Ed Levy started the Edward C. Levy Company almost 100 years ago with a handshake with Henry Ford. It was an agreement to haul slag from a Ford plant. Ed Levy Sr. also saw an opportunity to turn seemingly useless slag into something else. Today the Levy Group of Companies is one of the premier construction material companies in the world with 2,500 employees worldwide. So it’s not surprising that a company born from innovation turned to the new Cat,® 986K Wheel Loader for superior performance, advanced safety features and a low total cost of ownership.
“We operate in many mills around the world, along with aggregate, asphalt, concrete and trucking operations,” says Rick Kidd, Levy Director of Operations. “The 986 plays a huge part for us because of the integrated payload system.”
Levy is impressed with the Cat 986K’s productivity and efficiency with the wheel loader easily filling 100 tons in a car without any issue. The machine’s versatility is also important. “Being able to pick that machine up and move it legal down the road is key,” says Mike Rose, Levy General Manager of Specification Stone Products. “The flexibility of this machine eliminates us having other machines, which keeps our costs under control.”
Customers want the lowest cost per ton and the Cat 986K delivers. “With telematics and the VisionLink system in particular, we can look at what our hour meters are, what our fuel consumption is, what our idle time is, where the location is set and set geofences up around our job,” says Kidd.
“THE FLEXIBILITY OF THIS MACHINE ELIMINATES US HAVING OTHER MACHINES, WHICH KEEPS OUR COSTS UNDER CONTROL.”
“We know with Caterpillar that we will have the lowest operating cost for the large wheel loader class. Now with this 986, we are very, very excited because we are seeing unbelievable fuel gains. We don’t need to burn 11 gallons of fuel an hour. We’ve been able to discover over the last few months that we can do the same job quicker, more efficiently, and burn seven gallons of fuel. And the operators absolutely love it.”
SEE THE 986K AT CONEXPO-CON/AGG – LEARN MORE
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