Coptrz brought survey-grade RTK to the UK drone market with Premium Positioning

Summary

Coptrz is one of the UK’s leading commercial drone specialists, supplying hardware, software and training across surveying, construction, public safety and energy.

When drone RTK was new, the company needed a correction service it could offer customers with confidence, after an earlier supplier collapsed. The established names did not suit a young market, so it turned to Premium Positioning, which offered capability comparable to the established providers from a single portal.

Five or six years on, that service is embedded in how the business wins and keeps customers.

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The partner

Coptrz is an end-to-end, brand-agnostic commercial drone provider in the UK, spanning hardware, software, training, repairs and support across surveying and construction, asset integrity, public safety, energy, marine and defence.

It carries the widest range of drone technology in the country and advises without brand bias, so the products it puts its name to carry real weight. Positioning runs through much of that work, which makes the correction service behind a survey matter as much as the aircraft itself.

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The challenge

When drones first gained RTK, Coptrz needed corrections to complete its solution. Its first supplier proved unreliable and eventually collapsed, leaving customers exposed.

The established survey brands were an option, but they were built for a different kind of buyer, not the young drone market the company was opening up. What it needed was that level of capability and reliability from a partner who understood where the market was heading.

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Why Premium Positioning

Premium Positioning offered functionality comparable to the well known providers, with the reliability a young market needed.

At the time most of the UK believed there were only three serious RTK providers. Coptrz was introducing a fourth, and once the service simply worked, its customers trusted it. Coming from a brand-agnostic adviser, that endorsement carried weight.

The fit reached beyond drones. Around half of the company’s live licences run on non-drone GNSS work such as machine control, which opened relationships that later became drone customers too, so the service became a gateway rather than a single product. Licences and diagnostics run from the XYZ Platform, kept separate from devices, a step change from the manual approach used before.

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The solution in practice

Premium Positioning RTK ships in every demo kit, ready to connect, so it is part of the pitch. A licence goes out with the kit across drones and handheld systems such as the Emesent GX1 RTK SLAM scanner, so wherever survey accuracy matters, the correction stream is already there.The XYZ Platform is a daily tool.

When a customer reports a data problem, it is the first place the team looks, and more often than not it shows the correction was sound and the issue lies elsewhere. Around 90% of field problems come down to connectivity, which is why the company is shifting to dedicated SIM cards rather than mobile hotspots for a steadier link in remote fields.

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“We make no bones about who we use. We are always proud to talk about the success we have had with Premium Positioning over the last five or six years. It has been very smooth, very plain sailing.”

James Pick, Business Development Manager, Survey & Construction, Coptrz

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The results

Coptrz puts a credible RTK service in front of customers with confidence.
One correction service spans drone and non-drone GNSS work, which widens the customer base well beyond drones.

The service has become a gateway to businesses that later became drone customers.

Licences and diagnostics sit in a single portal view, with expiries visible in advance.
The partnership has run for five or six years, and Coptrz recommends it openly to others in the industry.
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Support when it counted

The partnership has room for candour. Coptrz rates the support highly, with few issues beyond the occasional ionosphere flare-up that no provider can prevent.

Its one honest note concerned the shape of support rather than its quality: acting as a middleman on complex cases slowed resolution. Premium Positioning took it on board, and the two agreed a self-service portal for common questions, plus direct contact with the end customer on the harder ones.

Understanding the field by spending time in it

Earlier this year, Premium Positioning’s Michael Boeren spent a day with the Coptrz team to see the realities of drone work up close. He took the controls, flew a survey himself, and came away struck by how accessible the company makes the drone space for its customers.

Time on the ground like this is what keeps the positioning behind those flights genuinely useful for the people relying on it every day.

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