“Think Different. Build Better” puts a name to something The JV Driver Group has been doing throughout its existence. Innovative solutions and strategic planning are what JV Driver has become known for. The company has a drive to build great things and to do it better than anyone else.
“At JV Driver, you’ll find every employee thinks ‘outside the box,’ striving for continuous improvement and embracing innovation,” said Roger Gossett, president of The JV Driver Group. “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.”
For more than 25 years, JV Driver 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. 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,” Gossett said. “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.”
Experts on 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.
World-class fabrication in Phoenix
JV Driver has an expanded state-of-the-art fabrication facility in Phoenix. The facility features approximately 100,000 square feet of fabrication space that includes both pressure pipe and structural fabrication.
“In Phoenix, JV Driver created an operation that mirrors our existing facility in Alberta,” 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., strategically planning 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 this is going to continue to grow. This strategy will take the need for thousands of 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 to 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 Total Industrial Services 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.”
Industry recognition, participation
One of JV Driver’s proudest accomplishments is working with Intelliwave Technologies to win the Bentley “Be Inspired” 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.
JV Driver is also an active participant or member in several industry associations, such as the Construction Users Roundtable (CURT®), Economic Alliance Houston Port Region, Louisiana Chemical Industry Alliance, Texas Chemical Council and the Association of Chemical Industry of Texas.
“JV Driver has been an impactful member of CURT despite its relatively short involvement in the organization to date,” said Pete Dumont, who serves on the CURT Board of Trustees. “Roger and other members of his team jumped in with both feet and have contributed on panel discussions, workshops and in other meetings. Through this participation, JV Driver is adding to the body of knowledge that CURT and the broader industry are exploring, including issues such as construction productivity, workforce development and other related challenges.
“JV Driver is an industry leader in AWP, WFP, project planning and the implementation of new, productivity-enhancing technologies. The company has a lot of cutting-edge practices, and I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen. I like it when passionate contractors like JV Driver get involved in CURT, and I look forward to their continued contributions in the coming months and years.”
In addition, JV Driver is a partner-level member of the Economic Alliance Houston Port Region, with Gossett serving on its board of directors.
“JV Driver provides support for our organization in addition to leadership and guidance,” said Chad Burke, president and CEO of the Economic Alliance Houston Port Region. “JV Driver and Shell Deer Park partnered to host the first board and membership meeting of the year in 2015. These two have already asked to host this meeting again in 2016.
“I believe JV Driver is right in the middle of the work being done in building our petrochemical industry. JV Driver sees the big picture and how supporting industry associations like the Economic Alliance Houston Port Region helps the local economies while also helping its business grow.”
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.”
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.
