Propeller did a case study on Grade Tech Power Services today and we wanted to share the introduction to the article and a link to read more for anyone who is interested!

Like most small business owners, Rory Hall wears anywhere from three to five different hats in a single workday. While on paper, Rory is Grade Tech’s operations manager, once he starts describing his daily responsibilities, it becomes obvious he’s also an unofficial surveyor, tech champion, estimator, pilot—the list goes on.

When Rory comes to work, his primary focus is doing whatever he needs to do to keep his crews moving. When asked what a typical day looks like, Rory’s answer was simple: there isn’t one.

To free up time in his day, Rory has always turned to new technology that helps his team operate more independently and efficiently. Right now, they’re relying on over ten different software systems to keep all their high-profile projects on time and on budget.

Although Grade Tech doesn’t shy away from digitization, they’re only interested in making safe investments where they’ve clearly outlined the need, impact, and ROI before getting their feet wet. They’ve been using GPS since the early days, but didn’t get into machine control until it became economical. It’s a healthy skepticism that keeps them on the leading edge, rather than the bleeding edge, of new tools.

Naturally, Rory’s openness to technology led him to explore drones on the worksite.

He describes his early drone days as discouraging and difficult. Between the ground reference points, trying to establish new workflows for existing projects, and all the initial buy-in, drones seemed like more trouble than they were worth—at least until he found Propeller through the Komatsu Smart Construction Initiative.

Learn how Grade Tech uses Propeller drone data to scale their business

Photo Credit: Propeller