As an employee-owned business, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We encourage them to take the lead, innovate and build the career they want.
So, when Tom Hardy, Chartered Building Surveyor in our Leeds office, spotted an opportunity for Trident to bring drone surveys in- house, we gave him the support and encouragement he needed to let the idea take off.
An idea came about
“I noticed the disbursement for our clients were mounting up – for access hire and out sourced drone surveys” explains Tom.
Drones allow easy access and detailed inspection of all areas of your property safely, including those hard to reach areas like roofs and facades.
“This showed that there was a missed opportunity for Trident to capture that cost in house. Plus our clients benefit as the drones our piloted by building surveyors, who can assess the conditions as the survey progresses, stopping any back and forth with a third party”
By handling everything internally, we have better control over scheduling and quality, we can ensure the data is aligned with the project goals and integrate it seamlessly into other survey work, providing faster results and improved accuracy.
Taking the lead
As an EO, Trident has various committees that ensure decision making is guided by our people. Tom joined our Proptech committee which evaluates and implements technology solutions to improve efficiency, transparency, and innovation.
“After pitching the idea, I put together a cost-benefit analysis comparing access hire and external drone providers, with the costs of setting up our own service” says Tom. “It showed the advantages for both Trident and our clients”
The committee and Leadership Team encouraged Tom to research the best drone models, and the training needed for surveyors to qualify as pilots.
“The support was really reassuring” Tom explains. “It showed Trident was committed to implementing a new technology and take advantage of an emerging service line”
Getting the idea off the ground
Of course, no new idea is without its challenges.
“It was a lot of work” admits Tom. “Managing my ongoing tasks with survey and project work became a challenge when I had to commit a fair amount of time to researching the legislative constraints of undertaking drone surveys. With regular reviewing of these tasks and management of my time, I was able to fairly commit my time and ensure I fully understood what was required”
Taking to the skies
“Enabling Trident to implement this service line has been personally rewarding in getting company-wide recognition, although nowadays every drone query does end up coming my way to answer it!”
Tom’s idea and hard work to get our drone services started has paid off, and Today we offer drone capabilities across a wide range of our services, with more of our surveyors training as pilots all the time.
To find out more about our drone services, and the benefits they bring, please click here: Reaching New Heights: Trident Drone Surveys