TECHNICAL RELEASE 12-R-2
Trucks/Trucking: Unloading February 2012
FIG.1: Drop yard helps truckers move loads during off-peak hours and deliver more loads overall. INTRODUCTION: Some forest product mills have provided a drop yard for log and chip trailers. The wood fiber haulers who use it are able to deliver more loads in a day, because they do not have to unload during peak (daytime) delivery times or when unforeseen delays arise at a woodyard.GENERAL FEATURES: Most paper mills already provide drop yards for paper product haulers; sometimes they have other space available to designate as a drop yard for log or chip trailers.
OPERATION: Wood suppliers who use the drop yard leave at least one extra, empty trailer at the yard, so the trucker arriving with a load can leave with the empty one when he unhooks from his loaded trailer. One company has turned part of their contractor parking lot into a drop yard.
APPLICATION: One large trucking business leaves multiple trailers at drop yard. The owner commented that this yard helps his business to remain productive and profitable. He hauls many loads to the pulp mill (or a sawmill located nearby) during the day, but his drivers unhook most loads during the peak daytime delivery hours and leave them at the drop yard, rather than moving into the line at the scalehouse to be unloaded. During the nighttime hours or early in the morning, a trucker comes to the drop yard and delivers the loaded trailers to the mill, when there are no delivery lines. This trucking business owner says that, not only has his weekly production increased since he began using the drop yard, but he can now haul more wood to the mills with fewer trucks.
SPECIFICATIONS AND COST: The only cost to the mill is that of any grading or maintenance required to make a drop yard serviceable initially. Wood haulers using the yard must invest in extra trailers and must be able to justify the increased trailer inventory (and handling/switching) cost by the improved load counts and improved net revenue. Rick Meyer Appalachian/Southwide Region Manager