Over the last year or so, there have been many changes around our company. Some of the changes were external such as our rebranding, and website update. Other changes were internal changes such as training, systems, quality, and process improvements. There have also been people changes in our company. People always come, and people always go, that’s the Alberta way it seems.
At the same time as those changes were taking place inside our business, the environment outside of our company was also changing. The fundamentals that have been driving our primary industry, the oil patch, changed once again before many of us could realize.
It had been one hell of a party to say the least over the last few years, and once the party is over the dreaded hangover kicks in. As the party was getting into full swing as it has in the past in Alberta, the first instinct that we thought of turning to was what I call “the shotgun effect” with our service offerings.
To put it easily we wanted to be a one stop service provider of everything that complimented our existing business, then pitch it to everyone we knew, and of course cross our fingers and hope for the best! “I’m sure it has worked for others in a boom economy, why not try it out? What have we got to lose?” was common conversation when the party was in full swing.
When we were planning how to get the world to hear about these great new service offerings, we realized early that the fundamentals were changing around us very quickly. We reached out to our clients to find out how we were currently doing, how we could improve, and if there were any other services we could offer to improve upon our business.
We took the feedback and realized that our great plans to expand were just not in the cards. Our clients were telling us to keep doing what we have been doing that is why they’ve always called us and be better at it than anyone else. We decided to take a more natural direction with the business, take our clients advice, and before we went forward decided to look back in the past at what has gotten us through the last 20 years of business.
3-D has always provided various services to the oil, gas and energy industries. Jobs have always varied in size from locating a line for a farmer to build his fence, sweeping a borrow pit for highway construction, to large scale industrial projects in the oil sands, mainline pipelines taking our crude to market, and every other type of ground disturbance in between.
We have provided leak detection, R.O.W. inspections, signage installations, noxious weed inspections, subsidence inspections, river, creek, road, and railroad crossing inspections. Heck, we have even provided a complete depth profile for a 16″ and 24″ parallel pipelines in common ditch for 330 kilometers because it hadn’t been as-built properly.
These things I mention, not to boast about all the fun things we get to do, but instead to bring about some awareness to the importance of preventing damages, and performing proper maintenance to your underground infrastructure.
Looking back, we were able to see that we don’t need to be a one stop shop on the way to everything. We just need to do what we do best: LOCATE UNDERGROUND PIPELINES and PREVENT damages to underground infrastructure. It’s been over 20 years in damage prevention for 3-D, and even though we perform various duties in that role, there are always many different moving parts that make it all come together.
In times like these when budgets are tightening, and risks are higher due to complacency and the in-ability to retain hard working Alberta talent, a trusted partner in damage prevention is required. Once the party is over, the economy slows down, and the hangover sets in, sometimes it’s a relief to know that the company that has been there with you in good times and bad is still there to take care of important business until the economy turns in everyone’s favour.
Take a look around our website, we try to keep things interesting over here. If you feel so inclined, give us a call! We would love to tell you about some of the stuff we are working on, and we’d also like to hear about some of the things you are working on. Perhaps there is some value we could offer to the project, and if not we have always been here to lend and ear and help out in any way.
And last but not least, if you see a 3-D truck, stop by and say Hi! We are a friendly bunch here, and if you’re out on the road it’s always nice to see a friend along the way!!
