On November 2nd 2015, Drone Safe Register was launched. This new directory was founded by Mark Boyt, a West Sussex businessman and CAA approved drone pilot. Mark wanted to create a platform for both professional CAA approved drone pilots to register themselves and their services, and for businesses and the general public to be able to quickly and easily locate them.
Drone Safe Register aims to limit the number of people employing the services of illegal drone pilots, by providing an efficient way of finding a CAA approved operator in their local area. DSR hopes that if people always ask to see the drone operator’s pilot card, which will display the DSR logo, then many instances of illegal drone activity will be avoided.
Having invested time and money into earning the legally required qualifications, Mark understands the importance of adhering to the rules laid out for drone pilots as well as the reasoning behind them. If an accident occurs involving a drone that is being operated illegally, both the pilot and the person hiring them would be deemed responsible.
Drone Safe Register, or DSR, works on two levels. Firstly, professionally qualified drone operators can become members and, by extension, become ‘searchable’. Secondly, the public can quickly and easily locate a CAA approved drone pilot in the area of their choice. This directory will serve not only to provide confidence to the public when sourcing a UAV operator, but also to generate work opportunities for professional members who have invested the required time to become qualified.
Only vetted, fully qualified drone pilots will be offered membership to DSR. Their details can be easily viewed via their onsite profile, along with a website link and associated work.
The register will help promote and build the much-needed trust for the UAV industry, providing qualified leads for its commercial members. DSR also hopes that its community of qualified members will act as protectors and ambassadors of this exciting, fast-growing new industry.
The DSR user experience is slick and extremely simple. For professional drone pilots, the membership sign up is quick and easy and enables them to create profiles for themselves that showcase their work and services. For the public, it’s even easier! Simply enter a post code or area into the onsite search tool and a collection of results will be displayed. Every CAA approved drone operator in the specified area will be highlighted with pins on a digital map. By clicking on a pin, the drone operator’s details will be displayed.
There are competitors to some extent, but few, if any, are employing a strict vetting process to ensure that only CAA approved, insured drone pilots can become members. To join DSR as a member, drone pilots must submit all required documents that prove they are fully qualified, professional UAV operators. Only then will they be added to the register.
DSR wants to support the industry that it loves and is a part of, while also educating and protecting the general public against illegal drone operators.
Source: Press Release