First Class

Spring 2015

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6 l FIRST CLASS Better Building Lafarge, the international building mate- rials supplier with major operations on five continents and annual revenues of $17 bil- lion, is guided by a broad mission statement. It reads, in part, "Our Ambition: Building Better Cities… We will no longer only be a producer of materials, but also a provider of solutions." At the core of such ambition are the materials themselves, the cement, aggregates and concrete that is the stuff of housing and infrastructure projects. And central to the success of these projects is the delivery of that product. And it's there that Lafarge, at least in one North American location, has begun partnering with Peterbilt for the first time. Four new Peterbilt Model 567s made their recent debut in one of Lafarge's operations in Baltimore. Based on the success of the trial, 19 new Model 567s are about to be delivered. The new trucks, all fit with mixer drums from ConTech, will make up about a quarter of the Lafarge Maryland-based fleet. "We hadn't shopped for new trucks for a number of years," says Mike Taylor, Vice President of Ready Mix Manufacturing for Lafarge U.S. "We'd been running one brand of truck, but we were starting to see that the quality wasn't what we needed it to be. "Meanwhile, there was a Peterbilt sales- man who called on me two or three times a year and I had started to wonder why he kept calling me. Eventually, I gave him his chance, and we looked at the new model." 567 gets a closer look The new Model 567 had just made its debut around that time, and Taylor gave it a thorough inspection. "The first thing that impressed me was the cab," he says. "Frankly, a lot of drivers are larger than they once were, so the bigger cab gives them some room in which to operate. "But what I also noticed right away was the way the truck was built. There were com- ponents made of steel whereas others had the same part made of plastic. You could tell the way the hood was hinged — it didn't just flop over when you opened it, and I knew that would be a feature our mechan- ics would appreciate. And the color-coded cables and wires — everything on the firewall was easy to see and work on. Other brands with the traditional doghouse style are very difficult to work around. It was very impres- sive from a mechanical perspective. "The Model 567 also addressed two key components for us — the excellent visibility from the cab that promotes safety for our drivers, and the operational efficiencies that we expect to result in better fuel economy and a reduced environmental impact." Once the decision was made to inte- grate the Model 567 into the fleet, Lafarge Transportation Director Walter Leizear got a first-hand look at the uniquely Peterbilt spec- ification process, as well as the collaboration between Peterbilt and Con-Tech engineers to ensure a final product suited to Lafarge's requirements. "Being part of the build process was really neat," he says. "The Peterbilt people were very knowledgeable, very dialed in. And once we took delivery of the trucks, the support has been terrific. They've been very responsive. They were all ready to jump in and respond to our needs." New trucks to senior drivers Leizear assigned the new trucks to his top senior drivers, some of whom initially didn't Lafarge puts Peterbilts to work for the first time lafarge

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