Article by DK Knight
Executive Editor/Co-Publisher
Much like a New Yorker named Trump, the transportation sector of the wood fiber supply chain has received lots of attention of late. Moving wood fiber safely and effectively from forest to market has never been a cinch, but it has evolved into a monumental challenge, the degree of which varies from one region to another, and even within a given region.
How did the trucking sector get from there to here? It’s a long story that has many parts, actors, and cfontributors. Reflecting on developments over the last 50 years, here are some things that come to mind…
Haul distances are longer, thanks to changing market dynamics that, despite some new plants for established and new generation products, resulted in downsized or shut facilities. Other factors included less reliance on railroads, elimination of most satellite wood yards and some chip mills, industry consolidation, and restrictions on local roads and bridges. One-way hauls of 100 miles are now considered routine; longer ones not that unusual.
Add extra highway traffic of all kinds. According to info found on statista.com, as of 2014 the number of cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles and other vehicles registered in the U.S. was about 260 million, a number now distant in the rear view mirror.
Factor in the motoring public’s growing habit of distracted driving—texting, talking, game playing, eating, putting on makeup, pulling off or putting on clothing, riding with a pet up front, whatever—that leads to more mishaps.
Another impact can be credited to increasing federal regulations, two prime examples being the mandatory CDL requirement and the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) initiative of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Overall, regulations have enhanced commercial vehicle safety and accountability, but enforcement by some state authorities can be inequitable and/or excessive, leading to unreasonable, costly delays. Although not new but certainly outdated, another ‘reg neg’ is that, with few exceptions, the legal GWV allowed on interstates is 80,000 lbs. All states with a viable forest industry allow log truck GVWs that exceed 80,000 lbs., even on local secondary roads. This restriction often forces drivers to take more dangerous and congested routes that require more fuel and time and result in greater wear and tear for drivers, rigs and roads.
Moreover, loggers and log truckers are guilty of making the mud deeper. Many pay drivers by the load, a practice that can encourage speeding and/or other reckless acts. Confronted with a shrinking pool of candidates, truck owners at times take chances with suspect drivers, perhaps foregoing a drug test at the outset and later waving off such random testing. Too many fail in adequately training recruits, requiring refresher training for experienced drivers, formulating official driver policy, or schooling drivers in what they expect of them. Over the years many have successively cultivated a harvesting-based safety culture but unfortunately have not extended it to trucking.
Often a puzzle in all this is the contract trucker, who can perform admirably, appallingly, or somewhere in between. Some are conscientious, trustworthy and loyal; some are not, and thus compound the dilemma.
Wood consuming entities likewise contribute to the complexity. They instigate quotas and/or unload trucks in a slow motion manner. Either step can tempt drivers to drive recklessly or loggers to overload trailers to offset related lost income opportunities. Also, procurement personnel have been known to habitually single out lower tier trucking entities, dictating very marginal rates, knowing they typically will be accepted and by extension applicable to upper tier entities that perform at a higher level.
Quotas, which have been the norm in many places for more than a year now, have another downside in that they may move some loggers to overload. Not long ago I received a report from a credible source that a few loggers were routinely sending rigs weighing around 100,000 lbs. to a certain Mid-Atlantic coast mill whose scale house personnel evidently accepted them without so much as a grunt. The legal state GVW for log trucks at that location is 90,000 lbs. If flagrant overloading has become the new normal, even in an isolated case, it’s a very disturbing development in that it flies in the face of accountability and professionalism and only heightens risk.
Elevated operating costs figure into the equation. New and used trucks and trailers are expensive, as is keeping them roadworthy. Although fuel costs have ebbed from historic highs, they are still relatively high, and insurance costs have recently soared for many.
Local governments compound the issue by restricting weights on select roads and bridges and placing certain routes off-limits to log trucks.
Our litigious society, one overpopulated with zealous trial lawyers who pour big bucks into advertising efforts, is part of the problem. These lawyers know that insurance companies tend to settle accident-related lawsuits, regardless of who may be at fault, because settlements are less costly than drawn-out jury trials.
The insurance industry has aggravated the situation. Over time many carriers got into the log/chip transportation segment of the commercial auto game, sensing it could be lucrative, but some did so with little to no knowledge of the segment. Without performing much due diligence, they offered low-ball rates that they could not sustain, and this created a constant turnover of carriers. Today there aren’t many log truck insurers, their rates are relatively high, as are losses for most, and their governance is rather stringent.
All this begs the question: What of trucking’s future? It won’t get any better until all parties involved climb in the cab to drive change. As Trump is fond of saying, “Believe it.”