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Ask contractors and builders about drone use on construction sites and many will give the same answer: drones would be nice to have, but they're often hard to figure out. Which drone platform should you buy? How many do you need? Which certifications and authorizations are required? These questions are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to building a drone program. Pilots need to be hired and trained, aircraft need regular maintenance and every new sensor or camera has to be checked for compatibility. For companies looking to get ahead, the closer you look at owning drones, the more complicated the picture becomes.
A new report from Associated Builders and Contractors provides numbers on this issue: according to its May 2026 Drone Usage survey, roughly 36% of members fly drones. When asked what holds adoption back, respondents pointed first to regulatory and compliance issues, followed by training and staffing, as well as a limited range of use cases. Taken together, the findings describe an industry that sees the value of aerial data but is struggling with the cost, complexity and risk of owning the tools that produce it.
The limits of do-it-yourself drone programs
Over the past year, the rules regarding commercial drones have changed faster than most contractors can track.
In December 2025, the Federal Communications Commission added new foreign-made drones and critical components to its Covered List, which means new models from those manufacturers can no longer be authorized for sale in the US. Existing aircraft remain legal to fly, but the ABC survey found that nearly all contractor fleets depend on a single foreign manufacturer. In July, the FCC went further, proposing to halt the import and marketing of several categories of foreign equipment it had already approved, including thermal and LiDAR-capable systems. Those are the same payloads contractors use for mapping and inspections.
For firms working on federally funded projects, the American Security Drone Act already bars the use of drones from covered foreign manufacturers and that restriction extends to third-party drone services.
Owning a fleet now carries a kind of risk most contractors never signed up for. Aircraft and sensors purchased today could become harder to replace, repair, or use on certain projects tomorrow.
Why the drone alone doesn’t cut it
Even without the many regulatory challenges to drone adoption in the US, there is a wide gap between owning a drone and running a program that produces the data decision-makers need.
Survey-grade topography, stockpile volumes and as-built documentation accurate enough to settle a pay application dispute require RTK or PPK positioning, LiDAR or photogrammetry payloads, processing software and trained people who know how to plan flights and turn raw imagery into usable deliverables.
Building that capability in-house means certified Part 107 pilots, insurance, regular maintenance, airspace authorizations and data processing expertise. It also means staffing, at a time when the industry is already struggling to find new workers to keep up with demand.
Contractors Regularly Rent Equipment. Why Not Drones?
Drone as a Service gives construction firms on-demand, pay-per-use or subscription drone solutions, including land surveying, 3D site mapping, progress monitoring and inspection services. The company provides licensed pilots, FAA-registered drones, regulatory approvals and data management services. Customers receive finished deliverables, such as orthomosaics, terrain models, volumetric reports and inspection imagery, ready to drop into their CAD, GIS and project management workflows.
Because Drone as a Service owns the hardware, regulatory changes become its problem to manage, not the contractor's. If the rules shift on which aircraft or sensors can be used, a customer's project doesn't stall and its capital isn't stranded in equipment it can no longer rely on.
What Drone as a Service can do for construction projects
With Drone as a Service, a general contractor can order a pre-construction topographic survey, schedule monthly progress flights through vertical construction and capture final as-built conditions at closeout. A developer can document several sites on a consistent schedule and a specialty contractor can commission a roof or facade inspection as needed. Drone technology removes major risks for contractors while lowering costs—and construction teams get the aerial data that keeps projects on schedule, on budget and well documented.
To learn how drones can help elevate your business with faster, more cost-effective and safer solutions, visit droneasaservice.com.
