Transloads help LBM shippers ramp up

By Patricia Schlaeger

Dtcx up A pApER, read a business journal, or check your electronic data, and get a dose of gloom and doom.

Figures show the slump in construction continues in residential and non-residential. The seasonally adjusted volume is the lowest recorded in seven years. There is light at the end of the tunnel, albeit a little dim, but for those in business who survive they may find a pot of gold as well.

The recession causing the dominos to fall has taken its toll. Housing is in a slump, and the forest industry closed mills, laid-off workers, and sold inventory to avoid bankruptcy. Hundreds of empty lumber rail cars from throughout the West are parked indefinitely along miles of sidings in Washington, California and Montana, to the chagrin of residents and sportsmen who live with the vagrants and negative graffiti they attract. Trucks are idle with no drivers. It's a bad scene.

Although LBM inventory is down, transload facilities are warehousing, storing inventory, and providing shortterm staging. Products are moving, but are hampered by equipment shortages. What about all those miles of stored railcars? Many railroads are re-positioning stored cars to put them back in service.

It's all about demand, logistics and getting the cars rolling again. BNSF is returning about 1,100 railcars to service. Some cars have been stored on the rail line for three years because of the economic downturn.

Although the railroads are having problems getting back "on track," consider the trucking industry. The American Trucking Association recently completed a study that shows there is a shortage of 20000 truckers in the growing trucking industry. If this continues, the number of truck drivers needed to keep pace in the expanding industry will reach I14,000 by 2014-a sobering figure in light of the amount of the goods transported by truck across the country every hour of every day. consequence. They are now experiencing that consequence.

The total tonnage to be transported by truck is expected to grow to 13 billion tons by 2014. Without enough drivers there's no way to move this by truck. Many trucking companies have shut their doors because they've been unable to attract qualified drivers. The ATA study predicts the need for over 200000 new long-haul drivers in the next l0 years. To satisfy the need for drivers, leading employers are targeting women and minorities.

It's "business us usual" et many transload facitities. Transloads provide numerous integrated transportation services for LBM between manufacturer and final destination. They ship railcars of product, handle the truck freight, transloading, warehouse/yard storage, documentation and rail freight all in a seamless transaction. Many transloads provide value-added bundled services such as high-production surfacing, detailed moulding and sticker patterns, special cut orders, mix and match, T&G and customer patterns, custom milling, and lumber resurfacing to service needs in optimum volumes required by contractors and builders. Most transloads operate a fleet of trucks and offer custom load building, job site packaging, cut packs, and inventory management for JIT delivery.

"Distribution services are the values added that make the difference between a building owner and a service provider," says Chuck Kantner, c.e.o. of Ohio's AIp Logistics. "We are in the transportation business for one reason only-to provide a dependable and comprehensive logistics program for our customers. We keep our wheels turning and your costs down."

"Many of those trucking companies that hauled freight at rates that did not cover their operating expenses succumbed over time and left the market due to hauling freight at unsustainable rates. The market has flipped over the last few months to where transportation demand is up and the total number of trucks available has declined. We continue to provide capacity to customers who treated us as partners. While prices have gone up, our partners still get preferential pricing. Those that call us trying to be our new friends are put at the bottom ofthe list, and charged accordingly.

"We have a long-term outlook for our business, and we do not focus on loads, but rather providing consistent quality service to those businesses that will in return treat us fairly. That does not describe the average lumber broker from the perspective of the trucking industry. The mills for the most part have always lived by cheap rates and relied on the desperateness of the trucks for freight. Thus' in times when the market flips, they are left in a bad situation."

FEWER SN,IAI,L FIRN,IS

Rick Kitch, Silver Ciry Timber, Chattaro-,-, Wa.

"I do see fewer trucks available, but I think more due to smaller independent guys getting out of the business. I used to have quite a list of truckers who had just one to five trucks and would work hard to keep shippers happy. Many

AIP also specializes in "fill-in" work, taking on short haul or plant support work to keep their drivers and equipment pre-positioned. They work with customers to design delivery schedules, while maintaining flexibility for unscheduled services.

Transloaders bundle integrated solutions for the unique supply chain needs of builders: from distribution centers to special retail packs, from truckload to LTL deliveries. Transloaders have the capabilities to develop turnkey logistics programs.

Saddle Creek Transportation, a transload with operations from California and Colorado to the East Coast, provides customers additional capacity during business surges to optimize traffic patterns and control costs. They offer asset-based and non-asset-based transporta- tion/distribution solutions to accommodate increasing demands of competitive markets. of the trucks we see now are part of bigger concerns, and their equipment is heavy or not equipped with tarps.

Saddle Creek helped fiber cement siding manufacturer Nichiha USA when the company opened its first U.S. plant. Nichiha needed a strong logistics partner to build momentum and meet its business goals. Saddle Creek became an extension of Nichiha's image in everything from product handling in the warehouse to driver conduct at time of deliverY.

Equipment shortages have been eliminated by transloaders who have their own fleet of railcars and trucks. Westran Services Ltd', New Westminster, 8.C., has made it a priority to eliminate equipment bottlenecks by acquiring sufficient equipment to meet customer's needs. Their system includes 225 tailcars of varying capacities and types to handle any demand. Being adjacent to BNSF gives them flexibility to switch twice daily and provide rapid transload between truck and rail.

"We have seen the rates move up over the last six months due to fuel increases, but as of late we have been able to back that down a little because fuel has come down'

"We have had to change the way we chase trucks in order to move our loads."

Caught In A Ltjcky Spot

Janet Corbett, Warm Springs Forest Products, Warm Springs, Or.

"We are lucky to have local trucking companies close by in Central Oregon that have been very available for our shipping needs. We also have many wood manufacturing companies around us that have products hauled in to remanufacture, and those truckers need to get back out of the area and are very receptive to calling on us for outbound loads. (That's) not to say that I am not calling a lot during the day to find them and coordinate the effort' but we have been able to find trucking for our prompt timeframes to meet with shiP loadings.

"At one point California was a tough destination, as no trucks were going that way from our area. But at this time' all seems to be fairly smooth. We do not ship by rail any longer, as we just go over the mountain to Portland with export, so trucks are our best option."

Commodity diversity and providing value-added services during the recession has helped transloaders keep their doors open. Cascade Warehouse operates three facilities in Salem, Or., for railcar loading, handling plywood and lumber boxcars. They provide inside warehouse space for storage, along with current orders for timely shipment.

Lumber can be handled in a variety of ways: standard inbound/out-bound, mixing materials from various mills, and stock in storage waiting for sale. Cascade also has facilities in Chehalis, Wa.; Junction City, Or.; Las Vegas, Nv., and Colton, Ca.

- Patricia Schlaeger is executive director of the Transload Distribution Association, West Linn, Or. Reach her at (503) 656-4282 or transloadmeeting@ yahoo.com. Find a transLoad in lour area via TDA's directory at www.transload.org.