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WSRI LEADS MAJOR LOG TRUCKING EFFICIENCY PILOTRELEASE: November 27, 2006
CONTACT: Neil Ward (301/838-9385) Rockville, MD – The Wood Supply Research Institute is launching a major pilot project in two Southern states to develop and evaluate centralized log truck dispatching systems, as well as the latest technology and methodology, as a model for increased wood fiber hauling efficiency. “Increasing percent-loaded miles and optimizing trucking resources is a priority for improving the wood supply chain’s operational efficiency,” commented WSRI Executive Director Jim Fendig. “WSRI has decided to build and implement a new wood fiber transportation model on an operational scale, as the best way to learn and fine-tune systems that work. This will be applied research at its best.”
WSRI will establish the
two pilots in Alabama and South Carolina, in consultation with logging
associations in both states. The Alabama and South Carolina Projects will each entail developing a hauling network to enable a single, centrally dispatched trucking fleet to serve the fiber-hauling needs of dozens of independent contractors and several different mill organizations within a geographic nucleus. Ford estimates that each state’s pilot project would start with 15 to 25 trucks, but that those fleets might grow to as large as 100 by the end of 2007. In the case of the Alabama pilot, WSRI has identified as many as seven different mill organizations that could potentially all participate. Ford estimates that detailed operating plans for each pilot project will be in place by June 2007, with actual hauling operations to begin in August. The WSRI Technical Team will put out progress reports every three months, with a final report published by the end of 2008. WSRI membership is a requirement for participating in the study. Any organization interested in joining WSRI or participating should contact Executive Director Jim Fendig at 912/598-8023. Forest Resources Association President Richard Lewis stated that optimization of trucking resources is one of the points at which international competitors have the U.S. supply chain at a disadvantage. “We must match or surpass the innovative and efficient wood transport systems we see overseas,” he commented, “or lose our place as the world’s leading forest products industry.” Founded in 1999, the Wood Supply Research Institute is a joint project of professional loggers, forest landowners, wood consuming mills, educators, and manufacturers that facilitates and funds research to promote and improve efficiency in the wood supply system.
The Forest Resources
Association Inc. is a nonprofit trade association concerned with the
safe, efficient, and sustainable harvest of forest products and their
transport from woods to mill. FRA represents wood consumers, independent
logging contractors, and wood dealers, as well as businesses providing
products and services to the forest resource-based industries. FRA serves
as the administrative home of WSRI. Forest Resources Association
Inc. (FRA) |
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