If you are a Part 107 pilot and/or if you operate a drone services business, DroneUp invites you to join us in response to a multi-state Request for Proposal (RFP) for drone services. The Commonwealth of Virginia is the lead state for the RFP for a contract that could last six years. DroneUp is SWaM (Small, Women, or Minority-owned) Certified in Virginia.
The states will be requesting drone services in the areas of emergency response, law enforcement, construction, and infrastructure, agriculture, and marketing- pretty much everything drone pilots do.
If you register with us as a pilot or a service provider, we’ll include you in our proposal and if we are one of the successful bidders, you’ll be eligible to be dispatched drone work through DroneUp and this contract. There is no cost to register and there is no obligation. The contract will be awarded in October and potential jobs would begin after that. If you’ve ever tried to do business with your state, you know how beneficial it would be to have a standing approved contract that you could use to provide services.
There are nine states in addition to Virginia that have already agreed to join this RFP (CA, MD, GA, IL, MT, CO, UT, NM, HI) and all the other states are eligible to use this contracting vehicle. So every pilot could potentially get work if they are registered- and those in these ten states should definitely register. Your deadline to be included in the proposal is June 1 (the proposal is due June 6).
DroneUp already has an impressive collection of pilots and service providers helping us with our proposal, but each pilot or business that joins us makes us that more likely to be one of the contractors selected (there will be multiple companies selected). We will have nationwide coverage of pilots willing to respond to state agency drone service requests.
There are a number of drone companies submitting proposals to this RFP, and you may have been approached to also register with them. We are not asking anyone to exclusively sign up with us- you are free to join as many bidders as you like. If you register with us and we are one of the selected vendors, you’ll be first in line to be invited to bid on state drone work that is requested through this contract. Also, DroneUp is releasing a marketplace website this summer, and you’ll be automatically registered and eligible to get work requests from our marketplace when it goes live.
DroneUp is excited about this opportunity to help professional drone pilots make money working for state agencies. If you are interested in getting drone work from your state, gather your 107 certification, insurance info, and FAA registration numbers and click here to go to our contractor registration page located here.
I look forward to working with you.
Craig Coker
Chief Pilot