By Tom Kelly
Editor and Publisher

In a move that has North Louisiana independent logging contractors on edge about their future, Weyerhaeuser Company has announced a planned move to a "contract dispatch trucking system" for log delivery to its manufacturing plants in the region.

The company statement, issued publicly for the first time in late May, says : "Weyerhaeuser Company's North Louisiana timberlands region is transitioning to a contract dispatch trucking system for delivery of logs and raw materials to manufacturing sites throughout north Louisiana. The dispatch trucking system will gradually be implemented to help save on fuel and other transportation costs.

"Weyerhaeuser currently contracts with approximately 190 log and raw material trucks in North Louisiana and South Arkansas. Implementation of the dispatch system will begin during the August-September timeframe with approximately 20 trucks. Many of the initial dispatch trucks will go toward filling existing demand in the system. Additional trucks will be added during 2007 on a gradual basis.

"Weyerhaeuser officials are communicating with logging contractors in North Louisiana about the transition. Weyerhaeuser's Mississippi-Louisiana and Arkansas-Oklahoma timberlands regions already use the dispatch system, which aims at efficient coordination of log truck routes and deliveries."

Officially, the Company did not provide other details, but persons close to the situation, and logging contractors who have been informed of the plan, said the dispatch trucking system will be operated by Murphy Bros. Trucking of Arcadia, Louisiana. The contract trucker will begin with 20 log trucks, and gradually add to its fleet as the dispatch system matures.

Under the dispatch plan, independent logging contractors will continue cutting trees on company owned timberlands, or on timber purchased from individual owners, and be paid according to a formula based on tonnage cut, average costs of operation, and other factors. Units from the contract trucker fleet will be dispatched to load and haul the logs or other timber to the appropriate mill. During the transition to full contract dispatch hauling, independent loggers and truckers may continue to haul, but operators are not sure how long and to what extent their own trucking fleets will continue to operate.

One area contractor said he and others are taking a wait-and-see approach to the new system. "If the money is there, I'll stay. If not, I'll be shutting down."

Weyerhaeuser Company has about 2,000 employees in Lousiana and manages more than one million acres of timberland in the state. Weyerhaeuser's Louisiana operations include the Red River linerboard plant at Campti, a particleboard mill at Simsboro, iLevel operations including Dodson and Zwolle plywood and lumber, Taylor lumber, Arcadia Structurwood, Trus Joist operations at Natchitoches and Simsboro, and Holden Lumber, plus packaging operation at Shreveport, Tree Improvement Centers at Isabel and Taylor, and timberlands offices at Taylor, Natchitoches, Livingston, Bogalusa, and Dodson.

To date, no other forestland manager or manufacturer has announced a similar contract dispatch hauling system.

Among other major public and private forest products companies in the region is Plum Creek Timber Company, a national forestland owner which owns and manages forest lands in Louisiana and nationwide, manages logging and sells timber to several manufacturers, including West Fraser South at Joyce and Huttig, Arkansas. International Paper maintains manufacturing plants at Bastrop, Pineville, and Mansfield, Louisiana, with logging operations on its forestlands in the process of being sold to Resource Management Systems (RMS) of Atlanta, Georgia. Smurfit-Stone operates a major kraft paper mill at Hodge, Louisiana, and buys wood from various suppliers. PBS Lumber in Winnfield is a privately-owned lumber manufacturer with other branches in Texas and Arkansas. Roy O. Martin enterprises based in Alexandria, is the largest family-owned forestland and forest products manufacturer in the region. Anthony Forest Products of El Dorado, Arkansas, owns forest lands in Louisiana and Arkansas. Almond Brothers of Coushatta operates a specialized lumber manufacturing plant producing high-grade Southern Yellow Pine for furniture and construction. Graphics Packaging, Inc., based in Atlanta, operates a major kraft mill at West Monroe.

Several chip mills operate in the area, including Martin Forest Products of Winnfield, the Brewton company in Hodge, and others.

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