If you’re still measuring stockpiles with tape, wheels, or boots-on-the-ground methods, this blog is for you. Measuring materials like dirt, gravel, or sand has always been a necessary (but slow and often risky) part of the job. But when you’re sending someone out with a GPS rover or walking uneven terrain by hand, you’re burning time, tying up labor, and opening the door to potential safety issues. And there’s a good chance the numbers still might be off.
Here’s where drones step in and shave hours off your workflow because one quick drone flight provides accurate stockpile volumes in under 30 minutes.
Using a drone equipped with mapping software, you can fly the site, generate a 3D model, and calculate volumes with centimeter-grade accuracy—all without putting a single boot on the pile. Here are a few real-world examples.
Example #1:
One earthworks company in Michigan used to spend 5–6 hours manually surveying large aggregate piles each week. After switching to drone mapping, the same measurements now take less than 45 minutes to measure by drone.
Example #2:
A materials yard in Texas used drone flights to audit inventory across five sites. Not only did they finish the job 3 days faster, but they also discovered a 12% discrepancy in reported vs. actual material – a difference worth thousands of dollars.
But drone mapping analytics don’t just save time, they also build trust with clients and crews. You can share annotated maps and volume reports that clearly show what’s there, what’s been moved, and what’s left to do. No arguments, no back-and-forth, just hard data from a bird’s-eye view. And because drone flights are so quick, you can measure stockpiles weekly, or even daily without disrupting site operations. That means tighter project tracking, more accurate billing, and fewer “surprise” shortages.
Less time measuring. More time building.
If your team’s still measuring piles the old-school way, Drone Brothers can help. Drone-powered stockpile measurement is one of the fastest, most cost-effective upgrades you can make, and the time savings speak for themselves.
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