PacLease Leases 1,000th Paccar MX Powered Truck to Lafarge North America

Paccar Leasing has leased its 1,000^th truck with a Paccar MX engine to Lafarge North America. The unit is a 2012 KenworthT800 tractor that will operate in the New Orleans area.

 To protect New Orleans and its residents from surges in future storms, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working on a $15 billion protection system of linked levees, flood walls, gates and pumps surrounding the city. To help get that work completed, Lafarge North America is engaging its fleet of trucks.

 “Just 14 months after presenting the keys to a Kenworth T660 with the first PACCAR MX engine to Costco Wholesale, PacLease has leased its 1,000th PACCAR MX powered truck to Lafarge North America,” says Olen Hunter, director of sales for PacLease . “The fact that it took a little over a year to lease 1,000 Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks with Paccar MX engines is a clear demonstration of the popularity of the engine. The fact that so many customers have chosen this engine speaks highly to its reputation for performance and reliability.”

 David Marchand, mobile equipment manager for Lafarge North America’s Louisiana operation, agrees. Lafarge leases 12 trucks at this location, including five Kenworth T800 mixers, delivered in November 2011, and three Kenworth T800 tractors, delivered earlier in 2011. The T800 Extended Day Cab mixers are equipped with 10-yard mixers for increased load capacities and enhanced efficiency. The three T800 tractors are spec’d with the Kenworth Extended Day Cab and the 485-hp Paccar MX engine providing 1,650 ft-lbs of torque powered through an Eaton Ultrashift automatic transmission.

 “Our drivers really like the quality of Kenworth trucks,” he says. “The cross members are heavier duty, and Kenworth uses huck bolts, not rivets in the assembling of the cabs. That means our trucks don’t rattle after years of bouncing around in construction zones.”

Reston, Va.-based Lafarge North America is the largest diversified supplier of construction materials in the United States and Canada with six gypsum production sites, 24 cement production sites, 302 aggregates quarries and 234 ready-mix plants.  It produces and sells cement, ready-mixed concrete, gypsum wallboard, aggregates, asphalt, paving and construction, precast solutions and pipe products used in residential, commercial and public works construction projects across North America. Its Louisiana operation includes 22 plants in the New Orleans area and extends north of New Orleans to the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in Covington and west to Gramercy.

 “The full-service leasing option makes good operational sense,” Marchand says. “I deal with Kenworth of South Louisiana’s local PacLease operation, so I have a local contact that can help me get any maintenance issues resolved. Dave Russo and the folks at Kenworth of South Louisiana-PacLease take care of us.”

The move to full-service leasing was said to be made easy by Marchand’s experience with Kenworth of South Louisiana-PacLease, which provides contract maintenance for many of the trucks in Lafarge’s Louisiana operation. The operation’s fleet of 120 trucks includes heavy-duty trucks with dump bodies, concrete ready-mix trucks with 10-yard drums and tractors to pull a variety of support trailers. 

Kenworth of South Louisiana-PacLease provides mobile maintenance service when Lafarge is running trucks around the clock.