LIFETIME cost and machine quality were among the critical factors in Bell Equipment winning a competitive tender to supply a L1506E wheeled loader and quickhitch mounted high tip bucket to Angus Council’s recycling plant in Forfar.
The council will be using the loader to handle mixed and green waste and compost.
Like all Bell loaders, the L1506E is fitted with QuadCool, a cooling system.
The loader has been supplied with L5 extra heavy duty Michelin tyres with Polyeuothene foam fill to resist against puncture, and a Viby Jern high tip bucket, which has a centralised greasing point to simplify daily servicing.
Angus Council’s fleet services manager, Graham Robertson said, “It’s a great looking, and thoughtfully designed piece of apparatus, being sturdy, strong and with all the right features for the tasks at hand. This makes it entirely suitable for the recycling plant environment and we’re expecting it to truly perform.
“The tender we embarked upon enabled us to visit and evaluate seven different competitor machines, each of which was scored and marked out of 100. On quality, our criteria included elements such as operator training, vibration, purpose appropriateness, delivery and warranty, with Bell rating only 0.05% behind the leader but substantially ahead of the others.”
In terms of cost, Graham Robertson revealed that the actual purchase price of the Bell was one of the highest. “However, true value for money can only be determined over the whole life of the loader. We asked all seven manufacturers for data on residual value, servicing and fuel economy; the results confirm that Bell represents the lowest cost over five years. A comparison of marks brought the Bell machine out-on-top in terms of price and quality, with an overall score of 93.7%.
“The closest competitor scored 91.71%, with the remaining contending machines achieving significantly lower marks, further down in the 80s.”
According to Sandy Fairweather, Bell Equipment’s Sales Manager in Scotland, “The L1506E is the perfect machine for the recycling plant, and is purposefully built to deal with the variety of tasks involved when working in such an environment where tasks and loads can change so frequently.
“It’s the ideal work-horse for the waste and recycling industry and will make a superb substitution for the council’s older competitor machine which was in need of replacement.”
As part of the deal, Bell provided a week’s full training for the council’s maintenance engineer.
“We’re extremely happy with the machine, its efficiency, projected running costs and customer service,” added Graham Robertson. “We had a good feeling about the loader and the team from the beginning.”
