By James Ronald Skains
Journal Correspondent

"Our primary goal in changing our trucking setup is to not only help Weyerhaeuser's mills stay competitive in the forest products industry," Weyerhaeuser North Louisiana Harvesting Manager Mike Branch told the Piney Woods Journal. "With some mills in South Arkansas currently taking production downtime, we obviously need to be as efficient as possible to ensure that our mills remain open and sustain jobs that are vital to our local communities."

"Dispatch trucking will also take a real burden off many of our loggers who want to focus on harvesting instead of dealing with employment, DOT, and liability issues," Branch explained. "We implemented dispatch trucking on a voluntary basis beginning August 14, and feedback so far has been positive. One of our loggers saw his production increase from 16 to 24 loads the first week.''

"After some initial concerns, most of our loggers have warmed up to the idea," Branch noted. "While we are encouraging loggers to participate, it is their decision whether or not to participate, and at what level to do so.''

"If a logger wants to keep sending all his logs to the mill on his own trucks, that is his choice as long as he can remain competitive from a cost standpoint," Branch pointed out. But most of them are starting to recognize the efficiency, productivity, and financial opportunities that dispatch trucking will offer."

"At the mill or in the set, there will be no preferential treatment given to the Dispatch trucks. It will still be first in, first loaded or unloaded," Branch explained to the Journal.

"Dispatch trucking has worked well throughout the Weyerhaeuser system. It started on the west Coast and has now become standard procedure throughout most of the company operations," Branch pointed out.

"In southeast Louisiana, two years ago, we started out with six contract trucks and now we have 60 in that area,'' Branch added. "In southwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, a dispatch operation is now in place as well. we started out with 20 trucks and now have a total of a 120 in the system."

"The typical situation on a logging job is that the logger has either not enough trucks or too many trucks at one time," Branch noted.

"This is inefficient not only for the logger but also for Weyerhaeuser."

"When the logger has logs ready to go to the mill and no trucks available, he can call the Dispatcher and a Dispatch truck will be sent to the logger's job," Branch said in elaborating on the new trucking strategy. "Each Dispatch truck will have a GPS system so that we will know where the truck is at all times, thus aiding the dispatcher in deciding where to send the truck next."

"If a Dispatch truck leaves a logging site for a mill, he probably won't come back to that site immediately as we will try to cut down on empty time by making use of back hauls," Branch said in explaining the nuts and bolts of how the Dispatch truck system ifs to work. Once a truck arrives on the logging job, the logger then decides which mill the truck should haul that particular load of logs to," Branch, a 1987 Louisiana Tech Forestry School graduate pointed out.

"Just because a load of logs is grown and harvested in Winn or Jackson Parish does not mean that it will necessarily go to the Dodson mill. Also, a Dispatch truck may pick up a load in one part of the parish, carry it to Dodson, then go to another logging site close by and pick up a load and carry them to the mill in Taylor."

"Once the load of logs leaves the loggers set, both the cost of getting the load to the mill and the liability associated with it are no longer of concern to the logging contractor."

Murphy Brothers Trucking, headquartered in Arcadia was selected by Weyerhaeuser to implement the contract trucking concept in North Louisiana. Randal Murphy told the Journal. "We are strictly in the trucking business, not the logging business. It's hard enough to be injust one business, so I know it is tough to be in two businesses at the same time."

"It will be a win-win situation for both our logging contractors and Weyerhaeuser over a period of time,'' Branch elaborated. "Once our logging contractors get accustomed to the concept, they will greatly appreciate not having to buy expensive on the road diesel and the liability insurance for their trucks."

For years in the piney woods of north, central, southwest and southeast Louisiana, logging contractors for the most part have been identified by their names or colors on their log trucks. At first glance after this program goes into effect, it may seem that the logging force has shrunk in Louisiana due to not seeing as many different names on logging trucks.

However, in actuality, the logging force may increase slightly due to opportunities for the Weyerhaeuser loggers to cut and bunch more logs and wood each day. Also, the cost for a potential Weyerhaeuser logger to get into the business may decrease considerably due not having to initially buy log trucks to handle their logs.

Another factor is the initial price differential between trucks. Some trucks cost several thousand dollars less than other trucks but both can basically get a load of logs from a logging set to a mill.

"All I know for sure at this point," Randal Murphy pointed out, "is that we are buying 20 new Mack trucks and hiring qualified drivers for those trucks. We are also ready to handle the additional paperwork associated with DOTD and the Federal Motor Carrier regulations."

Several logging contractors in the Piney Woods in recent years have run afoul of DOTD and Federal Motor Carrier regulations with their trucks that have resulted in large fines. Moving violations are just a small part of ever changing trucking regulations that face the logger.

Some loggers have had to add office staff just to keep up with Federal and State Motor Carrier regulations. Another major concern for loggers with their own trucks has been road side inspections and weight violations. Typically, if a logger has one of his trucks pulled over for an inspection or weight check, the contractor losses a load of logs of production for that day.

"Many logging contractors have found that the Weyerhaeuser Dispatch Truck system allows them to sell or not replace their trucks as they age," Branch noted. "Usually, logging contractors taking advantage of our Dispatch Trucking system only need a couple of trucks for moving equipment from one job to the next."

"Dispatch Trucking has proven in other areas of Weyerhaeuser operations to lower our the raw material cost to our mills,'' Branch noted.

"Even lowering our cost per ton just a little, makes an appreciable difference to a mill's bottom line at the end of the year and may be the difference in the employment of many of our friends and neighbors.''

"I think that loggers who take advantage of our Dispatch Trucking system will also see an increase in their bottom line at the end of the year, Branch concluded.

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