Revolutionary, Economical & Versatile
REV Drill Sales & Rentals bores through the status quo
Ed Amos, President and CEO of REV Drill Sales & Rentals, Inc. (REV Drill), says he got the door slammed in his face about a thousand times before a company finally took a chance on his custom drilling equipment. That first job was a sound wall north of Baltimore. “Then it kind of took off from there,” he says.
Take off might be a bit of an understatement for the Frederick, Maryland-based drill manufacturing company and leading U.S. drill equipment supplier, which started in 2001, went through some tough times and now has 22 employees, annual revenue of $8 million to $10 million and does business around the world.
REV Drill just signed a deal with German industrial conglomerate thyssenkrupp to represent the company in Australia, according to Amos. “That’s pretty exciting. We delivered a couple of drills over there about five months ago.”
REV Drill got its start when Amos was working for a deep foundation contractor. The company was subcontracting all of its drilling but decided it wanted to bring the drilling in-house. Amos, who had become a partner in the business, created a drill that attached to an excavator, which would save the company time and money.
After a couple of business ups and downs, Amos found himself on his own and running a company out of his home. With his first operations yard in a dump, and using a tarp and shipping container to store and shelter equipment, REV Drill eventually emerged.
Doing Business Around the World
The company now has 30 rental rigs and has sold about 150, Amos says, doing business not only in the United States, including Hawaii, but also in Australia, Mexico, the Caribbean and the Middle East. At its most basic, REV Drill enables companies to drill holes—really big holes—in the ground. “We drill from 2 feet up to about 8 feet in diameter and up to about 50-55 feet deep,” Amos said. The versatility of the REV Drill equipment allows contractors to perform such work as drilled shafts and caissons for bridge work, sound wall foundations, temporary shoring walls and support of excavation, solar installations, auger cast piles, rock drilling, tie backs, soil nails, mini piles and vertical and horizontal anchors.
REV Drill has found a niche with those companies that don’t want to or don’t need to use subcontractors for drilling. “We’re the manufacturer, then we sell, rent and do a lot of consulting now,” Amos says. “My main client is not a driller. He subs the drilling out and wants to bring it in-house himself.”
REV Drill creates economical solutions, Amos says, saving clients time and money. The REV in REV Drill stands for Revolutionary, Economical and Versatile. “We are like a one-stop shop. My drills are stackable. We can build any length. We can custom build. We have a basic mast that we can put different winches, different motors and different lengths of masts on,“ he says. “We can work around the job that you have to create the most economical solution.”
Solar Installation Relied on REV Drill Rigs
REV Drill provided custom rock drills and specialty drilling equipment for a solar installation project at the E.W. Brown Generating Station in Mercer County, Kentucky. The station, Kentucky’s largest photovoltaic facility, provides 10 megawatts of electricity and occupies 50 acres with more than 45,000 solar panels.
Engineering and project management company Amec Foster Wheeler used five REV Drills to install the foundations for the solar panel bases. The foundations are 24 inches in diameter and were drilled into solid rock. REV Drill provided the customized drills and tooling for the project as well as on-site training for all of AMEC’s drill operators.
The drills were outfitted with hydraulically controlled tilting drill masts that produced perfectly plumb holes on any slope or terrain. All the drills were equipped with specialty LP/Cluster drills to ensure dependability, accurate hole alignment and accelerated production rates. The LP/Cluster drills were comprised of multiple drilling heads faced with replaceable carbide studs, arranged in a 24-inch-diameter drill head that was rotated by the drill. The drill heads all fired individually, much like a jackhammer, as they rotated slowly to pulverize the rock and produce a clean drilled shaft.
It’s Not Just About Drilling Holes
Amos says the company is “about giving and growing every day,” and that extends to philanthropic efforts. That is more on an individual than company level, Amos says, although they have talked about doing things as a company. The company does give employees time for philanthropic efforts, and some take advantage, some don’t, he notes.
“We are big for veterans,” Amos says. “I have a sport fishing boat that I take these guys out on, and really I try to thank them. So many people have had their lives changed serving this country and don’t get the credit they deserve. The world doesn’t recognize them and their sacrifices, and I get to live this life because of what they have done. And we are extremely serious about that.”
With his golden retriever, Tebow, lying next to him, Amos says, “We are also big into animals in the SCPA, giving time and not just writing checks.” And yes, Tebow is named for star college football player turned professional baseball player Tim Tebow. Amos has also done some work with the Tim Tebow Foundation.
Amos says REV Drill is successful because of the company’s team and the culture that they have created. “It’s not really work here,” he said. “People look forward to coming in here every day. I’ve created a culture where it is fun. Everybody wants to be successful here, and it’s a mindset. It doesn’t become a job when you love what you do.” Employees tend to stay with the company and “anybody who has ever left tries to come back,” he adds.
Client service is REV Drill’s No. 1 thing, Amos says. Everybody is willing to do anything, at any time at the drop of a hat, he says, and that includes traveling around the country or overseas. “They’ve seen the success, and we are all reaping the benefits. So service is our No. 1 priority.”
REV Drill doesn’t just rent equipment, Amos says. “We bring all this experience and knowledge to the table. The point is: We are going to be there with you, from the time you call us to the time you send that rig back,” he says.
“Anybody can build a drill, but it takes a lifetime to become a driller,” he says. “That is what we bring to the table—our experience. We always say we’re not the best drillers, but we’re the best REV Drillers: Revolutionary, Economical, Versatile.”