members since launch, if you have your CAA permissions to operate commercially we welcome you to join.
