Renting & Using My Personal Drone - For the company I work for

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Hello I'm looking for some advice. I recently obtained my Part 107 Drone Commercial license. I'm going to use it for freelance mainly. But for main full-time job, I'm a videographer for a company. They do not have a drone yet...so I'm going to use my Phantom 4 Pro drone until the company purchases one.

What price range should I charge the company I work for when using my drone per shoot? I see it as I'm basically renting it out to the company. I know it'll vary of course for how long. But let's just say only for a hour long shoot.
 
When I took my PfCO we were told to charge the end user 1/19th of the cost of the kit (including extra batteries, cases) for each day of hire.
 
Hello I'm looking for some advice. I recently obtained my Part 107 Drone Commercial license. I'm going to use it for freelance mainly. But for main full-time job, I'm a videographer for a company. They do not have a drone yet...so I'm going to use my Phantom 4 Pro drone until the company purchases one.

What price range should I charge the company I work for when using my drone per shoot? I see it as I'm basically renting it out to the company. I know it'll vary of course for how long. But let's just say only for a hour long shoot.
I was once in a similar situation. If my company didn't own a particular piece of gear, usually a high-end special camera, they would have to rent it for the entire day. Sometimes the rental house offered half-day rentals but it was rare.

Anxious to see what others here have to say. Meanwhile, do a search of the interweb for "Phantom 4 Pro Rentals" and see if you get any hits.
 
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They should just buy the used P4P and accessories from you so they can avoid the rental fees, and then you can put the money towards a new drone for yourself. Make your rental fee high enough so they feel it is a good idea.

Another approach -- if you like the extra cash coming in -- would be to establish a per day rental charge that is low enough so they DON'T buy their own and just keep using yours.

Depends on what your end-game is.
 
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I was once in a similar situation. If my company didn't own a particular piece of gear, usually a high-end special camera, they would have to rent it for the entire day. Sometimes the rental house offered half-day rentals but it was rare.

Anxious to see what others here have to say. Meanwhile, do a search of the interweb for "Phantom 4 Pro Rentals" and see if you get any hits.


I'll google that and check. Thanks!
 
They should just buy the used P4P and accessories from you so they can avoid the rental fees, and then you can put the money towards a new drone for yourself. Make your rental fee high enough so they feel it is a good idea.

Another approach -- if you like the extra cash coming in -- would be to establish a per day rental charge that is low enough so they DON'T buy their own and just keep using yours.

Depends on what your end-game is.

Yeah both good ideas. I already charge the company I work for a fee for my general camera and light gear. So I've been making money on that a little but hoping that would nudge them into buying their own gear.

But the drone I wouldn't mind them buying their own. So I could charge a decent rental fee and encourage them to do so.
 
When I took my PfCO we were told to charge the end user 1/19th of the cost of the kit (including extra batteries, cases) for each day of hire.

That seems kind of low. With my current set up with my DJI Phantom 4, 3 batteries, tablet..ect. only around $110. Should I factor in the drone insurance that divides out monthly?
 
When we "rented" to a local company (not one I worked for but they wanted equipment rental as a separate line item from my rates) we charged a flat $250/day for just the equipment. This included all drone equipment and we had to provide a generator because we were flying in areas without utilities.

The above rate was derived from factoring in price of ALL equipment used plus a percentage for cost to replace equipment if lost. At the end of the day it was profitable for us and it was a fair price for them. To this day they still haven't bought their own and that was 3 years ago LOL.

Side note: We were flying Phantom3 Pro at the time we negotiated this one.
 
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That seems kind of low. With my current set up with my DJI Phantom 4, 3 batteries, tablet..ect. only around $110. Should I factor in the drone insurance that divides out monthly?

1/19th is a good/fair #. Think about it this way... how many hours do you think you'll need to put in on your equipment shooting "Freelance" to pay for the equipment? If you could pay for your goods in 20 days (days of use that is) you've done GREAT! I wish I could pay for all of my different equipment after 20 days of use. You'd see one ole boy buying new goodies a lot more often LOL.
 
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I also first thoughg 1/19th is low. But...thinking further that after 19 days you will have recovered your cost it seems a fair deal
 

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