At The JV Driver Group, you’ll find every employee thinks “outside the box,” striving for continuous improvement and embracing innovation. For more than 25 years, the company has provided industrial construction, turnaround and fabrication services, and carries a history of proven results in the oil and gas, energy, petrochemical, forestry, mining and manufacturing sectors. JV Driver has a commitment to excellence in safety, quality and productivity, which is taken even further through its Once Right approach. Through teamwork, ingenuity and commitment, customers keep coming back to experience the JV Driver difference.
In 1989, Bill Elkington, chairman of The JV Driver Group, and his colleagues launched the company. In its first year, JV Driver earned $8 million in revenue. Today, JV Driver has completed projects with values exceeding $900 million. JV Driver’s services are as diverse as they are extensive, and its industrial experience spans several industries and regions. The company is currently working primarily in the U.S. and Canada, and is building its density, depth and bandwidth in those areas. Whether it’s oil and gas, power, pulp and paper or the manufacturing industry, JV Driver has a presence in these areas, and it will continue to build its work capacity.
“The variety of what we can do on a project separates us from our competitors,” said Roger Gossett, president of The JV Driver Group. “Our companies are interconnected and feed off each other. We have entities and resources from filling key staffing needs to fabrication. In addition to single-source construction, we perform industrial services work including turnarounds, maintenance and follow-up services. We will continue to work on acquisitions that give the group more capacity and fit our single-source model.”
‘Think Different, Build Better’
“Think Different, Build Better” puts a name to something JV Driver has been doing throughout its existence. “Innovative solutions are what JV Driver has become known for,” Gossett said. “It comes from being passionate about what we’re doing and challenging the status quo. We have a drive to build great things and to do it better than anyone else.”
One of JV Driver’s favorite “Think Different, Build Better” moments was the lift of a 150-ton reactor. The cranes on hand were not big enough to lift the reactor from the top in the normal fashion; the booms didn’t reach three-quarters of its height. The obvious alternative was to mobilize another crane. This would have been safe, effective and very expensive. JV Driver’s team put a ring around the reactor at a height appropriate for the 160-ton cranes they had available and ran cables through that and hooked it to the bottom. With one crane on each side of the reactor, they were able to actually lift it from the bottom and put it into position. JV Driver saved at least a million dollars in the mobilization of a big crane that could have done the same thing.
Total Industrial Services Inc.
Last year, JV Driver purchased Total Industrial Services Inc. (TIS), a full-service turnaround and specialty mechanical contractor with off-site fabrication facilities and on-site services that meet the industry’s growing equipment maintenance, turnaround and project needs. Its capabilities include welding, steel fabrication, pressure vessels, heat exchangers, air-cooled heat exchangers, pipe fabrication, machining, torqueing, API tank repairs and boiler repairs. Since connecting with JV Driver, TIS has been able to continue the growth it has experienced in the past several years. Recently, TIS has performed projects for Chevron Phillips, The Linde Group, LyondellBasell, OXEA, Celanese, CITGO, Bayer, Axiall, Valero, INABENSA and Aggreko, just to name a few.
“TIS values building long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with our customers,” said Ramón Martinez, president of TIS. “TIS’ comprehensive capabilities offer the control and convenience of single-source service on all pipe fabrication needs. We can streamline your most complex projects through layout and design. Your exact specifications are assured throughout the process. We handle all aspects of spooling and fabricating in-house. TIS has earned the reputation of providing our customers with unmatched quality and projects completed safely and on schedule.”
TIS recently opened its second shop in Houston to better serve its customers. Now with dual facilities, TIS has an impressive 60,000 square feet of shop to complete customers’ specialty fabrication projects.
“We’re constantly looking for small- to medium-sized acquisitions like TIS that help us expand on our single-source offering,” Gossett said. “We start early from planning and scheduling to fabrication and field implementation all the way to commissioning and maintenance — true start-to-finish service. Anything that fits in this model interests JV Driver, and we will continue to work on acquisitions.”
World-class fabrication in Phoenix
In addition to acquiring TIS, JV Driver has recently expanded its new state-of-the-art fabrication facility in Phoenix. Currently with a 30-acre yard and 46,000 square feet of fabrication area, JV Driver has expanded the Phoenix facility to approximately 100,000 square feet of fabrication space that includes both pressure pipe and structural fabrication.
“In Phoenix, JV Driver has created an operation that mirrors our existing facility in Alberta, effectively doubling our fabrication capacity for the North American, and more specifically, the U.S. construction market,” said Carey Hedstrom, manager of the JV Driver Phoenix facility. “The shop has the ability to pass 20,000 metric tons annually through the steel shop along with 350,000-400,000 inches of pipe through the pipe shop. This facility is truly world class and allows JV Driver to execute its fabrication work safely, efficiently and on schedule.”
According to Gossett, one way JV Driver has addressed the workforce issue is through superior logistics (i.e., where certain work is done). “Our state-of-the-art fabrication facility in Phoenix also has 30 acres for modular assembly,” he said. “We have a significant advantage there in Phoenix without the worker competition compared to Houston, and that’s just going to grow. This strategy will take the need for 1,000-1,500 workers off of the Gulf Coast area and not put any further stress on this labor market.”
JV Driver’s safety culture
In an environment where competition for the right people at the right time is fierce, JV Driver has a unique advantage over others. JV Driver has used a world-class safety program to attract and retain the right people at the right time in the right numbers.
The group’s team consists of long-term employees who have now made a home with JV Driver. With more than 25 million hours lost time accident free, JV Driver’s core value of taking care of each other translates into one of the best safety records in North America.
“Safety is not viewed as a concept, but a core value of taking care of each other,” Gossett said. “To be successful at JV Driver, you must believe there is no good reason to put people at risk. Our safety program, whether it’s in the field or with TIS in Houston or at the JV Driver fabrication facility in Phoenix, ensures everyone goes home to their families at the end of the day in the same state as they came. With strong support and programming from our entire business group, JV Driver’s safety record is industry leading and continuously striving for zero incidents.
“At JV Driver, we are fanatical planners. If we have a poor safety record, we’re not planning very well. We really put a lot of focus into our work planning. And today, according to our most recent statistics, we’re at 0.16 for our total recordable incident rate, which is world class in the industry.”
Advanced work packaging, workface planning
There are a number of factors that have contributed to the success of JV Driver. Chief among them is its reliance on advanced work packaging (AWP) and workface planning (WFP). Today, AWP and WFP is implemented into every project the company builds.
“We find our best planned projects are not only our safest projects but also our most financially rewarding projects,” Gossett said. “Ultimately, what has enabled JV Driver to exponentially grow to over $1 billion in revenue is ‘planning the work.’ AWP and WFP has allowed us to build great things. We have achieved really good performance with a small number of people doing great work. We pride ourselves on building great teams.”
For example, JV Driver’s effective WFP programs used in the constructability phase shrank a turbine building by 75 percent, saving its client millions in construction and one month of schedule.
Industry recognition
One of JV Driver’s most recent and proudest accomplishments was working with Intelliwave Technologies to win the Bentley “Be Inspired” 2013 Award for Innovation in Construction. Charged with expanding a major oil sands operation in northern Alberta, Canada, JV Driver faced numerous challenges that would have made the successful, on-time completion of the project difficult if not impossible without the creative implementation of a number of true industry innovations.
To overcome these barriers, JV Driver turned to Intelliwave Technologies to create an innovative solution that would allow them to leverage technology to successfully complete the project using fewer crewmembers than usual. Working closely with JV Driver, the two companies responded to the challenge and developed the revolutionary integration of Bentley’s ConstructSim workface planning software with Intelliwave SiteSense® radio frequency identification (RFID) sensor technology to enable the successful installation of more than 200,000 linear feet of pipe and the facility’s tagged equipment pieces.
In addition to its Bentley “Be Inspired” award, JV Driver has earned the Construction Owner’s Association of Alberta’s prestigious “Best Practices Leadership Award” and a gold award in the construction category from the 2014 Connected World Awards. JV Driver is also an active participant in several industry associations including Construction Users Roundtable (CURT®).
“CURT has had multiple meetings in 2014 to find ways to mitigate the risk from an owner and contractor perspective around labor shortages,” said Brian Stamper, members concierge and director for CURT and the Construction Labor Market Analyzer (CLMA®). “JV Driver is one of the contractors heavily involved in coming up with strategies and bringing different options to the table. JV Driver has a willingness to innovate and use technology to improve productivity.”
According to Stamper, JV Driver has a vast knowledge when it comes to modularization. “Roger Gossett has sat on a panel with other contractors and owners talking about ways to mitigate labor risk through modularization,” Stamper said. “All CURT contractors have to have a focus on workforce development and investing in the workforce. Also, contractors have to have a passion for safety and making sure their jobs are operated safely. JV Driver meets and follows all the criteria required for CURT’s contractors.
“JV Driver is also a user of a CURT-endorsed tool, which is the CLMA. This is a collaborative tool that enables the user to track the craft labor supply and demand imbalances across the U.S. and assess what the risk of a shortage is. JV Driver is always willing to endorse CURT to owners in the industry.”
One owner currently utilizing JV Driver is Syngenta. JV Driver performs managed corrosion control programs at Syngenta’s St. Gabriel, Louisiana, plant and its Greens Bayou plant in Houston. As a nested contractor, JV Driver is on-site 365 days a year and the company is continuously performing work.
“Each year, JV Driver comes in and shows us what areas they’ll be addressing,” said Don Latiolais, mechanical integrity manager of Syngenta. “This is a planned approach to corrosion control, which gives us maximum results out of our painting dollars.”
JV Driver also performs other services for Syngenta such as the repair of secondary containment systems. These are concrete coating systems where storage tanks are kept in case of spills or failure of tanks. JV Driver maintains these areas, which are regulated by DEQ.
“JV Driver always completes its projects on time or ahead of schedule,” Latiolais said. “We have a monthly status review meeting with JV Driver. Items like schedule, quality, safety, etc. are all things that are in their presentation each month. This gives us a pretty good handle on every single thing they’re doing on-site. JV Driver’s safety and environmental performance is outstanding. We expect our nested contractors to manage their own waste streams and JV Driver does a very good job at this.
“JV Driver is an exceptional choice because of their service and the support its people on-site get from the company’s upper management and home office. We are also very impressed with JV Driver’s fabrication facilities and we’re currently looking at utilizing these services as well.”
The future of JV Driver
JV Driver is now taking innovative concepts like RFID, virtual reality immersion and other cutting-edge ideas from other industries to bring higher levels of safety and efficiency to the industry. This technology recently helped JV Driver win numerous projects, from multiple billion-dollar (JV Driver’s part) oil sands projects in Alberta, to a 10-year lump sum corrosion control contract in Texas and Louisiana. This speaks to JV Driver’s complete project capabilities.
For more information, visit www.jvdriverusa.com or call (713) 338-2469.
JV Driver lives by its core values and brings these core values to every one of its jobsites while exhibiting them through every level of the organization. Its core values include:
- Build great things.
- Take care of each other.
- Be innovative.
- Have fun!
