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Love Me Tender

A victim of the heavy rains over the last 6 months. It took Masakhane Forestry 4 days to recover this MAN. A heavy duty tow truck got stuck trying to right it so the Chandler brothers used two 4x4 skidders and 150 metres of cable to do the job.

Every transport application has unique characteristics that can only really be understood and managed through experience. Timber transport is a particularly grueling enterprise that has seen as many failures as it has successes. What all these transporters have in common at the outset is the winning of a juicy timber transport tender from one of the forestry organisations (Mondi, Sappi, Komatiland Forestry et al). 

Running logs from point A to point B is essentially what the business is about and many 'would-be' timber transporters believe that's all there is to it. They couldn't be more wrong. Without extensive hands-on experience of the timber transport industry, chances of meaningful success are slim - a sentiment shared by all interviewees in the Mountain MAN article. 

Transport managers need to be on call 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Drivers need to work 12 hour shifts, driving interlinks along muddy mountain passes at night through rain and mist. Many have died doing so. Vehicle damage is particularly prevalent on in-field trucks. The hillside plantations are steep, rough and rocky. Loading machines bump into the trucks constantly, trees crash through windscreens, tyres rip and gearboxes and diffs regularly seize. 

Acts of God play havoc with delivery schedules too. Heavy rains fall, gravel roads become impassable and trucks get stuck in the mud. Forest fires frequently put all operations on hold. 

These are just a few of the risks involved in transporting timber. If a transport operation doesn't have the expertise to manage these contingencies, it will not meet contractual targets or run profitably. The message is this: Tenders for timber trucks are attractive but it is a highly specialized game. If you want to get involved, make sure you can see the wood for the trees...