Drone tenders: where to find them, how to bid
Bridge inspection, roof cleaning, topographic surveys: public buyers go through tenders. You still have to see them go by.
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What a drone tender is
A public buyer — a town, a county, a housing body, a network operator — publishes a notice describing what it needs and sets a closing date. Any company meeting the conditions may bid.
Purely « drone » contracts are rare. More often the drone is a MEANS to an end: inspecting a bridge, surveying a quarry, checking a roof. That is why searching notices for the word « drone » only finds part of them.
Where notices are published
There is no single counter. Each level of public purchasing has its own outlet, and one contract may appear on several.
- BOAMP — France
- The official bulletin of French public procurement notices. It covers French public purchasing including below the European thresholds — that is where contracts sized for an independent pilot are found.
- TED — European Union
- Tenders Electronic Daily, the official journal of European public procurement. Notices are translated, so a German or Dutch contract can be read in your own language.
- CanadaBuys — Canada
- The Canadian federal portal. Useful if you operate across the Atlantic, or to spot international buyers.
Careful: TED only publishes contracts above the European thresholds. Below them, each country has its own national portal — and that is where most contracts within reach of a small firm are decided.
Reading a notice without losing a day
A notice often runs to dozens of pages. Four things are enough to decide whether it deserves a closer look.
- The subject of the contract — the buyer says what it wants in one sentence. If it mentions aerial imagery, photogrammetry or thermography, a drone is explicitly expected.
- The closing date. A contract closing in eight days is not an opportunity if you have no file ready.
- The division into lots. A contract split into lots lets you bid only on the one that concerns you, without carrying the whole.
- The capacities required — references, insurance, certifications. Eligibility is decided there, before price ever comes up.
The trades most in demand
The needs that come up most often in notices, and the words that name them.
- Structure inspection — bridges, viaducts, dams, dykes. The drone replaces the cherry picker or the rope access technician for the visual part.
- Building cleaning — roofs, façades, solar panels. A works contract where the drone often comes in as a subcontractor to the winner.
- Surveying and photogrammetry — surveys, orthophotos, 3D models. The vocabulary of the land surveyor rather than the drone pilot.
- Thermography — energy audits, leak detection, solar panel checks. Often tied to a regulatory obligation.
Waypoint360 reads the notices for you
Every day we read the notices published in France, Europe and Canada, and keep only those where a drone pilot has a place — directly, or as a subcontractor. You get one email a day, and nothing at all on days with no news.
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