For quarries, aggregates & earthworks

Drone Stockpile Volume Measurement

Construction site flights from $150 near you

Overhead view of graded earthworks with plant and haul roads
Aerial view of an open-pit quarry with terraced benches
Overhead view of an aggregate plant with stockpiles
Aerial view of terraced quarry slopes and haul roads
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Free to post · Usually a reply the same day

210 construction pilots listed · Pay the pilot directly, no commission

Independent FAA Part 107 pilots who cover your area quote and fly the job.

Free to post

Two minutes, no card, no commitment.

Pay the pilot directly

No commission or markup on their price.

FAA Part 107 pilots

The license all paid drone work requires.

Usually a reply the same day

From a pilot, or from our team if no pilot has answered.

How it works

Three steps, and the first one is free

  1. Describe the job

    The form opens with this page's answers already filled in. Add the location and anything specific to your site.

  2. A pilot near you sends a price

    Pilots whose service area and services match are emailed. Usually a reply the same day, from a pilot or from our team.

  3. Book them and pay them directly

    Check their certificate, kit and sample work, then pay the pilot. SkyLog takes no cut and adds no markup.

What to know before you book

How the measurement is produced

The pilot flies a grid with high overlap, usually with obliques added so the sides of the piles are properly seen, and the images are processed into a dense point cloud and a surface model. Volume is then computed between that surface and a base — and the base is where the real decisions are. It can be a plane at a fixed elevation, a triangulated surface fitted to the toe of the pile, or a previously surveyed ground surface from before the material was placed. Those three give different answers for the same pile, and none of them is wrong; they are answers to slightly different questions. A report that does not state which base was used is not a report you can compare against next month's.

What accuracy is realistic

Well-executed drone volumetrics with proper ground control routinely land within a few percent of a conventional survey, and the residual difference is usually about the base surface rather than about the aerial capture. Accuracy depends on the ground control — an RTK or PPK aircraft, or checkpoints placed and shot, and ideally both — on the flight geometry, and on how visible the toe of each pile is. It degrades where piles abut walls or each other so the toe cannot be seen, on very fine dark material with little visual texture for photogrammetry to match, and in poor light. Vegetation and standing water are the other classic problems. If your figures feed financial reporting or an audit, ask what control was used and what check measurements were taken, because that is what makes the number defensible rather than merely precise.

Making the figures comparable over time

The point of a monthly survey is the comparison, and comparisons break when the method drifts. Fix the base surface definition and reuse it. Keep the same coordinate system, and state it. Place ground control in permanent positions if the site layout allows, so each survey is tied to the same frame. Ask for the surface model and point cloud as deliverables, not just a volume figure, so a later survey can be differenced against this one and so an auditor can re-derive the number. And record the material and its bulk density separately from the volume — converting cubic yards to tonnes is where a good survey most often turns into a bad tonnage figure, because the density assumption is doing the work.

What a report should contain

Volume per pile, individually, not as a site total. The base surface method, stated explicitly. The date and time of capture. The coordinate system and the control used, with residuals if checkpoints were shot. The surface model or point cloud in an exchangeable format. Visual imagery of each pile, which is how you catch the case where two piles have merged or where material has been placed against a wall. And any caveats about piles that could not be fully seen — a surveyor who flags an obscured toe is telling you where the uncertainty is, which is more useful than a clean number that hides it.

What this settles

  • Volume per pile, individually, computed between a surface model and a stated base.
  • Accuracy within a few percent of a conventional survey, given proper ground control and visible pile toes.
  • A surface model and point cloud you keep, so next month's survey can be differenced against this one and an auditor can re-derive the figure.
  • Imagery of each pile — which is how you catch two piles that have merged, or material placed against a wall.

What it does not

  • Give one answer. A fixed plane, a fitted toe surface and a pre-placement ground surface produce different volumes for the same pile, and none of them is wrong.
  • See a toe that abuts a wall or another pile, which is where the uncertainty concentrates.
  • Match fine dark material well — photogrammetry needs visual texture.
  • Convert to tonnes safely. The bulk density assumption does that work, and it is where a good survey most often becomes a bad tonnage figure.

A report that does not state which base surface was used is not a report you can compare against next month's. Fix the definition once and reuse it.

Why post it on SkyLog

The whole surface, not a sample

Photogrammetry produces a dense surface model over the entire pile rather than a scatter of walked points with a surface fitted between them. On irregular piles that difference is the measurement, not a refinement of it.

A yard in an hour, not a day

Because it is quick, it can be done monthly instead of annually — and a stock figure you actually trust each month is worth considerably more than a precise one you get once a year.

Nobody climbing a pile

Walking stockpiles is one of the routine hazards in this industry, and a survey that does not require it removes a real risk rather than a theoretical one.

Free to post

Posting and receiving quotes costs nothing, and SkyLog takes no commission and adds no markup. You pay the pilot you hire, at the price the two of you agree.

Construction pilots with published profiles

Real published profiles. Open any one to see credentials, kit, service area and sample work before you post.

Construction pilots by state

Before you post

How accurate is a drone stockpile survey?

With proper ground control, typically within a few percent of a conventional survey. The larger source of disagreement between two surveys of the same pile is usually the base surface definition rather than the capture, which is why the method has to be stated and kept constant.

How much does it cost?

It is quoted by site size and number of piles, and recurring monthly work is priced below one-off surveys. Construction quotes on SkyLog are too few so far to publish an honest range — post the site with the pile count and cadence and compare real quotes instead.

Do I need a licensed surveyor?

For internal stock control, usually not. If the figures support financial reporting, a regulatory submission or anything presented as a survey of record, check your jurisdiction: in most US states a deliverable presented as a survey must be signed by a licensed surveyor, and a drone pilot who is not one can capture the data but cannot certify it. Say up front if you need a stamp.

Can it measure material inside a shed or bunker?

Not from the air. Covered stock needs indoor scanning, which is a different specialism with different equipment. Say so when you post rather than discovering it on the day.

How often should we survey?

Monthly is common for active sites, quarterly where movement is slower, and many operations add a survey at financial year end. The economics changed when the survey stopped taking a day: frequency is now a choice rather than a budget constraint.

Can the same flight give us cut and fill?

Yes — the same surface model differenced against a design or a prior survey produces cut and fill. Ask for it when you scope, and supply the design surface in a format the pilot can use.

From a job poster

The jobs nobody else would quote

“I was not expecting to have a response so quickly after calling countless different companies.”
Jared OlroydOwner, Specialty Cleaning Agents
Quote in under 2 hours

Post your stockpile survey free

Give the site, the number of piles and the cadence you want. Pilots quote directly, with no commission.

Overhead view of graded earthworks with plant and haul roads