September 3, 2024 • 49 mins
Welcome to Episode 21 of The GSE Podcast! In this episode, host Matt Weitzel is joined by Jesse Long, Global Director of Lektro Product and General Aviation Sales at Oshkosh Aerotech. Together, they explore Lektro's innovative journey as a pioneer in towbarless tractors within the ground support equipment industry.
Jesse shares the rich history of Lektro, detailing how the company revolutionized aircraft towing with its unique cradling system that offers both efficiency and safety. He explains the thought process behind the shift from traditional lead-acid batteries to cutting-edge lithium batteries, highlighting the benefits in terms of performance, reliability, and sustainability. The discussion also covers how Lektro’s integration of telemetry into their products is setting new standards for data-driven operations, allowing for improved maintenance, safety, and overall fleet management, empowering you with the knowledge of these practical benefits.
Listeners will gain insights into how Lektro’s dedication to simplicity and reliability in design has established them as a leader in the GSE market. Jesse dives into the specific features that differentiate Lektro’s towbarless tractors from the competition, including their intuitive controls, robust construction, and commitment to customer service. He also shares some exciting updates on what’s next for Lektro and how they plan to continue leading innovation in the industry.
Whether you're an experienced GSE professional or new to the field, this episode provides valuable knowledge on the advancements and future trends in ground support equipment. Don’t miss Jesse’s expert insights and the story behind Lektro’s success.
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Episode Transcript
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Matthew Weitzel (00:07):
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Unknown (00:56):
this is Laura McGrath, this is Jennifer Madison.
This is Sophie Skinner Jones,and you're listening to the GSE
podcast.
Matthew Weitzel (01:05):
All right, welcome to the GSE Podcast. I'm
Matt Weitzel, and I'm here withJesse long from lektro. How's it
going? Jesse, yeah,
Unknown (01:13):
going real good,
Matthew Weitzel (01:13):
yeah, man. So you all just had some meetings
here in the Orlando area, so Iguess Oshkosh came down to have
some meetings, yeah? So
Unknown (01:22):
we're still in the early integration phase of the
transition, right? And it's justa good opportunity for the
Aerotech leadership to interactwith Oshkosh leadership a little
bit and really comparingcultures and a lot of
similarities. Of course, we'reall continuing to learn, which
is encouraging. I think we'reall headed the same direction
and really excited about whatthe future holds.
Matthew Weitzel (01:41):
Yeah, Oshkosh is a huge organization, and
we're here today, though, totalk about Lektro so can you
kind of give me a brief overviewof how you got started in the
industry? Yeah, that's
Unknown (01:54):
interesting, and I'll try not to make it too long, but
I actually had zero businessbackground, zero aviation
background. It was actually afamily friend, Eric Paulson, who
previously owned Lektro. So Istarted working for Lektro when
they were privately held as kindof family owned small company
(02:15):
had grown out of the generalaviation segment, well,
continuing to serve the generalaviation segment, but had
expanded to the commercialaviation segment, right? And,
yeah, he just asked one day if,when I finished college, I was
interested in a job. So Istarted out doing domestic
sales, and I've kind ofprogressed up and now serving in
the Oshkosh organization as theGlobal Director of Lektro
(02:38):
product and general aviationsales. Oh, okay, so
Matthew Weitzel (02:41):
Eric started the company when it
Unknown (02:44):
was actually Eric's father, Wilt Paulson, who
started the company in 1945 Wow,yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah,
that's crazy. And Eric actuallytook a leave of absence when he
was in university, 1819, yearsold. His father was starting to
get a little bit older, and thecompany was struggling a little
bit. His dad was really aninventor and not as much of a
businessman. So he came up witha lot of great ideas, but not
(03:07):
all of them extremely marketableor with high demand. And so Eric
took that leave of absence fromuniversity. Never went back,
ended up running the company,basically from the time he was
about 19 years old. Ended uppurchasing it from his father,
so his father could retire inthe, I think it was the mid to
late 80s. And then really wasfocusing on the aircraft tow
tractor. So Lektro had done adiversity of different types of
(03:30):
equipment up until the towtractor, or the aircraft tow
tractor, was first built, thefirst one, in 1967 and then that
ended up being the focus of thecompany, you know, with Eric at
the helm, as just being aproduct that really nobody else
was doing, we were the first inthat segment to do Tobar, listen
electric, but also somethingthat really had high demand, had
(03:52):
very, very high customersatisfaction ranking. So any
analyst that looked at it said,You need to stop competing in
the forklift market, which wehad for a while in the golf cart
market, the materials handlingtype things, and really focus on
this, where you have high, highcustomer satisfaction and very
minimal competition. So
Matthew Weitzel (04:10):
you're friends with Eric, or Eric knows your
family. Or, like, how did that?
How'd that work? Like, I guessyou know he asked you after
college, but then, how did youget to know him?
Unknown (04:19):
Yeah, so he was actually friends with my
brother. It was actually througha church group connection, okay?
And then he he met me. Mybrother was already, you know,
gainfully employed and all that,yeah. And he said, Oh, Luke's
got a brother, and maybe, maybeI can get him. So he issued an
invitation, and here we are.
Matthew Weitzel (04:39):
Oh, man, that's crazy. So the one thing that I
do remember from the GSE expos,or whatever they used to be
called, was that Eric would,wouldn't he drive some huge RV?
Yeah.
Unknown (04:49):
So we've taken a couple different marketing approaches,
but one thing that Eric alwaysfocused on very strongly was
customer relationships, and theywere not just superficial
relationships. I mean, he wasvery intentional, intentional
about, yeah, developingrelationships with people. And
so we would go to trade shows,and he'd bring his his bus and
(05:09):
serve food and drinks out ofthem, and it was really a
hospitality center where hecould just hang out with his
friends. I mean, they were hisfriends in the industry. Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (05:17):
that was, like a staple of all the shows. Was
him pulling up with that bus.
And it was just, it was crazy,yeah, yeah, yeah. So those were,
those are the good old days.
Well, yeah, and I think there'smore to come, yeah. Oh, good.
That's awesome. Well, good tohear. So, so basically, you
start with them in the 2000s
Unknown (05:35):
Yeah, I was first hired in 2005 okay, and
Matthew Weitzel (05:38):
then what did the product line look like at
that point.
Unknown (05:41):
Yeah. So we had our 89 series tractors already at that
time, but they were in theirfairly early ages of infancy. We
were still pursuing Boeing andAirbus approvals. We had focused
pretty strongly with our smallertractors for the commercial
airlines, and hadn't reallymoved up to the 737, 757, and
Airbus. You know that 318, to321, families of aircraft. So
(06:05):
when I came on and reallystarting in 2011 2012 my mission
was to take as much off ofEric's shoulders as I could from
essentially business or generalaviation business or activity,
and allow him to focus on thoseadditional OEM approvals, or the
(06:26):
ntos from Boeing and Airbus, andthen marketing this new big,
narrow body tractor to ourairline customers. And that was
he, what he just jumped intothen, from that time going
forward, and really getting Demounits out to, you know, the
major customers heredomestically, winning their
trust and starting to sell, andthat's when the business really
(06:47):
started growing, 2015 andbeyond.
Matthew Weitzel (06:51):
Okay, so you started out in general aviation,
like, that's where the theproduct really kind of got its
foothold,
Unknown (06:57):
exactly. Yeah. So in 1967 when the first Lektro was
built. It was for an FBOoperator in the Portland area,
okay, who basically said, why dowe put this bar in between the
tow tractor and the aircraft? Itjust introduced an extra pivot
point. It doesn't use the weightof the aircraft to your
advantage. You're basicallycompeting against it with the
weight of your tow tractor. Andespecially as you handle larger
(07:18):
aircraft, you have to have alarger and larger, heavier and
heavier tow tractor to competeagainst that weight and inertia,
right? So they were saying,eliminate the pivot point, use
the aircraft weight to youradvantage and just simplify the
whole process. And it's reallyinteresting the history of
lektro and Eric's dad being sucha creative kind of ahead of his
(07:40):
time. I mean, you even look atthat Lektro logo, which has been
in use now for decades anddecades and decades, I think
it's still an awesome logo, yes,and yet it's timeless, almost. I
mean, from when it first startedbeing used to today, and that
was really how wilt and hisideas were. I mean, being the
first one to build an electricgolf cart. Back in those days,
(08:01):
when he built an electric golfcart, a lot of courses wouldn't
even let you drive something ontheir golf course. They wanted
everybody walking. You know, itwas the good old days. That's
how you play golf. And why wouldyou drive a cart on my course?
And now you'll be hard pressedto find a course that lets you
walk. Yeah, right. So he'sreally been ahead of his time in
a lot of ways, just drivingthese different changes when he
(08:24):
introduced this tow barlesstractor. Now, after it was
developed with that FBO operatorin the Portland area. Now he's
taking these units around toother FBOs, and they're saying,
you know, it's typical aviationindustry mentality, you know,
we've never done it that way.
This is kind of new, we're notreally sure. And he would just
drop off a unit and say, well,use it for a couple weeks or a
month, and I'll come back andpick it up. And when he comes
(08:46):
back to pick it up, they'repulling out their checkbook
saying, What do I got to pay tokeep this thing? You know,
because just the efficiency ofan electric solution, of a tow
bar list solution, and it's souniversal, you know, you don't
have the myriad of tow bars andall
Matthew Weitzel (09:01):
that. So yeah, and then the turning radius,
right? And being able to kind ofstack a hanger, I think, is,
like, a huge thing for LektroCorrect?
Unknown (09:09):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
I mean, we're just real strongboth in, in and out of the
hangar, and that's really what'sunique, yeah, yeah.
Matthew Weitzel (09:15):
So then, how did you get into the commercial
airlines? Was it through thoseshows, you know, through those
big Expo shows that you all wereable to kind of break in, and
they were actually coming to
Unknown (09:24):
you? Yeah. So I should know that history a little bit
better. My understanding is thatthe airlines actually started
coming, some of the regionalcarriers, to the general
aviation shows, and saying how,you know, because some of the
airframes, if you look at theCRJ series or the erjs, they
have general aviationconfigurations right to be
(09:44):
business jets, and then theyalso have their commercial
configuration. So these regionalcarriers were coming to the
shows saying, how are thebusiness aviation operators
handling these aircraft? Isthere a better, more efficient
way? And that's when they sawour product. So initially we
were selling a lot of the 87 10sand 88 to these regional
carriers for their ERJ and CRJs.
And then from that point, youknow, it was basically them
(10:06):
asking, can we expand the rangenow to handle as the RJs size
increase? Can we accommodate it?
And then also, you know, withthe narrow body, single aisle
Boeing and Airbus fleet? So,yeah, it was interesting. It's
just one of those things. Ascustomers use a quality product
and recognize it and see thevalue that it brings to their
(10:28):
business. Demand kind ofnaturally follows, yeah, for
sure. Can
Matthew Weitzel (10:32):
you kind of run through the series with me?
Like, as far as like, is itstarted to 86 No.
Unknown (10:38):
So we've, in more recent years, kind of brought
back even a smaller model, whichis Lektro 83 Oh, wow. And that's
for your trainer aircraft, thereal small. It'll handle up to a
King Air in the businessaviation side handle your small
Lears and citations. Then theLektro 86 as what a lot of
people are most familiar withwas a big, big seller. It seems
(11:00):
to be kind of tapering down alittle bit more leveling out as
business jets just get bigger.
You know, people are wanting tobuy a tractor that maybe not
only handles what they're flyingtoday, but what they're going to
fly 10 years from now. Yeah. Sowith the 86 will basically
handle up to the largercitations, some of the hawkers
that I guess you don't see quiteas much these days, the Lektro
87 model is where you starthaving crossover. It's
(11:24):
applicable both in the generalaviation segment as well as the
commercial, commercial aviationsegment, where you can handle
your CRJs and ERJ. On thegeneral aviation side, it's the
smaller golf streams and Falconjets by dasso. The Lektro 88
series is really a bread andbutter for us for the last
decade, really, just becauseit's still low profile enough to
(11:46):
fit underneath the low noselanding gear doors of your small
business jets, your liars andcitations you can handle King
airs. I mean, even some of thesmall Cessna trainer aircraft
all the way up through theEmbraer 170 to 195 okay,
Matthew Weitzel (12:03):
so if you have the ADA, you can pretty much
handle anything that might comein, especially
Unknown (12:08):
as an FBO operator, yeah, and in the general
aviation, we still have a lot ofcustomers buying that for their
stations that don't need tohandle anything larger than an
Embraer 195 okay, as soon as Youmove into the airliner like
Boeing and Airbus, you reallyneed to move to the 89 but
that's what's so unique aboutthe Lektro product line, where
basically the larger you get,and this isn't always true, but
(12:32):
by and large, the larger tractorcan handle not only its full
capacity, but almost everythingsmaller. And that's what made
the introduction of the Lektro89 into the market so
revolutionary is it was reallythe first tractor of its kind
that was fully approved by theaircraft manufacturers to handle
everything from a Boeing 757 allthe way down through the seven
(12:56):
threes, the A 320s the Embraer170 to 195 the CRJs, even the
ERJ 135 and 145 and nobody hadsomething like that. So you have
customers now who, whoessentially will have a narrow
body terminal, right? And theycan just go from gate to gate.
And it doesn't matter if it's anERJ 135 you pull up, push it
back. If it's a 757, pull up,push it back. And you're not
(13:20):
searching for tow bars. You'renot trying to figure out what
tractor I need to use, oranything like that. And there's
no new training, becauseobviously, with different size
tractors, sometimes even thattakes different level of
training. So you have abasically the Swiss Army knife
of the regional market.
Matthew Weitzel (13:36):
Man. That's crazy. So talk to me about, I
guess you also, I mean, have youswitched from lead acid to
lithium? Has that taken place,or are you all still sticking
with lead acid?
Unknown (13:46):
Yeah, so we, we offer lithium batteries, both in our
88 and our 89 series tractors.
The majority of the tractors wesell today still are lead acid
at at the choice of ourcustomers, okay, and part of
that is because we pick up thenose of the aircraft, and so we
need a lot of weight in ourtractor. That's what I was
(14:07):
thinking. Yeah, so the lead acidbattery is really a cost
effective way to not only have avery stable, very reliable, long
life power solution, but itgives you the weight you need to
counterbalance the weight of thenose, weight of the aircraft.
Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (14:25):
that makes a lot of sense, but they could get
potentially, a lithium Oh,absolutely. We
Unknown (14:29):
sell a ton of tractors every year to major customers
with lithium batteries. And theonly thing is, lithium, of
course, is a little bit moreexpensive, and you have to add
some more steel ballast to makeup for the weight that you lost
moving away from lead acid, butit's a matter of a little bit of
cost and maybe, yeah, differentinfrastructure, but the
(14:50):
advantages to the customer, ofcourse, is reduced maintenance.
Yeah, a lot of people just seeit as a performance, maybe a
move further into the future. I.
Don't know if I should say it,but personally, I'm still a big
fan of lead acid batteries forour particular application.
Okay, just because I feel likethey are a safe, reliable,
stable source of energy that,again, kill two birds with one
(15:13):
stone. You have the power andyou have the weight. And also,
from an environmentalstandpoint, even, and I don't
know if this is in vogue to say,but lead acid batteries are way
more recyclable. You know, eventhe development of the or the
mining of the minerals that arerequired are not nearly as, you
know,
Matthew Weitzel (15:34):
as lithium.
Yeah,
Jesse Long (15:37):
and nothing against lithium. I mean, where those
customers have a business casefor it and want it. We are able
and are providing lithiumbatteries for sure.
Matthew Weitzel (15:47):
So how long let's say that I'm a commercial
carrier? How many pushes can Ido with the 8900 throughout a
day without recharging?
Unknown (15:56):
Yeah, that's a good question. So I always sort of
issue. A little bit of adisclaimer, there's really a lot
of different factors that impacthow long your battery's going to
last, right? I mean, it's notonly ambient temperature, but
how heavy is the aircraft you'repushing, how far do you want to
push it? Is there any slope onyour ramp? You know, those are
all factors that are going toaffect, for sure, how much drive
(16:16):
time you have on a singlecharge. But I will tell you,
when we first started deliveringto commercial customers. Well,
I'll tell you two stories. Oneis, we had a customer that was
sort of interested in ourproduct, but they were a little
bit skeptical about batterytechnology, and they said, you
know, our hour meter on ourcombustion pushback tractors
(16:38):
turn 14 hours in a 24 hourperiod. How long are your
batteries gonna last? And wesaid, you know, you'll get four
to five hours of drive time outof a single charge. And they
said, Yeah, see that doesn'twork. When, when our hour meters
turn in 14 hours? And we said,Wait a second. You know your
hour meters turning basicallyanytime the combustion engine is
running, but that has nocorrelation to the amount of
(17:00):
time where you're actuallydriving, right? So again, just
in in typical Lektro fashion, wesaid, Let us give you a machine,
put it in your operation and seewhat happens. Yeah, let it prove
itself out. Yeah. And what theyfound is that in that exact same
operation, okay, where acombustion engine is turning 14
hours in a 24 hour period, thehour meter on the on the Lektro
(17:24):
89 only turned three to fourhours. And that just is an
indication of how because youthink about the environmental
friendliness of electricity inthis sort of application, a lot
of times that combustion enginetow tractor, the engine's
running while the passengers areboarding Okay, while you're
waiting for the tower to giveyou clearance to push back or
(17:45):
whatever, whereas the actualtime where the tires are
actually turning is verylimited. It's very limited. And
so how much of the time are thetires actually turning? Well,
it's the three to four hoursthat they found out, and they
said, man, you're right. Thesebatteries are more than capable.
In fact, we started thendelivering in quantity, I mean,
in volumes, as customers startedordering. And there was one
(18:07):
customer where we deliveredmaybe faster than they were
expecting, and the airportinfrastructure wasn't quite in
place, and they said, well,we'll start using these things,
you know. And if the batterydies before the charging
infrastructure is available.
We'll just, you know, pull aconventional tractor back in and
and they started, and it took,it took about a week for the
charges to be up and running bythe airport authority, and they
(18:28):
hadn't charged the tractor yet.
So we're talking a week's worthof airline pushbacks at a major
US airport, and they didn'tcharge. Now, that's not what I
would generally recommend, yeah,just for sake of bad I mean, we
tell people charge every coupledays, even if your batteries
don't need it, just to avoid,you know, you want to cycle your
batteries. But I was encouraged.
I mean, I think that's a hugeanecdotal, you know, sales pitch
(18:50):
anyway, to say, look, thesethings have high, high
endurance, and again, your usageis less than I think a lot of
people perceive.
Matthew Weitzel (19:00):
So with the push, everybody's trying to go
electric. We all know that it'sa it's a huge push. And so talk
to me about, I guess, do you seethe product just completely
blowing up with this, with thispush to electrification, or do
you think people will stillstick to what they know and go
to the conventional pushback,just an electric conventional
pushback? Yeah, that's a
Unknown (19:21):
good question. And we've seen customers kind of go
both ways. A lot of it justdepends on what their
established, you know, inventoryor infrastructure is kind of
built around there are somestate and it can vary even
within a single airline from onebase to another. So it's not
cost effective or reallyjustifiable, a lot of times to
(19:43):
say, well, we're just going tothrow away a bunch of equipment
that we have, tow bars,conventional tractors and all
that. But we do see more andmore airlines maybe saying, hey,
let's make this a full electricbase, or let's make this a full
tow bar list base, becausethey're just trying to manage
and it makes perfect. Fiscalsense, right? Where you're
you're just trying to managetraining resources, you're
(20:05):
trying to manage spare parts,inventory. So I think there will
continue to be a mixture, andit'll keep our business
hopefully from having too manyups and downs where people are
just kind of continuing to makethat gradual transition. There
are some places where maybe atowbar, conventional tractor
sort of application is better.
Matthew Weitzel (20:26):
Okay, so that was the next question I was
gonna ask you. So what casewould it have to be where a
conventional tractor makes moresense, an electric conventional
tractor makes more sense inLektro like, what would have to
be the climate? There notclimate, as far as you know,
actual climate. But, yeah, whatwould have to be, is it
footprint like that sometimeswould stop a customer from
switching to a conventionalthat's
Unknown (20:49):
the biggest thing that I would say, Yeah, is is really,
if you're needing to do longdistance towing, it can be a
challenge Sometimes with anelectric tow, barless tractor,
where generally you have eithera lot of torque for your
pushback operations or you havea lot of speed for your longer
distance. And it can be anengineering challenge, really,
(21:12):
to get both of those things in asingle unit. So sure. So
sometimes what we've seencustomers do is have a
conventional tractor for thelonger distance where they can
just hook up and and blaze and,and they'll use a Lektro
solution for their pushbackoperations.
Matthew Weitzel (21:29):
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. So I had a
customer that we were actuallyit was just 8925 what, BD, or
something like that. Okay. Doyou remember that, that whole
situation? It's a higher speedmodel. It is a higher speed
model, yeah. And you'll, I don'tthink you all made a ton of
these things. And so they wantedto put it into a colder weather
climate, and they didn't thinkit would work. Now, I've heard
(21:53):
that from many different sourcesthat that's not an issue at all,
but I wanted you to, like,address like, I mean, how does
Lektro work in colder climates.
Yeah, so
Unknown (22:01):
there's a couple things I think that people mainly have
in mind. One is the temperatureimpact on the batteries, and the
other is the tractionimplications. Right? I would say
that I think lead acid isprobably a better solution than
even lithium in a cold weatherapplication. Going back to my
lead acid preference, as far asgeneral concerns, though,
(22:23):
related to traction, I guess Iwould put it this way. Let's
just say a commercial operatoris needing to move a 737, the
ballast that's required tosafely operate that tractor in a
low traction environment is, is,you know, significant it goes
up, right? Because, okay, nowI'm not pushing on dry, flat
(22:45):
asphalt anymore, and that allneeds to be taken into account.
But what we've seen over andover again is, is when you
transfer all the nose weight ofthe aircraft, which, in the case
of a 737, or an A 320 can be20,000 pounds or more worth of
weight getting directlytransferred over the drive axle
of our tow vehicle. So now youhave not only the weight of the
(23:07):
vehicle, which is significant,but then you have those 20,000
plus pounds of weight addeddirectly over your drive axle.
Traction is is basically a nonissue. I mean, we see time and
time again our two wheel drivedrive tractors outperforming
four wheel drive conventionaltractors, just because it's an
unfair advantage. You know, wehave all that nose weight being
(23:29):
our friend, essentially, youknow, whereas it's the
competition against aconventional tractor. And
obviously, you know, here atOshkosh Aerotek, we sell both
conventional tractors and wesell toys tractors. And like I
said before, there's validityfor both just in different
operations. And that's whatwe're proud of, is being able to
address the uniqueness of a widevariety of different customer
(23:50):
applications.
Matthew Weitzel (23:51):
All right.
Well, you just said wide so I'mgonna ask you the question, are
we gonna see an Lektro widebody?
Unknown (23:58):
Pushback, yeah, I hope so.
Matthew Weitzel (24:02):
I mean, you brought up the subject, yeah,
yeah. I
Unknown (24:06):
I hope so, yeah, I'm pretty proud. You know, I tell
people a lot of times again, Ididn't go to school for sales, I
didn't go to school for businessor even for aviation, but I
enjoy my job. I love thisindustry, and I love the Lektro
product line. Okay? So nothingwould make me happier than to
see us continue to be able toexpand and make the product line
(24:26):
even more successful. That beingsaid, I do have a little
caution, I guess, about tryingto do everything and then and
end up not doing anything well,and I think that's been one
strong trademark of the Lektroproduct line, up until today,
where, okay, when we do things,we do it right, and we do it
(24:50):
well. And there's even, from abusiness standpoint, you know,
the vast majority, in terms ofquantities of aircraft being
sold today, the vast majorityare under. Body aircraft, and so
we serve that that segment allthe way from the narrow body
airliners down through thetrainer aircraft on in the
general aviation segment. So Ithink we're well well positioned
(25:12):
right now. And you have to kindof ask, okay, are we going to
start playing in a sandbox thatmaybe just isn't our area of
expertise? If we do a wide bodywe'll make sure it's good, and I
certainly hope that day comes Istill know when it'll be Yeah.
Okay,
Matthew Weitzel (25:25):
all right. And then I would like you to kind of
go over what the differencebetween a tow barless tractor
from maybe another provider, howit differs from what you
provide, because I think there'sa definite difference,
especially in the cradlingprocess. And can you just kind
of explain that? And I thinkit's less maintenance with
Lektro I would imagine. Yeah, so
Unknown (25:44):
an emphasis on the Lektro product line from the
very beginning has been tobasically keep the machine
simple, easy to work on, easy tooperate, highly, highly
reliable. And, yeah, I don'tthink it's any secret there have
been and there continue to bemore and more competitors, sort
of envious of, you know, what weoffer, and sort of wanting to
(26:07):
pursue that same, you know,customer base, that same
concept. And it seems like thecompetitive vehicles that come
out just get to look more andmore like what we have. You
know, they're just gettingcloser and closer to building
what we offer. So I guess I feellike where we distinguish
ourselves is being the original.
First of all, where a photocopyis never quite as good. But
(26:29):
beyond that, I think it's theculture of lektro. It's the
culture of, you know, even whenwe were acquired by JB
tierrotech and now being foldedup under the Oshkosh umbrellas,
Oshkosh Aerotek. The culture ofall these organizations, and
this is why I still work forthis company, is because the
culture is build quality andthen support it unquestioningly
(26:53):
100% so that's I couldn't sell.
I don't think I'd be asalesperson if I didn't believe
in the product that I'm selling,and essentially have a product
that sells itself, where I cango to any trade show in the
world and look customers in theface and with clear eyes tell
them we will take care of you ifyour machine ever goes down,
(27:14):
even if it's not. You know, youhave component failures. You
know nobody sees the motormanufacturer when the motor goes
down, you know, it's, it's, it'sLektro whatever, and but, but we
stand behind it, we always have,and I, and I'm pretty proud of
that, so I think that's really abig distinguish. Distinguishing
mark is, buy whatever you want,but I think we'd have a more
(27:38):
robust testing program. I thinkwe hold ourselves to a higher
standard in terms of vehicleperformance, and I think we take
better care of our customers.
Matthew Weitzel (27:47):
Okay, that is not the way that I was thinking
about going, but I'd love it.
And I was wanted to talk aboutthe cradling system, yeah, so
can you No, but I mean, listen,that was, that was amazing, and
you're exactly right. And thoseare all the things that I've
heard. And I'm around Oshkoshall the time. We're recording it
at Oshkosh right now. So, butyeah, talk to me about the
cradling system and how thatdiffers.
Unknown (28:09):
Yeah, so our system is a little bit different in that
most tow barless tractors,especially in the commercial
airline segment, actually clamponto the tires rather than just
pulling the nose gear onto moreof a shovel or a cradle or scoop
at the capture end of thevehicle. And that is a big
(28:30):
differentiator, just because ofthe simplicity in terms of
maintenance. You know, there's alot fewer sensors. There's a lot
fewer, well,
Matthew Weitzel (28:38):
there's just so many more things that could not
go wrong Exactly, and
Unknown (28:41):
that's what you see, where you have all these
clamping arms and brackets andmechanisms where one thing
throws an error, even if it's aloose connection and it's not
really an error, it will stop acompetitive tractor and lead to
delays for the customer. And inan airline application, that's a
big deal.
Matthew Weitzel (28:59):
It is a big deal. It makes it so you kind of
feel like you do have to havethat conventional sitting around
just in case. Yeah.
Unknown (29:05):
So, so the reliability and the simplicity and the
universality, you know? I mean,if you talk in the general
aviation segment now, having acradle like ours, where you can
put a single nose wheel, a smallLear jet or citation on the
exact same cradle where you puta Boeing 737, that's definitely
unique.
Matthew Weitzel (29:24):
That is unique, yeah, for sure, yeah. Okay,
well, thanks for covering thatwith me. So, all right, I think
it's time. So why don't you andthen we'll kind of, we'll kind
of dive into more, into moreLektro stuff. But why don't you
dive into a story that you haveabout the industry? Yeah?
Unknown (29:43):
That's a good question.
The one story that comes tomind, and I don't know if this
is where you wanted me to go,necessarily, but it can go
anywhere. Okay, so you know,okay, I guess I'll go back to
Lektro history, maybe a littlebit. And just because this is
really intriguing to me, back.
In the 40s, 50s, whatever. Onthe north coast of Oregon, there
(30:05):
was actually some mink industry.
And this is just an example ofkind of where Lektro came from.
Okay, so these mink farmers hadcome to Eric Paulson's father
wilt, who owned and ran thecompany at the time, and said,
you know, as they're trying tojust increase profitability,
they would build these stackedcages. And then they had come up
with kind of a tractor thatwould drive down the rows of
(30:27):
mink cages with conveyor beltsto drop the feed into the
troughs for these mink as so youcan just do mass breeding, mass
feeding, you know, all thatstuff. And again, just maximize
profitability. Well, whathappened was the vehicle that
they originally developed was acombustion engine tractor that
would sort of tow this apparatusdown the row and drop feed with
(30:50):
conveyor belts into the minkcages. But the noise of this
combustion engine drivingthrough these barns and the feed
houses or whatever, just freakedthe animals out so much that
they were actually eating theiryoung. Which whole was
counterproductive, right totheir whole business? Yeah, I
think so. So that was when theycame to wilt and said, Look, we
(31:13):
need a nice, quiet, electricsolution to be able to drive. So
he made a mink feeder, okay,which had this conveyor belt
system would drop feed intothese cages as it drove down
these rows, nice and quiet.
Super innovative, you know, metthe customer's needs and all
that. But then you have to ask,okay, when you look at it now,
(31:35):
from a business perspective, howmany mink farms are there right
in the world, not just in thestate of Oregon, you know. And
so, okay, we have this greatproduct, not much to do with it.
Well, when, when wilt wasapproached, then in 1966 67 for
an aircraft tow tractor, theytook the mink feeder and they
just turned it around, put ashovel on the front of it, and
(31:57):
that was the first airporterthat they ever built in 1967 so
I love that story, just becauseI think of the innovation of
sort of the unconventional rootsof all this stuff, and really
what it's led to today, not onlyin terms of the amazing
footprint that the Lektroproduct line has around the
world, but that now there's evencompanies trying to copycat or
(32:20):
mimic what we do. And I thinkthat's pretty, pretty
remarkable.
Matthew Weitzel (32:24):
That is a great story. Yeah, I didn't think it
was going to go in the minkdirection before you started the
story, but it did so. So talk tome about then, I guess, JBT, and
then Oshkosh and and, you know,you all being acquired by JBT,
and then eventually Oshkoshacquiring JBT. And, yeah, that's
kind of changed lektro for thegood, I
Unknown (32:46):
guess, yeah, absolutely no. And obviously, I mean, you
go through acquisitions likethat, and I think there's, it's,
it's natural to have someapprehensions. Not really know
where are things going. But itreally couldn't be better on on
both fronts, in, in my humbleopinion, I mean, as a personal
friend of of Eric's, actually, Iwas with him all last week in
(33:07):
Palm Springs, just on vacation.
And so we're still, we stillkeep in touch. But I guess what
makes me so happy is to see himbe so successful and allow him
now to have a break afterliteral like, five decades, he
was running this company sevendays a week, and now, I guess I
I just consider it our, or my,maybe responsibility, to
maintain that legacy of customerfirst and building quality
(33:30):
equipment and really justgrowing growing the business. So
that's what was encouraging tome when, when we were then
acquired by JBT. You know, youhave these different
apprehensions, but then you seethat really their culture of
taking care of the customer, ofdoing the right thing, you know,
having integrity, buildingquality equipment, all of those
(33:52):
things, just on a larger scale.
Yeah, right. So then, you know,you fasted that that acquisition
happened. 2019 allowed Eric toretire, so those of us that he
left behind, you know, were kindof increasing our responsibility
trying to keep this thing going.
It was so providential, though Italked about the benefits of
just the culture or the thesynergy of cultures, you know,
(34:16):
that were melded at that point,but really, it was providential
in terms of timing too, withcovid happening, and it would
have been a nightmare as aprivately held company to
Navigate covid. Oh, right, sure.
So the the sale happened in 2019Eric stayed on board for a year,
(34:37):
and his last day was March 30 of2020, which is almost a date
that will live in infamy for allof us, right, just because that
was when things really startedshutting down, major, major
impact due to covid. But to havea corporation, a major
corporation, behind us, to allowus to sort of navigate that, to
know where we had to make cutsor where just financial. Be able
(35:01):
to navigate those rough waters,was providential. But I think I
can say now, maybe with JBTprimarily being a food
processing equipment company,you know, the match maybe wasn't
perfect. It was in terms of usbeing a part of Aerotech, but
yeah, for sure. Now Aerotech,you know, just needed a company
behind them that was interestedin additional growth and
(35:24):
development, and so now theentire Aerotech group having
been acquired by OshkoshCorporation, in all honesty, I
could not be more excited. Ijust think it will continue to
grow and refine not only who weare, but the products that we
offer, and it's remarkable. Imean, when you sit in some of
(35:44):
these transition meetings, thethings that Aerotech as a as a
group are looking to expandinto, or, you know, to improve,
things like automation, thingslike telematics, things like
alternative fuels, those are allthe same things that now our
parent company are alsointerested in Oshkosh. Every
(36:07):
every product line they have isa highly engineered, purpose
built piece of equipment for atough job intro in a variety of
industries. Yeah, and it's whatAerotech does. It's what Lektro
does. And I just think the fitis remarkable. We already are
(36:27):
seeing the benefits of thesynergies, and it's it's only
going to increase as we get moreintegrated with with Oshkosh, as
Oshkosh Aerotek. So I'm excited.
Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (36:39):
you should be.
It seems like a spectacularcompany that you'll now get to
be a part of and reap all thebenefits. So What haven't we
covered? Yeah, well, I
Unknown (36:49):
guess I I think we've talked a lot about Lektro I'll
say, thanks for having me. I'vehonored by every chance I've had
to work with exceed. You guyshave leased some of our
equipment out, even specific tothe Lektro product line. Oh, for
sure. Yeah. And yeah, I'mexcited to see how we can grow.
I mean, I guess maybe I shouldbe asking you, How do you think
(37:13):
we can help exceeds businessexpand? What's, what's your
visions for the future? And Iguess I just appreciate the
partnership. Yeah, well, that wehave and look forward. But
first, let
Matthew Weitzel (37:21):
me say that I'm a big fan of Lektro. I believe
that there's going to be a lotof growth in this sector,
especially with the with theconversion to electric. I feel
like people are going to almoststart moving away from the
conventional electric pushbackand kind of going into the
Lektro product line. And I thinkthat's going to be really
interesting for you all. I thinkwe want to be a part of that.
(37:43):
Exceed has really invested inelectric, in the in because we
see, we see what's going on inthe industry. So we're already
starting to buy electric Cfifteens. You know, we're buying
the electric B 80 from fromOshkosh now. And we need to
start buying some Lektros andgetting those out into the out
into the world. And, you know,it's a great, it'd be a great
(38:05):
product for people to try, ifthey haven't tried it yet. So
then we can, you know, offerthem rentals and leases on that
to see how it works. And thenthose people that are worried
about the weather conditions andall these different things that
we talked about proving it, youknow firsthand that obviously it
can do it right, and kind ofgetting that, that product out
there, because it is, I mean, italso is a heck of a lot less
(38:28):
maintenance, because there'sjust so many less moving parts
exactly right with Lektro thanthere would be in a conventional
pushback. So I think thatthere's, you all have a lot of
advantages right now, and then,you know, with the power of
Oshkosh behind you as well inthe level of service. And I'm
sure parts are easier to get.
And I mean, everything's got tobe better now that you're owned
by such a large entity that isfocused on service. So So
(38:50):
anyway, again, believe in theproduct, and I think it's great.
And yeah, we do. We do have someout in the field. We just don't
have enough, and we need to beordering some. And speaking of
which, what is your lead timenow? Because I've heard some
things, and I want to make sure,like, I mean, because it
Unknown (39:08):
seems like you all are very busy, yeah, no, we have, we
have a very, very healthybacklog, I will say that. But we
have been working for the lastyear, plus, really, to not only
increase capacity, but to putmore pressure on our suppliers,
to increase what and Oshkosh hashelped with that, you know, I
mean, where, oh, I may be asmall fish. They use a lot of
(39:28):
the same suppliers, and so to beable to turn up the heat on
those people as now, being partof Oshkosh has been a big help,
yeah, so we've heard about that,yeah. And we've seen our lead
times cut in half, in some casesnow, yeah, because the Oshkosh
comes knocking on the door, allof a sudden the lead times on
parts get a little bit shorter.
Yeah, we get a little bit higherpriority. Yeah, yeah. I used to
(39:49):
be in purchasing. I know alittle bit about that, yeah,
yeah. You got to take care ofyour big customers, no. So even,
even our throughput, I mean,it's, it's getting faster, lead
times are definitely coming.
Down significantly lead times,depending on the on the specific
model that a customer needs, isanywhere from three to 10
(40:09):
months. And we're really justtrying to be smart about it.
Build some generic spec modelshere and there. Okay, some white
tails and stuff like that. Yeah.
And it's really where, you know,some of our customers, or
partners like Xcēd, come intoplay. You know, when we can
refer them to, okay, yourtractor might not be ready for
eight months, but we know peoplewho have some and use this one
(40:29):
until you get the next one. AndI think it's real critical too,
as we partner with companieslike Xcēd, you know, we have a
unit that's on its way toLouisville for the derby right
now. Oh, you know, there's allsorts of events like that,
whether it's the masters or theDerby, or f1 or whatever else
where there's money to be made,I think, and and Super Bowl, I
(40:49):
guess, would be another one, butin any case, yeah, I'm just
excited. It's fun industry.
There's a lot of diversity, alot of interesting
opportunities. You get to meetgreat people. And there's really
not anybody in the industry thatdoesn't seem to love the smell
of avgas, you know, and love jetfuel, yeah. So it's fun.
Matthew Weitzel (41:10):
So are you going to be at the GHI America
show in Toronto? I'm
Unknown (41:15):
not currently planning to be there. I will be in Lisbon
for the GSE Expo.
Matthew Weitzel (41:18):
Okay, are you all going to bring product to
the GSE Europe, absolutely.
Unknown (41:22):
Yeah, we'll have a number of different products.
Our new Lektro 88 i By the way,
Matthew Weitzel (41:28):
so tell me about, can we? Can we talk
about, I guess that's the thing
Unknown (41:31):
we haven't spent a lot of time talking about, is new
product development. Segue,yeah, I mentioned just our
desire to build products thatwere simple and reliable. But
what happens is, as technologymoves forward, we want to take
those advancements and and it'salways the challenge of of
finding the balance. Do you doyou keep yourself at the cutting
(41:53):
edge of technology and thenrisk, you know, having some some
issues here and there out in thefield? Or do you kind of hold
back a little bit and make surethat new technologies are really
mature, so that you'reproviding, when you do launch
those new products, you'rereally providing a more
reliable, mature type oftechnology that makes sense
product. So I feel like we'vestruck a healthy balance in
(42:16):
those regards, and JBT and nowOshkosh, I think have the same
approach. You can't afford to doa bunch of R and D with a
scheduled airline at the gate.
Okay? Reliability is very, veryimportant. So we're now at the
point where we're saying, and itstarted when we were acquired by
by JBT, and now it's continuingfull speed ahead, with the
(42:37):
refinement of our differentproduct lines to say, where
should we be integrating PLCs?
Where can we transition from DCdrive motors to more efficient
AC drive motors, lithiumbatteries? You know, what can we
do in terms of integratingtelematics and autonomy and
things like that? So that's whatis wrapped up in the L 88 or the
(43:01):
Lektro88 model, and the Lektro89 Lektro 88 i is what we're
referring to it as, and then theLektro 89 I basically
maintaining the same aircraftcapacity. So it's really a
direct replacement for customerswho have bought our older 8850s
or 8950s but just theenhancements in terms of
(43:23):
technology and user friendlymaintainer friendly features is
remarkable. We're reallyexcited. So we're going to have
an 88 i at the GSE Expo inLisbon later this year, and look
to get the 89 I through sometesting, and hopefully for a
launch in in 2025, so real, realexciting.
Matthew Weitzel (43:45):
So Will those come with IOPS? Yeah,
Unknown (43:48):
so they'll have telemetry basically as a
standard, standard feature.
Matthew Weitzel (43:52):
Right now, I'm sorry to interrupt you. So right
now, can you get IOPS on, on anyLektro that you get, or is that?
Yeah,
Unknown (44:00):
it's available to a limited extent, only because the
amount of information that youcan pull off of a relay
technology type vehicle is reallimited. So it's really
something that's more being
Matthew Weitzel (44:16):
models, okay, all right, gotcha, yeah, well,
that'll be, that'll be a lot offun for people that get to go to
the show and be able to checkout the ADA die for sure,
absolutely, yeah, right, yeah.
We're excited. And then theseunits, can you get cabs on
Lektros?
Unknown (44:33):
Yeah? So we've had some customers put their own cabs on
and cabs aren't real friendlyfor our stand up models, just
the dynamics, okay, but yeah,all of our sit down tractors,
both the 88 as well as the 89have had cabs available for
years and years, okay, yeah, andagain, more and more customers
are buying them. Of course, youknow, as you get in cold
(44:54):
weather, climates move over toEurope, they're more used to
some of those situations. Ofcourse. And I don't want to
inappropriately keep kind ofdiverting to the general
aviation segment, but with thatbeing one of my major areas of
responsibility, you know, whenyou think of in Hangar
maneuvering and tight operationareas, some people actually see
(45:14):
the cab as a disadvantage, youknow, just because aircraft
strike may be more likely andthings like that. Yeah, and on
some of the large business jets,the Global Express aircraft and
golf streams when you disconnectthe torque links, which you do
when you're towing that nosegear, and I don't know if people
know, has literally 360 degreeradial freedom. So we can
(45:36):
capture that nose gear, spin ourtractor all the way around and
basically push the aircraft intothe hangar sitting below the
fuselage, if you can picturethat. And so in terms of really
maximizing the space in ahanger, I mean, you just think
about being able to push thenose of your aircraft with
literally zero protrusion fromthe tow bar or the tow tractor
(45:56):
in front of the aircraft, andyou can push the nose of the
aircraft right into the cornerof the hangar. And we've had
some customers say, man, I'vealready paid for my Lektro unit
because I can fit one moreaircraft in my hangar than I
could before, and hang Ridge,especially in harsh climate
environments, whether it be coldweather or hot weather, is gold
(46:17):
for some of these operators. So
Matthew Weitzel (46:19):
yeah, I had a small FBO basically say the
exact same thing to me. Theyended up leasing Lektro from us
for their small little, youknow, FBO and and they had the
same thing where they they, theywere using some old Clark
tractor just to get it into thehangar. But then they realized,
like, how much they're wastingas far as space goes. Because,
like, to your point, Lektro can,you know, fit it on a dime?
(46:42):
Yeah, yeah.
Unknown (46:43):
It's very maneuverable.
And even being able to then getthe tractor out, you know,
people can drive under the wingsand whatever else, which, again,
just going down the road of thecabs, like you asked. I mean,
people see that as maybe lessthan ideal for that sort of
application, but we certainlyoffer it for the applications
where people are doingexclusive, you know, pushback or
longer distance towingoperations. So, yeah, I
(47:05):
appreciate the question, yeah,all right, what
Matthew Weitzel (47:09):
else do we have?
Unknown (47:10):
I think we covered it.
I'm, I'm excited. I'm excitedto, hopefully I'll probably see
you in in Lisbon, I
Matthew Weitzel (47:15):
suppose. Huh?
We Well, we're trying to figurethat out at the moment, so
whether Xcēd will be there. Sowe'll have to, we'll have to
wait and see. I have not, notsigned any paperwork yet, but I
hope to be there. And then we'regoing to be doing a podcast
about the upcoming GHIconference in Toronto. And then
we're going to also be doing oneabout about the GSE Europe show,
just kind of previews and stufflike that
Unknown (47:37):
well. And we will definitely have people at GHI.
It just won't be me personally,probably. So, so you'll, you'll
see Oshkosh Aerotek peoplethere, for sure. Yeah, we're
Matthew Weitzel (47:45):
gonna have Josh Parkin from Oshkosh on stage.
We're doing a live panel the GHIAmerica show about
electrification in the industry.
So I'm sure Lektro will bebrought up during that
discussion. For sure. Yeah,excellent. Yeah. So, and then
we're gonna have some, you know,just people talking about just
infrastructure in general, asfar as, like, at the airports.
And then we're gonna have some,you know, talking about
(48:06):
chargers. And we're gonna try tocover the whole, the whole thing
on stage, so we'll see. Oh,that'll be fun. Yeah, excellent,
yeah. But I appreciate the timetoday, and I'm so glad that you
could come on. I've wanted totalk to you for a really long
time. Glad that you were able tocome down to Orlando, so that
way I didn't have to go thewhole way to Warren No, happy
Unknown (48:25):
to be here. But listen, you need to make a trip to
Warrenton one of these days, andwe'd look forward to hosting
Matthew Weitzel (48:29):
you. I do, I do. I want to come see the
facility, and it would be, itwould be a great time. So y'all
to take me out to some of yourfavorite local spots there. Yep,
awesome. Well, thank you somuch. I appreciate it. All
right. Thanks. Bye. You. Music.
Thank you for tuning in to thisepisode of the GSE podcast. We
hope you found it informativeand engaging. If this episode
resonated with you, please shareit with your colleagues and
(48:52):
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Bring you the latest trends,insights and stories from the
(49:14):
industry. Thank you forlistening to the GSE podcast
until we meet again, staygrounded and keep pushing
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Celebrating 10 years of trailblazing in ground
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(00:27):
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Unknown (00:56):
this is Laura McGrath, this is Jennifer Madison.
This is Sophie Skinner Jones,and you're listening to the GSE
podcast.
Matthew Weitzel (01:05):
All right, welcome to the GSE Podcast. I'm
Matt Weitzel, and I'm here withJesse long from lektro. How's it
going? Jesse, yeah,
Unknown (01:13):
going real good,
Matthew Weitzel (01:13):
yeah, man. So you all just had some meetings
here in the Orlando area, so Iguess Oshkosh came down to have
some meetings, yeah? So
Unknown (01:22):
we're still in the early integration phase of the
transition, right? And it's justa good opportunity for the
Aerotech leadership to interactwith Oshkosh leadership a little
bit and really comparingcultures and a lot of
similarities. Of course, we'reall continuing to learn, which
is encouraging. I think we'reall headed the same direction
and really excited about whatthe future holds.
Matthew Weitzel (01:41):
Yeah, Oshkosh is a huge organization, and
we're here today, though, totalk about Lektro so can you
kind of give me a brief overviewof how you got started in the
industry? Yeah, that's
Unknown (01:54):
interesting, and I'll try not to make it too long, but
I actually had zero businessbackground, zero aviation
background. It was actually afamily friend, Eric Paulson, who
previously owned Lektro. So Istarted working for Lektro when
they were privately held as kindof family owned small company
(02:15):
had grown out of the generalaviation segment, well,
continuing to serve the generalaviation segment, but had
expanded to the commercialaviation segment, right? And,
yeah, he just asked one day if,when I finished college, I was
interested in a job. So Istarted out doing domestic
sales, and I've kind ofprogressed up and now serving in
the Oshkosh organization as theGlobal Director of Lektro
(02:38):
product and general aviationsales. Oh, okay, so
Matthew Weitzel (02:41):
Eric started the company when it
Unknown (02:44):
was actually Eric's father, Wilt Paulson, who
started the company in 1945 Wow,yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah,
that's crazy. And Eric actuallytook a leave of absence when he
was in university, 1819, yearsold. His father was starting to
get a little bit older, and thecompany was struggling a little
bit. His dad was really aninventor and not as much of a
businessman. So he came up witha lot of great ideas, but not
(03:07):
all of them extremely marketableor with high demand. And so Eric
took that leave of absence fromuniversity. Never went back,
ended up running the company,basically from the time he was
about 19 years old. Ended uppurchasing it from his father,
so his father could retire inthe, I think it was the mid to
late 80s. And then really wasfocusing on the aircraft tow
tractor. So Lektro had done adiversity of different types of
(03:30):
equipment up until the towtractor, or the aircraft tow
tractor, was first built, thefirst one, in 1967 and then that
ended up being the focus of thecompany, you know, with Eric at
the helm, as just being aproduct that really nobody else
was doing, we were the first inthat segment to do Tobar, listen
electric, but also somethingthat really had high demand, had
(03:52):
very, very high customersatisfaction ranking. So any
analyst that looked at it said,You need to stop competing in
the forklift market, which wehad for a while in the golf cart
market, the materials handlingtype things, and really focus on
this, where you have high, highcustomer satisfaction and very
minimal competition. So
Matthew Weitzel (04:10):
you're friends with Eric, or Eric knows your
family. Or, like, how did that?
How'd that work? Like, I guessyou know he asked you after
college, but then, how did youget to know him?
Unknown (04:19):
Yeah, so he was actually friends with my
brother. It was actually througha church group connection, okay?
And then he he met me. Mybrother was already, you know,
gainfully employed and all that,yeah. And he said, Oh, Luke's
got a brother, and maybe, maybeI can get him. So he issued an
invitation, and here we are.
Matthew Weitzel (04:39):
Oh, man, that's crazy. So the one thing that I
do remember from the GSE expos,or whatever they used to be
called, was that Eric would,wouldn't he drive some huge RV?
Yeah.
Unknown (04:49):
So we've taken a couple different marketing approaches,
but one thing that Eric alwaysfocused on very strongly was
customer relationships, and theywere not just superficial
relationships. I mean, he wasvery intentional, intentional
about, yeah, developingrelationships with people. And
so we would go to trade shows,and he'd bring his his bus and
(05:09):
serve food and drinks out ofthem, and it was really a
hospitality center where hecould just hang out with his
friends. I mean, they were hisfriends in the industry. Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (05:17):
that was, like a staple of all the shows. Was
him pulling up with that bus.
And it was just, it was crazy,yeah, yeah, yeah. So those were,
those are the good old days.
Well, yeah, and I think there'smore to come, yeah. Oh, good.
That's awesome. Well, good tohear. So, so basically, you
start with them in the 2000s
Unknown (05:35):
Yeah, I was first hired in 2005 okay, and
Matthew Weitzel (05:38):
then what did the product line look like at
that point.
Unknown (05:41):
Yeah. So we had our 89 series tractors already at that
time, but they were in theirfairly early ages of infancy. We
were still pursuing Boeing andAirbus approvals. We had focused
pretty strongly with our smallertractors for the commercial
airlines, and hadn't reallymoved up to the 737, 757, and
Airbus. You know that 318, to321, families of aircraft. So
(06:05):
when I came on and reallystarting in 2011 2012 my mission
was to take as much off ofEric's shoulders as I could from
essentially business or generalaviation business or activity,
and allow him to focus on thoseadditional OEM approvals, or the
(06:26):
ntos from Boeing and Airbus, andthen marketing this new big,
narrow body tractor to ourairline customers. And that was
he, what he just jumped intothen, from that time going
forward, and really getting Demounits out to, you know, the
major customers heredomestically, winning their
trust and starting to sell, andthat's when the business really
(06:47):
started growing, 2015 andbeyond.
Matthew Weitzel (06:51):
Okay, so you started out in general aviation,
like, that's where the theproduct really kind of got its
foothold,
Unknown (06:57):
exactly. Yeah. So in 1967 when the first Lektro was
built. It was for an FBOoperator in the Portland area,
okay, who basically said, why dowe put this bar in between the
tow tractor and the aircraft? Itjust introduced an extra pivot
point. It doesn't use the weightof the aircraft to your
advantage. You're basicallycompeting against it with the
weight of your tow tractor. Andespecially as you handle larger
(07:18):
aircraft, you have to have alarger and larger, heavier and
heavier tow tractor to competeagainst that weight and inertia,
right? So they were saying,eliminate the pivot point, use
the aircraft weight to youradvantage and just simplify the
whole process. And it's reallyinteresting the history of
lektro and Eric's dad being sucha creative kind of ahead of his
(07:40):
time. I mean, you even look atthat Lektro logo, which has been
in use now for decades anddecades and decades, I think
it's still an awesome logo, yes,and yet it's timeless, almost. I
mean, from when it first startedbeing used to today, and that
was really how wilt and hisideas were. I mean, being the
first one to build an electricgolf cart. Back in those days,
(08:01):
when he built an electric golfcart, a lot of courses wouldn't
even let you drive something ontheir golf course. They wanted
everybody walking. You know, itwas the good old days. That's
how you play golf. And why wouldyou drive a cart on my course?
And now you'll be hard pressedto find a course that lets you
walk. Yeah, right. So he'sreally been ahead of his time in
a lot of ways, just drivingthese different changes when he
(08:24):
introduced this tow barlesstractor. Now, after it was
developed with that FBO operatorin the Portland area. Now he's
taking these units around toother FBOs, and they're saying,
you know, it's typical aviationindustry mentality, you know,
we've never done it that way.
This is kind of new, we're notreally sure. And he would just
drop off a unit and say, well,use it for a couple weeks or a
month, and I'll come back andpick it up. And when he comes
(08:46):
back to pick it up, they'repulling out their checkbook
saying, What do I got to pay tokeep this thing? You know,
because just the efficiency ofan electric solution, of a tow
bar list solution, and it's souniversal, you know, you don't
have the myriad of tow bars andall
Matthew Weitzel (09:01):
that. So yeah, and then the turning radius,
right? And being able to kind ofstack a hanger, I think, is,
like, a huge thing for LektroCorrect?
Unknown (09:09):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
I mean, we're just real strongboth in, in and out of the
hangar, and that's really what'sunique, yeah, yeah.
Matthew Weitzel (09:15):
So then, how did you get into the commercial
airlines? Was it through thoseshows, you know, through those
big Expo shows that you all wereable to kind of break in, and
they were actually coming to
Unknown (09:24):
you? Yeah. So I should know that history a little bit
better. My understanding is thatthe airlines actually started
coming, some of the regionalcarriers, to the general
aviation shows, and saying how,you know, because some of the
airframes, if you look at theCRJ series or the erjs, they
have general aviationconfigurations right to be
(09:44):
business jets, and then theyalso have their commercial
configuration. So these regionalcarriers were coming to the
shows saying, how are thebusiness aviation operators
handling these aircraft? Isthere a better, more efficient
way? And that's when they sawour product. So initially we
were selling a lot of the 87 10sand 88 to these regional
carriers for their ERJ and CRJs.
And then from that point, youknow, it was basically them
(10:06):
asking, can we expand the rangenow to handle as the RJs size
increase? Can we accommodate it?
And then also, you know, withthe narrow body, single aisle
Boeing and Airbus fleet? So,yeah, it was interesting. It's
just one of those things. Ascustomers use a quality product
and recognize it and see thevalue that it brings to their
(10:28):
business. Demand kind ofnaturally follows, yeah, for
sure. Can
Matthew Weitzel (10:32):
you kind of run through the series with me?
Like, as far as like, is itstarted to 86 No.
Unknown (10:38):
So we've, in more recent years, kind of brought
back even a smaller model, whichis Lektro 83 Oh, wow. And that's
for your trainer aircraft, thereal small. It'll handle up to a
King Air in the businessaviation side handle your small
Lears and citations. Then theLektro 86 as what a lot of
people are most familiar withwas a big, big seller. It seems
(11:00):
to be kind of tapering down alittle bit more leveling out as
business jets just get bigger.
You know, people are wanting tobuy a tractor that maybe not
only handles what they're flyingtoday, but what they're going to
fly 10 years from now. Yeah. Sowith the 86 will basically
handle up to the largercitations, some of the hawkers
that I guess you don't see quiteas much these days, the Lektro
87 model is where you starthaving crossover. It's
(11:24):
applicable both in the generalaviation segment as well as the
commercial, commercial aviationsegment, where you can handle
your CRJs and ERJ. On thegeneral aviation side, it's the
smaller golf streams and Falconjets by dasso. The Lektro 88
series is really a bread andbutter for us for the last
decade, really, just becauseit's still low profile enough to
(11:46):
fit underneath the low noselanding gear doors of your small
business jets, your liars andcitations you can handle King
airs. I mean, even some of thesmall Cessna trainer aircraft
all the way up through theEmbraer 170 to 195 okay,
Matthew Weitzel (12:03):
so if you have the ADA, you can pretty much
handle anything that might comein, especially
Unknown (12:08):
as an FBO operator, yeah, and in the general
aviation, we still have a lot ofcustomers buying that for their
stations that don't need tohandle anything larger than an
Embraer 195 okay, as soon as Youmove into the airliner like
Boeing and Airbus, you reallyneed to move to the 89 but
that's what's so unique aboutthe Lektro product line, where
basically the larger you get,and this isn't always true, but
(12:32):
by and large, the larger tractorcan handle not only its full
capacity, but almost everythingsmaller. And that's what made
the introduction of the Lektro89 into the market so
revolutionary is it was reallythe first tractor of its kind
that was fully approved by theaircraft manufacturers to handle
everything from a Boeing 757 allthe way down through the seven
(12:56):
threes, the A 320s the Embraer170 to 195 the CRJs, even the
ERJ 135 and 145 and nobody hadsomething like that. So you have
customers now who, whoessentially will have a narrow
body terminal, right? And theycan just go from gate to gate.
And it doesn't matter if it's anERJ 135 you pull up, push it
back. If it's a 757, pull up,push it back. And you're not
(13:20):
searching for tow bars. You'renot trying to figure out what
tractor I need to use, oranything like that. And there's
no new training, becauseobviously, with different size
tractors, sometimes even thattakes different level of
training. So you have abasically the Swiss Army knife
of the regional market.
Matthew Weitzel (13:36):
Man. That's crazy. So talk to me about, I
guess you also, I mean, have youswitched from lead acid to
lithium? Has that taken place,or are you all still sticking
with lead acid?
Unknown (13:46):
Yeah, so we, we offer lithium batteries, both in our
88 and our 89 series tractors.
The majority of the tractors wesell today still are lead acid
at at the choice of ourcustomers, okay, and part of
that is because we pick up thenose of the aircraft, and so we
need a lot of weight in ourtractor. That's what I was
(14:07):
thinking. Yeah, so the lead acidbattery is really a cost
effective way to not only have avery stable, very reliable, long
life power solution, but itgives you the weight you need to
counterbalance the weight of thenose, weight of the aircraft.
Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (14:25):
that makes a lot of sense, but they could get
potentially, a lithium Oh,absolutely. We
Unknown (14:29):
sell a ton of tractors every year to major customers
with lithium batteries. And theonly thing is, lithium, of
course, is a little bit moreexpensive, and you have to add
some more steel ballast to makeup for the weight that you lost
moving away from lead acid, butit's a matter of a little bit of
cost and maybe, yeah, differentinfrastructure, but the
(14:50):
advantages to the customer, ofcourse, is reduced maintenance.
Yeah, a lot of people just seeit as a performance, maybe a
move further into the future. I.
Don't know if I should say it,but personally, I'm still a big
fan of lead acid batteries forour particular application.
Okay, just because I feel likethey are a safe, reliable,
stable source of energy that,again, kill two birds with one
(15:13):
stone. You have the power andyou have the weight. And also,
from an environmentalstandpoint, even, and I don't
know if this is in vogue to say,but lead acid batteries are way
more recyclable. You know, eventhe development of the or the
mining of the minerals that arerequired are not nearly as, you
know,
Matthew Weitzel (15:34):
as lithium.
Yeah,
Jesse Long (15:37):
and nothing against lithium. I mean, where those
customers have a business casefor it and want it. We are able
and are providing lithiumbatteries for sure.
Matthew Weitzel (15:47):
So how long let's say that I'm a commercial
carrier? How many pushes can Ido with the 8900 throughout a
day without recharging?
Unknown (15:56):
Yeah, that's a good question. So I always sort of
issue. A little bit of adisclaimer, there's really a lot
of different factors that impacthow long your battery's going to
last, right? I mean, it's notonly ambient temperature, but
how heavy is the aircraft you'repushing, how far do you want to
push it? Is there any slope onyour ramp? You know, those are
all factors that are going toaffect, for sure, how much drive
(16:16):
time you have on a singlecharge. But I will tell you,
when we first started deliveringto commercial customers. Well,
I'll tell you two stories. Oneis, we had a customer that was
sort of interested in ourproduct, but they were a little
bit skeptical about batterytechnology, and they said, you
know, our hour meter on ourcombustion pushback tractors
(16:38):
turn 14 hours in a 24 hourperiod. How long are your
batteries gonna last? And wesaid, you know, you'll get four
to five hours of drive time outof a single charge. And they
said, Yeah, see that doesn'twork. When, when our hour meters
turn in 14 hours? And we said,Wait a second. You know your
hour meters turning basicallyanytime the combustion engine is
running, but that has nocorrelation to the amount of
(17:00):
time where you're actuallydriving, right? So again, just
in in typical Lektro fashion, wesaid, Let us give you a machine,
put it in your operation and seewhat happens. Yeah, let it prove
itself out. Yeah. And what theyfound is that in that exact same
operation, okay, where acombustion engine is turning 14
hours in a 24 hour period, thehour meter on the on the Lektro
(17:24):
89 only turned three to fourhours. And that just is an
indication of how because youthink about the environmental
friendliness of electricity inthis sort of application, a lot
of times that combustion enginetow tractor, the engine's
running while the passengers areboarding Okay, while you're
waiting for the tower to giveyou clearance to push back or
(17:45):
whatever, whereas the actualtime where the tires are
actually turning is verylimited. It's very limited. And
so how much of the time are thetires actually turning? Well,
it's the three to four hoursthat they found out, and they
said, man, you're right. Thesebatteries are more than capable.
In fact, we started thendelivering in quantity, I mean,
in volumes, as customers startedordering. And there was one
(18:07):
customer where we deliveredmaybe faster than they were
expecting, and the airportinfrastructure wasn't quite in
place, and they said, well,we'll start using these things,
you know. And if the batterydies before the charging
infrastructure is available.
We'll just, you know, pull aconventional tractor back in and
and they started, and it took,it took about a week for the
charges to be up and running bythe airport authority, and they
(18:28):
hadn't charged the tractor yet.
So we're talking a week's worthof airline pushbacks at a major
US airport, and they didn'tcharge. Now, that's not what I
would generally recommend, yeah,just for sake of bad I mean, we
tell people charge every coupledays, even if your batteries
don't need it, just to avoid,you know, you want to cycle your
batteries. But I was encouraged.
I mean, I think that's a hugeanecdotal, you know, sales pitch
(18:50):
anyway, to say, look, thesethings have high, high
endurance, and again, your usageis less than I think a lot of
people perceive.
Matthew Weitzel (19:00):
So with the push, everybody's trying to go
electric. We all know that it'sa it's a huge push. And so talk
to me about, I guess, do you seethe product just completely
blowing up with this, with thispush to electrification, or do
you think people will stillstick to what they know and go
to the conventional pushback,just an electric conventional
pushback? Yeah, that's a
Unknown (19:21):
good question. And we've seen customers kind of go
both ways. A lot of it justdepends on what their
established, you know, inventoryor infrastructure is kind of
built around there are somestate and it can vary even
within a single airline from onebase to another. So it's not
cost effective or reallyjustifiable, a lot of times to
(19:43):
say, well, we're just going tothrow away a bunch of equipment
that we have, tow bars,conventional tractors and all
that. But we do see more andmore airlines maybe saying, hey,
let's make this a full electricbase, or let's make this a full
tow bar list base, becausethey're just trying to manage
and it makes perfect. Fiscalsense, right? Where you're
you're just trying to managetraining resources, you're
(20:05):
trying to manage spare parts,inventory. So I think there will
continue to be a mixture, andit'll keep our business
hopefully from having too manyups and downs where people are
just kind of continuing to makethat gradual transition. There
are some places where maybe atowbar, conventional tractor
sort of application is better.
Matthew Weitzel (20:26):
Okay, so that was the next question I was
gonna ask you. So what casewould it have to be where a
conventional tractor makes moresense, an electric conventional
tractor makes more sense inLektro like, what would have to
be the climate? There notclimate, as far as you know,
actual climate. But, yeah, whatwould have to be, is it
footprint like that sometimeswould stop a customer from
switching to a conventionalthat's
Unknown (20:49):
the biggest thing that I would say, Yeah, is is really,
if you're needing to do longdistance towing, it can be a
challenge Sometimes with anelectric tow, barless tractor,
where generally you have eithera lot of torque for your
pushback operations or you havea lot of speed for your longer
distance. And it can be anengineering challenge, really,
(21:12):
to get both of those things in asingle unit. So sure. So
sometimes what we've seencustomers do is have a
conventional tractor for thelonger distance where they can
just hook up and and blaze and,and they'll use a Lektro
solution for their pushbackoperations.
Matthew Weitzel (21:29):
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. So I had a
customer that we were actuallyit was just 8925 what, BD, or
something like that. Okay. Doyou remember that, that whole
situation? It's a higher speedmodel. It is a higher speed
model, yeah. And you'll, I don'tthink you all made a ton of
these things. And so they wantedto put it into a colder weather
climate, and they didn't thinkit would work. Now, I've heard
(21:53):
that from many different sourcesthat that's not an issue at all,
but I wanted you to, like,address like, I mean, how does
Lektro work in colder climates.
Yeah, so
Unknown (22:01):
there's a couple things I think that people mainly have
in mind. One is the temperatureimpact on the batteries, and the
other is the tractionimplications. Right? I would say
that I think lead acid isprobably a better solution than
even lithium in a cold weatherapplication. Going back to my
lead acid preference, as far asgeneral concerns, though,
(22:23):
related to traction, I guess Iwould put it this way. Let's
just say a commercial operatoris needing to move a 737, the
ballast that's required tosafely operate that tractor in a
low traction environment is, is,you know, significant it goes
up, right? Because, okay, nowI'm not pushing on dry, flat
(22:45):
asphalt anymore, and that allneeds to be taken into account.
But what we've seen over andover again is, is when you
transfer all the nose weight ofthe aircraft, which, in the case
of a 737, or an A 320 can be20,000 pounds or more worth of
weight getting directlytransferred over the drive axle
of our tow vehicle. So now youhave not only the weight of the
(23:07):
vehicle, which is significant,but then you have those 20,000
plus pounds of weight addeddirectly over your drive axle.
Traction is is basically a nonissue. I mean, we see time and
time again our two wheel drivedrive tractors outperforming
four wheel drive conventionaltractors, just because it's an
unfair advantage. You know, wehave all that nose weight being
(23:29):
our friend, essentially, youknow, whereas it's the
competition against aconventional tractor. And
obviously, you know, here atOshkosh Aerotek, we sell both
conventional tractors and wesell toys tractors. And like I
said before, there's validityfor both just in different
operations. And that's whatwe're proud of, is being able to
address the uniqueness of a widevariety of different customer
(23:50):
applications.
Matthew Weitzel (23:51):
All right.
Well, you just said wide so I'mgonna ask you the question, are
we gonna see an Lektro widebody?
Unknown (23:58):
Pushback, yeah, I hope so.
Matthew Weitzel (24:02):
I mean, you brought up the subject, yeah,
yeah. I
Unknown (24:06):
I hope so, yeah, I'm pretty proud. You know, I tell
people a lot of times again, Ididn't go to school for sales, I
didn't go to school for businessor even for aviation, but I
enjoy my job. I love thisindustry, and I love the Lektro
product line. Okay? So nothingwould make me happier than to
see us continue to be able toexpand and make the product line
(24:26):
even more successful. That beingsaid, I do have a little
caution, I guess, about tryingto do everything and then and
end up not doing anything well,and I think that's been one
strong trademark of the Lektroproduct line, up until today,
where, okay, when we do things,we do it right, and we do it
(24:50):
well. And there's even, from abusiness standpoint, you know,
the vast majority, in terms ofquantities of aircraft being
sold today, the vast majorityare under. Body aircraft, and so
we serve that that segment allthe way from the narrow body
airliners down through thetrainer aircraft on in the
general aviation segment. So Ithink we're well well positioned
(25:12):
right now. And you have to kindof ask, okay, are we going to
start playing in a sandbox thatmaybe just isn't our area of
expertise? If we do a wide bodywe'll make sure it's good, and I
certainly hope that day comes Istill know when it'll be Yeah.
Okay,
Matthew Weitzel (25:25):
all right. And then I would like you to kind of
go over what the differencebetween a tow barless tractor
from maybe another provider, howit differs from what you
provide, because I think there'sa definite difference,
especially in the cradlingprocess. And can you just kind
of explain that? And I thinkit's less maintenance with
Lektro I would imagine. Yeah, so
Unknown (25:44):
an emphasis on the Lektro product line from the
very beginning has been tobasically keep the machine
simple, easy to work on, easy tooperate, highly, highly
reliable. And, yeah, I don'tthink it's any secret there have
been and there continue to bemore and more competitors, sort
of envious of, you know, what weoffer, and sort of wanting to
(26:07):
pursue that same, you know,customer base, that same
concept. And it seems like thecompetitive vehicles that come
out just get to look more andmore like what we have. You
know, they're just gettingcloser and closer to building
what we offer. So I guess I feellike where we distinguish
ourselves is being the original.
First of all, where a photocopyis never quite as good. But
(26:29):
beyond that, I think it's theculture of lektro. It's the
culture of, you know, even whenwe were acquired by JB
tierrotech and now being foldedup under the Oshkosh umbrellas,
Oshkosh Aerotek. The culture ofall these organizations, and
this is why I still work forthis company, is because the
culture is build quality andthen support it unquestioningly
(26:53):
100% so that's I couldn't sell.
I don't think I'd be asalesperson if I didn't believe
in the product that I'm selling,and essentially have a product
that sells itself, where I cango to any trade show in the
world and look customers in theface and with clear eyes tell
them we will take care of you ifyour machine ever goes down,
(27:14):
even if it's not. You know, youhave component failures. You
know nobody sees the motormanufacturer when the motor goes
down, you know, it's, it's, it'sLektro whatever, and but, but we
stand behind it, we always have,and I, and I'm pretty proud of
that, so I think that's really abig distinguish. Distinguishing
mark is, buy whatever you want,but I think we'd have a more
(27:38):
robust testing program. I thinkwe hold ourselves to a higher
standard in terms of vehicleperformance, and I think we take
better care of our customers.
Matthew Weitzel (27:47):
Okay, that is not the way that I was thinking
about going, but I'd love it.
And I was wanted to talk aboutthe cradling system, yeah, so
can you No, but I mean, listen,that was, that was amazing, and
you're exactly right. And thoseare all the things that I've
heard. And I'm around Oshkoshall the time. We're recording it
at Oshkosh right now. So, butyeah, talk to me about the
cradling system and how thatdiffers.
Unknown (28:09):
Yeah, so our system is a little bit different in that
most tow barless tractors,especially in the commercial
airline segment, actually clamponto the tires rather than just
pulling the nose gear onto moreof a shovel or a cradle or scoop
at the capture end of thevehicle. And that is a big
(28:30):
differentiator, just because ofthe simplicity in terms of
maintenance. You know, there's alot fewer sensors. There's a lot
fewer, well,
Matthew Weitzel (28:38):
there's just so many more things that could not
go wrong Exactly, and
Unknown (28:41):
that's what you see, where you have all these
clamping arms and brackets andmechanisms where one thing
throws an error, even if it's aloose connection and it's not
really an error, it will stop acompetitive tractor and lead to
delays for the customer. And inan airline application, that's a
big deal.
Matthew Weitzel (28:59):
It is a big deal. It makes it so you kind of
feel like you do have to havethat conventional sitting around
just in case. Yeah.
Unknown (29:05):
So, so the reliability and the simplicity and the
universality, you know? I mean,if you talk in the general
aviation segment now, having acradle like ours, where you can
put a single nose wheel, a smallLear jet or citation on the
exact same cradle where you puta Boeing 737, that's definitely
unique.
Matthew Weitzel (29:24):
That is unique, yeah, for sure, yeah. Okay,
well, thanks for covering thatwith me. So, all right, I think
it's time. So why don't you andthen we'll kind of, we'll kind
of dive into more, into moreLektro stuff. But why don't you
dive into a story that you haveabout the industry? Yeah?
Unknown (29:43):
That's a good question.
The one story that comes tomind, and I don't know if this
is where you wanted me to go,necessarily, but it can go
anywhere. Okay, so you know,okay, I guess I'll go back to
Lektro history, maybe a littlebit. And just because this is
really intriguing to me, back.
In the 40s, 50s, whatever. Onthe north coast of Oregon, there
(30:05):
was actually some mink industry.
And this is just an example ofkind of where Lektro came from.
Okay, so these mink farmers hadcome to Eric Paulson's father
wilt, who owned and ran thecompany at the time, and said,
you know, as they're trying tojust increase profitability,
they would build these stackedcages. And then they had come up
with kind of a tractor thatwould drive down the rows of
(30:27):
mink cages with conveyor beltsto drop the feed into the
troughs for these mink as so youcan just do mass breeding, mass
feeding, you know, all thatstuff. And again, just maximize
profitability. Well, whathappened was the vehicle that
they originally developed was acombustion engine tractor that
would sort of tow this apparatusdown the row and drop feed with
(30:50):
conveyor belts into the minkcages. But the noise of this
combustion engine drivingthrough these barns and the feed
houses or whatever, just freakedthe animals out so much that
they were actually eating theiryoung. Which whole was
counterproductive, right totheir whole business? Yeah, I
think so. So that was when theycame to wilt and said, Look, we
(31:13):
need a nice, quiet, electricsolution to be able to drive. So
he made a mink feeder, okay,which had this conveyor belt
system would drop feed intothese cages as it drove down
these rows, nice and quiet.
Super innovative, you know, metthe customer's needs and all
that. But then you have to ask,okay, when you look at it now,
(31:35):
from a business perspective, howmany mink farms are there right
in the world, not just in thestate of Oregon, you know. And
so, okay, we have this greatproduct, not much to do with it.
Well, when, when wilt wasapproached, then in 1966 67 for
an aircraft tow tractor, theytook the mink feeder and they
just turned it around, put ashovel on the front of it, and
(31:57):
that was the first airporterthat they ever built in 1967 so
I love that story, just becauseI think of the innovation of
sort of the unconventional rootsof all this stuff, and really
what it's led to today, not onlyin terms of the amazing
footprint that the Lektroproduct line has around the
world, but that now there's evencompanies trying to copycat or
(32:20):
mimic what we do. And I thinkthat's pretty, pretty
remarkable.
Matthew Weitzel (32:24):
That is a great story. Yeah, I didn't think it
was going to go in the minkdirection before you started the
story, but it did so. So talk tome about then, I guess, JBT, and
then Oshkosh and and, you know,you all being acquired by JBT,
and then eventually Oshkoshacquiring JBT. And, yeah, that's
kind of changed lektro for thegood, I
Unknown (32:46):
guess, yeah, absolutely no. And obviously, I mean, you
go through acquisitions likethat, and I think there's, it's,
it's natural to have someapprehensions. Not really know
where are things going. But itreally couldn't be better on on
both fronts, in, in my humbleopinion, I mean, as a personal
friend of of Eric's, actually, Iwas with him all last week in
(33:07):
Palm Springs, just on vacation.
And so we're still, we stillkeep in touch. But I guess what
makes me so happy is to see himbe so successful and allow him
now to have a break afterliteral like, five decades, he
was running this company sevendays a week, and now, I guess I
I just consider it our, or my,maybe responsibility, to
maintain that legacy of customerfirst and building quality
(33:30):
equipment and really justgrowing growing the business. So
that's what was encouraging tome when, when we were then
acquired by JBT. You know, youhave these different
apprehensions, but then you seethat really their culture of
taking care of the customer, ofdoing the right thing, you know,
having integrity, buildingquality equipment, all of those
(33:52):
things, just on a larger scale.
Yeah, right. So then, you know,you fasted that that acquisition
happened. 2019 allowed Eric toretire, so those of us that he
left behind, you know, were kindof increasing our responsibility
trying to keep this thing going.
It was so providential, though Italked about the benefits of
just the culture or the thesynergy of cultures, you know,
(34:16):
that were melded at that point,but really, it was providential
in terms of timing too, withcovid happening, and it would
have been a nightmare as aprivately held company to
Navigate covid. Oh, right, sure.
So the the sale happened in 2019Eric stayed on board for a year,
(34:37):
and his last day was March 30 of2020, which is almost a date
that will live in infamy for allof us, right, just because that
was when things really startedshutting down, major, major
impact due to covid. But to havea corporation, a major
corporation, behind us, to allowus to sort of navigate that, to
know where we had to make cutsor where just financial. Be able
(35:01):
to navigate those rough waters,was providential. But I think I
can say now, maybe with JBTprimarily being a food
processing equipment company,you know, the match maybe wasn't
perfect. It was in terms of usbeing a part of Aerotech, but
yeah, for sure. Now Aerotech,you know, just needed a company
behind them that was interestedin additional growth and
(35:24):
development, and so now theentire Aerotech group having
been acquired by OshkoshCorporation, in all honesty, I
could not be more excited. Ijust think it will continue to
grow and refine not only who weare, but the products that we
offer, and it's remarkable. Imean, when you sit in some of
(35:44):
these transition meetings, thethings that Aerotech as a as a
group are looking to expandinto, or, you know, to improve,
things like automation, thingslike telematics, things like
alternative fuels, those are allthe same things that now our
parent company are alsointerested in Oshkosh. Every
(36:07):
every product line they have isa highly engineered, purpose
built piece of equipment for atough job intro in a variety of
industries. Yeah, and it's whatAerotech does. It's what Lektro
does. And I just think the fitis remarkable. We already are
(36:27):
seeing the benefits of thesynergies, and it's it's only
going to increase as we get moreintegrated with with Oshkosh, as
Oshkosh Aerotek. So I'm excited.
Yeah,
Matthew Weitzel (36:39):
you should be.
It seems like a spectacularcompany that you'll now get to
be a part of and reap all thebenefits. So What haven't we
covered? Yeah, well, I
Unknown (36:49):
guess I I think we've talked a lot about Lektro I'll
say, thanks for having me. I'vehonored by every chance I've had
to work with exceed. You guyshave leased some of our
equipment out, even specific tothe Lektro product line. Oh, for
sure. Yeah. And yeah, I'mexcited to see how we can grow.
I mean, I guess maybe I shouldbe asking you, How do you think
(37:13):
we can help exceeds businessexpand? What's, what's your
visions for the future? And Iguess I just appreciate the
partnership. Yeah, well, that wehave and look forward. But
first, let
Matthew Weitzel (37:21):
me say that I'm a big fan of Lektro. I believe
that there's going to be a lotof growth in this sector,
especially with the with theconversion to electric. I feel
like people are going to almoststart moving away from the
conventional electric pushbackand kind of going into the
Lektro product line. And I thinkthat's going to be really
interesting for you all. I thinkwe want to be a part of that.
(37:43):
Exceed has really invested inelectric, in the in because we
see, we see what's going on inthe industry. So we're already
starting to buy electric Cfifteens. You know, we're buying
the electric B 80 from fromOshkosh now. And we need to
start buying some Lektros andgetting those out into the out
into the world. And, you know,it's a great, it'd be a great
(38:05):
product for people to try, ifthey haven't tried it yet. So
then we can, you know, offerthem rentals and leases on that
to see how it works. And thenthose people that are worried
about the weather conditions andall these different things that
we talked about proving it, youknow firsthand that obviously it
can do it right, and kind ofgetting that, that product out
there, because it is, I mean, italso is a heck of a lot less
(38:28):
maintenance, because there'sjust so many less moving parts
exactly right with Lektro thanthere would be in a conventional
pushback. So I think thatthere's, you all have a lot of
advantages right now, and then,you know, with the power of
Oshkosh behind you as well inthe level of service. And I'm
sure parts are easier to get.
And I mean, everything's got tobe better now that you're owned
by such a large entity that isfocused on service. So So
(38:50):
anyway, again, believe in theproduct, and I think it's great.
And yeah, we do. We do have someout in the field. We just don't
have enough, and we need to beordering some. And speaking of
which, what is your lead timenow? Because I've heard some
things, and I want to make sure,like, I mean, because it
Unknown (39:08):
seems like you all are very busy, yeah, no, we have, we
have a very, very healthybacklog, I will say that. But we
have been working for the lastyear, plus, really, to not only
increase capacity, but to putmore pressure on our suppliers,
to increase what and Oshkosh hashelped with that, you know, I
mean, where, oh, I may be asmall fish. They use a lot of
(39:28):
the same suppliers, and so to beable to turn up the heat on
those people as now, being partof Oshkosh has been a big help,
yeah, so we've heard about that,yeah. And we've seen our lead
times cut in half, in some casesnow, yeah, because the Oshkosh
comes knocking on the door, allof a sudden the lead times on
parts get a little bit shorter.
Yeah, we get a little bit higherpriority. Yeah, yeah. I used to
(39:49):
be in purchasing. I know alittle bit about that, yeah,
yeah. You got to take care ofyour big customers, no. So even,
even our throughput, I mean,it's, it's getting faster, lead
times are definitely coming.
Down significantly lead times,depending on the on the specific
model that a customer needs, isanywhere from three to 10
(40:09):
months. And we're really justtrying to be smart about it.
Build some generic spec modelshere and there. Okay, some white
tails and stuff like that. Yeah.
And it's really where, you know,some of our customers, or
partners like Xcēd, come intoplay. You know, when we can
refer them to, okay, yourtractor might not be ready for
eight months, but we know peoplewho have some and use this one
(40:29):
until you get the next one. AndI think it's real critical too,
as we partner with companieslike Xcēd, you know, we have a
unit that's on its way toLouisville for the derby right
now. Oh, you know, there's allsorts of events like that,
whether it's the masters or theDerby, or f1 or whatever else
where there's money to be made,I think, and and Super Bowl, I
(40:49):
guess, would be another one, butin any case, yeah, I'm just
excited. It's fun industry.
There's a lot of diversity, alot of interesting
opportunities. You get to meetgreat people. And there's really
not anybody in the industry thatdoesn't seem to love the smell
of avgas, you know, and love jetfuel, yeah. So it's fun.
Matthew Weitzel (41:10):
So are you going to be at the GHI America
show in Toronto? I'm
Unknown (41:15):
not currently planning to be there. I will be in Lisbon
for the GSE Expo.
Matthew Weitzel (41:18):
Okay, are you all going to bring product to
the GSE Europe, absolutely.
Unknown (41:22):
Yeah, we'll have a number of different products.
Our new Lektro 88 i By the way,
Matthew Weitzel (41:28):
so tell me about, can we? Can we talk
about, I guess that's the thing
Unknown (41:31):
we haven't spent a lot of time talking about, is new
product development. Segue,yeah, I mentioned just our
desire to build products thatwere simple and reliable. But
what happens is, as technologymoves forward, we want to take
those advancements and and it'salways the challenge of of
finding the balance. Do you doyou keep yourself at the cutting
(41:53):
edge of technology and thenrisk, you know, having some some
issues here and there out in thefield? Or do you kind of hold
back a little bit and make surethat new technologies are really
mature, so that you'reproviding, when you do launch
those new products, you'rereally providing a more
reliable, mature type oftechnology that makes sense
product. So I feel like we'vestruck a healthy balance in
(42:16):
those regards, and JBT and nowOshkosh, I think have the same
approach. You can't afford to doa bunch of R and D with a
scheduled airline at the gate.
Okay? Reliability is very, veryimportant. So we're now at the
point where we're saying, and itstarted when we were acquired by
by JBT, and now it's continuingfull speed ahead, with the
(42:37):
refinement of our differentproduct lines to say, where
should we be integrating PLCs?
Where can we transition from DCdrive motors to more efficient
AC drive motors, lithiumbatteries? You know, what can we
do in terms of integratingtelematics and autonomy and
things like that? So that's whatis wrapped up in the L 88 or the
(43:01):
Lektro88 model, and the Lektro89 Lektro 88 i is what we're
referring to it as, and then theLektro 89 I basically
maintaining the same aircraftcapacity. So it's really a
direct replacement for customerswho have bought our older 8850s
or 8950s but just theenhancements in terms of
(43:23):
technology and user friendlymaintainer friendly features is
remarkable. We're reallyexcited. So we're going to have
an 88 i at the GSE Expo inLisbon later this year, and look
to get the 89 I through sometesting, and hopefully for a
launch in in 2025, so real, realexciting.
Matthew Weitzel (43:45):
So Will those come with IOPS? Yeah,
Unknown (43:48):
so they'll have telemetry basically as a
standard, standard feature.
Matthew Weitzel (43:52):
Right now, I'm sorry to interrupt you. So right
now, can you get IOPS on, on anyLektro that you get, or is that?
Yeah,
Unknown (44:00):
it's available to a limited extent, only because the
amount of information that youcan pull off of a relay
technology type vehicle is reallimited. So it's really
something that's more being
Matthew Weitzel (44:16):
models, okay, all right, gotcha, yeah, well,
that'll be, that'll be a lot offun for people that get to go to
the show and be able to checkout the ADA die for sure,
absolutely, yeah, right, yeah.
We're excited. And then theseunits, can you get cabs on
Lektros?
Unknown (44:33):
Yeah? So we've had some customers put their own cabs on
and cabs aren't real friendlyfor our stand up models, just
the dynamics, okay, but yeah,all of our sit down tractors,
both the 88 as well as the 89have had cabs available for
years and years, okay, yeah, andagain, more and more customers
are buying them. Of course, youknow, as you get in cold
(44:54):
weather, climates move over toEurope, they're more used to
some of those situations. Ofcourse. And I don't want to
inappropriately keep kind ofdiverting to the general
aviation segment, but with thatbeing one of my major areas of
responsibility, you know, whenyou think of in Hangar
maneuvering and tight operationareas, some people actually see
(45:14):
the cab as a disadvantage, youknow, just because aircraft
strike may be more likely andthings like that. Yeah, and on
some of the large business jets,the Global Express aircraft and
golf streams when you disconnectthe torque links, which you do
when you're towing that nosegear, and I don't know if people
know, has literally 360 degreeradial freedom. So we can
(45:36):
capture that nose gear, spin ourtractor all the way around and
basically push the aircraft intothe hangar sitting below the
fuselage, if you can picturethat. And so in terms of really
maximizing the space in ahanger, I mean, you just think
about being able to push thenose of your aircraft with
literally zero protrusion fromthe tow bar or the tow tractor
(45:56):
in front of the aircraft, andyou can push the nose of the
aircraft right into the cornerof the hangar. And we've had
some customers say, man, I'vealready paid for my Lektro unit
because I can fit one moreaircraft in my hangar than I
could before, and hang Ridge,especially in harsh climate
environments, whether it be coldweather or hot weather, is gold
(46:17):
for some of these operators. So
Matthew Weitzel (46:19):
yeah, I had a small FBO basically say the
exact same thing to me. Theyended up leasing Lektro from us
for their small little, youknow, FBO and and they had the
same thing where they they, theywere using some old Clark
tractor just to get it into thehangar. But then they realized,
like, how much they're wastingas far as space goes. Because,
like, to your point, Lektro can,you know, fit it on a dime?
(46:42):
Yeah, yeah.
Unknown (46:43):
It's very maneuverable.
And even being able to then getthe tractor out, you know,
people can drive under the wingsand whatever else, which, again,
just going down the road of thecabs, like you asked. I mean,
people see that as maybe lessthan ideal for that sort of
application, but we certainlyoffer it for the applications
where people are doingexclusive, you know, pushback or
longer distance towingoperations. So, yeah, I
(47:05):
appreciate the question, yeah,all right, what
Matthew Weitzel (47:09):
else do we have?
Unknown (47:10):
I think we covered it.
I'm, I'm excited. I'm excitedto, hopefully I'll probably see
you in in Lisbon, I
Matthew Weitzel (47:15):
suppose. Huh?
We Well, we're trying to figurethat out at the moment, so
whether Xcēd will be there. Sowe'll have to, we'll have to
wait and see. I have not, notsigned any paperwork yet, but I
hope to be there. And then we'regoing to be doing a podcast
about the upcoming GHIconference in Toronto. And then
we're going to also be doing oneabout about the GSE Europe show,
just kind of previews and stufflike that
Unknown (47:37):
well. And we will definitely have people at GHI.
It just won't be me personally,probably. So, so you'll, you'll
see Oshkosh Aerotek peoplethere, for sure. Yeah, we're
Matthew Weitzel (47:45):
gonna have Josh Parkin from Oshkosh on stage.
We're doing a live panel the GHIAmerica show about
electrification in the industry.
So I'm sure Lektro will bebrought up during that
discussion. For sure. Yeah,excellent. Yeah. So, and then
we're gonna have some, you know,just people talking about just
infrastructure in general, asfar as, like, at the airports.
And then we're gonna have some,you know, talking about
(48:06):
chargers. And we're gonna try tocover the whole, the whole thing
on stage, so we'll see. Oh,that'll be fun. Yeah, excellent,
yeah. But I appreciate the timetoday, and I'm so glad that you
could come on. I've wanted totalk to you for a really long
time. Glad that you were able tocome down to Orlando, so that
way I didn't have to go thewhole way to Warren No, happy
Unknown (48:25):
to be here. But listen, you need to make a trip to
Warrenton one of these days, andwe'd look forward to hosting
Matthew Weitzel (48:29):
you. I do, I do. I want to come see the
facility, and it would be, itwould be a great time. So y'all
to take me out to some of yourfavorite local spots there. Yep,
awesome. Well, thank you somuch. I appreciate it. All
right. Thanks. Bye. You. Music.
Thank you for tuning in to thisepisode of the GSE podcast. We
hope you found it informativeand engaging. If this episode
resonated with you, please shareit with your colleagues and
(48:52):
peers in the ground supportequipment community. Your
support is invaluable to us.
We'd appreciate it if you couldtake a moment to rate and review
our podcast. Your feedback notonly encourages us, but also
helps expand our reach withinthe GSE community. Keep an eye
out for more episodes as wecontinue to explore the dynamic
world of ground operations.
Bring you the latest trends,insights and stories from the
(49:14):
industry. Thank you forlistening to the GSE podcast
until we meet again, staygrounded and keep pushing
forward. You.
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