The ownership of FDS is shared by Sandberg, Lars Richter,
who is the company’s president, and Torsten Hoffman, who
owns FDS sister company, BWH, which rents out foundation
drilling equipment in Europe. Sandberg says between the two
businesses they have a very large inventory of drilling tools
and several kilometres of segmental casings.
FDS was born out of conversations between Richter
and Hoffman. The two men had many business dealings in
the past and one of the things that would come up was the
troublesome issue for contractors to have the right size and
quantity of equipment available on short notice to start projects
on time.
“With big projects, you can end up with something like
eight drilling machines and 450 metres of casing after that
job. This requires a significant amount of capital investment
and availability from good manufacturers is often limited,”
said Richter. “That’s when we said, ‘Okay, it would be interesting
to set up a rental business where companies can rent
casings for a certain period of time, and where a wide variety
of tools and sizes are readily available in large quantities at
locations close by.’”
It proved to be a popular idea and today FDS services
foundation drilling projects from Vancouver to Florida, and
from California to Newfoundland.
Wide range of equipment
The company’s rental stock covers a wide range of equipment
including casings for drilling with diameters from 620 mm
to 2.5 metres, buckets, augers, core barrels and casing oscillators.
All of FDS’s casings and tools are procured from
renowned manufacturers such as Leffer and Bauer.
“In addition to rental of drilling tools and casings, FDS
also offers sale options for the customers who want to invest
in high quality tools and casings,” said Sandberg. “With our
large inventory, customers don’t have to worry about long
lead times and can gear up quickly for new projects.”
To support the maintenance of rented or sold drilling
tools and casings, FDS also sells high quality wear parts and
spare parts from stock.
FDS’s inventory is warehoused at their large work yard
located in Innisfil, Ont., about a half-hour drive north of
Toronto. Rentals are sent out on standard delivery trucks and
Sandberg says the company does whatever it can to ensure
the process is simple and easy for clients.
“Typically, we organize everything for our customers,” he
said. “We’ll organize the transport and if it’s going across the
border to the U.S., we organize all the customs paperwork
and everything. We have customs brokers on both sides of
the border so we can deliver anywhere in North America on
short notice, without any problems.
“There are a number of companies, basically distributors
for equipment, who will occasionally also rent some
equipment, but our focus is really on this niche market and
providing our customers with professional service.”
Getting equipment in their customers’ hands quickly is
one measure of that commitment to service.
“If you order a casing, it can take up to 12 weeks from the
order to the delivery in Canada. So that’s a three-month process
if things are good. We shorten the wait period because
we have all the tools and casings available to our fingertips in
our yards,” said Richter.
Sandberg says FDS also offers cross-rentals, which
enables companies to increase revenue on their own inventory
of tools and casings. They can rent this equipment out to
FDS when it’s not being used and FDS will rent it out to other
foundation drilling companies.
Equipment rental isn’t the only thing FDS does. The company
also services and repairs casings and drilling tools as
well as Kelly bars. Richter says FDS offers a unique service
that benefits customers through an asset management
system, which traces the service and repair history of each
tool and casing that leaves the company’s work yard.
“We do everything on a very professional level,” said
Sandberg. “When a casing or a tool goes out, there’s a very
detailed inspection report on the condition of the casing or
the tool. When it comes back in, there is another detailed
inspection report, so we know exactly the condition of a tool
or casing, and we know exactly what has to be done on it.”
COMPANY PROFILE
In-house casing repairs at FDS Paul Sandberg displays new FDS inventory
8 Q4 2020 www.pilingcanada.ca
/www.pilingcanada.ca
