Southern Stumpin

By David Abbott • Managing Editor • Ph. 334-834-1170 • Fax: 334-834-4525 • E-mail: david@hattonbrown.com

Wright Hand Man

Loggers all around the country have tom at Charles A. Wright Logging. “We repeated it to me again and again over start everybody in a skidder who has never the years: good help is hard to find. And been in the woods,” Vance explains. “You they’re just talking about the difficulty in pull wood from A to B and kind of learn finding skilled, qualified, and perhaps most what is going on around the job before I put importantly (and most rarely), RELIABLE you on a different machine.” men (or women, in some cases; why not?) What makes Widener different than most to run equipment. A bad operator can cost employees, according to Vance, is that he is you big time—one who doesn’t know what always looking for opportunities to learn he’s doing, one who’s on drugs, one on new things and improve his skills. This was whom you can’t count to actually show up apparent early on in his employment. from one day to the next. When a man who “Whether it is working on equipment or owns a logging company can find a crew running a different machine, from the getfull of good operators—the ones you know go he wanted to learn it all just about as you can trust to not only do the job but to quick as he could,” Vance says. “It didn’t do it right—he’s usually grateful and does take him but a couple of years and he had whatever he can to keep them. Another been in about every machine I had at the thing loggers have told me over and over: time. Five years in, he could run it all just you’re only as good as your men. But to come across an employee who On the right, Alan Wright, half owner of Charles A. Wright Logging in Virginia, and on his right, foreman and right hand man Brandon Widener as good as anybody and he was managing the job and doing a great job of it.” can (and will) not just run equipment but These days Charles A. Wright Logging run the crew for you—now that’s a real find. And was in a Sunday school class with Brandon’s moth- fields two logging crews; Vance supervises one and that’s what Virginia logger Vance Wright has er, stepdad and step grandmother; his stepdad was Brandon the other. Each job has two loaders and a found in his crew foreman, Brandon Widener. “I the teacher of the class. “I got to know him through chipper; they have enough equipment to be capable reckon the best title for him is ‘foreman,’ but them,” Vance says. He could tell Brandon was of splitting sometimes into four places. Vance he’s as much above that as anything,” Wright interested in logging, and grew convinced that he prefers not to do that; it spreads operations too thin, says of Widener. “He’s my right hand man.” would be a good employee. “He seemed like a making it more difficult to manage well. “I like to

With his brother Alan Wright as his equal part- good, hard-working guy, so we gave him a shot.” stay in two places, with Brandon on one job and ner, Vance manages the companies their father Seems the logger’s early impression was accurate. me on the other. We might flip-flop around and do left them, Charles A. Wright Logging and “He’s about as hard working as they come. You are whatever we need to do to the get the work done.” Charles A. Wright Trucking. The Blackridge, not going to have to worry about him not getting One of Brandon's responsibilities is getting drivVa.-based enterprise was the cover story of the the work done or not doing whatever it takes to get ers signed up for TEAM Safe Trucking training January 2020 issue of Southern Loggin’ Times. the job done, no matter what it is.” modules. “He actually started that for us,” Vance

Along with running those and other companies, The elder Wright, persuaded by his son, origi- says. “To be honest, I'm not sure I could have Vance served as President of the Virginia Loggers nally hired Widener to run a skidder, as is the cus- known how to do it, but he stepped up and offered Assn. for six years; Frank Myers of M.M. Wright, to handle it for us.” It's just one example of why Inc. (a different Wright family) in Gasburg, just the Wright brothers are grateful to have him on took over that position last year. Right hand man their team. Widener has also served on the VLA board for the Outside the woods, Widener has gone to the last several years alongside his boss. races with the Wrights. Charles Wright used to

Brandon Widener has been working for drive the circle track at the South Boston SpeedCharles A. Wright Logging, except for a brief way, and his sons picked up the hobby. Brandon interruption of a few months, for nearly 20 years, has joined them at the race track sometimes. A since he was in his early 20s. Company founder single dad with joint custody of his two sons, and family patriarch Charles Wright was still Widener, according to Vance, is a great dad. “He running the show back then. It was he who actu- helps coach ball for them and takes them campally hired Widener, though it was Vance’s idea. ing on the weekends.” “To be honest, I had to talk my dad into hiring Widener has been overseeing a crew for about him,” Vance admits. “He thought he was too 12 years now. Though he’d hate to lose such a young and wasn’t going to stick around. I had to key part of his business, Vance says that if the kind of push to hire him.” day ever comes when Brandon wants to strike

Widener grew up around farming, not logging. out on his own, he wouldn’t stand in his way; he His father and grandfather both worked in crop wants only good things for him. “If he went on insurance for Farm Bureau. On the side, they ran his own I would do everything I could to help a farm and raised cattle, and Widener spent his him,” the logger asserts. “I wouldn’t try to hold childhood helping them out. “Now for loggers, him back one bit; I would want him to succeed. you can’t beat farm boys grown up,” Vance He knows how to log as well as anybody. Anybelieves. “They know how to handle equipment thing in the woods he knows how to do and he before you ever put them in the woods.” They knew each other through church; Vance Alan's brother/partner Vance Wright represented the family company on the cover of the January 2020 SLT. does it really well. Folks like that deserve more recognition,” Vance believes. SLT

Deep Roots

■ Three generations of the McGuire Logging family share the woods today.

By David Abbott

LAMAR, Ark.

Necessity has been called the mother of invention, but it’s also birthed a few business ventures along the way. Take McGuire Logging, Inc., for example. While founders Bill and Joyce McGuire did grow up with some connections to the industry— Bill’s dad, John McGuire, owned a woodyard in the 1950s, and Joyce came from an extensive logging family—starting their own logging business wasn’t something they jumped into right off the bat.

Bill and Joyce were married in 1971, a year after he graduated high school in 1970 and went to work at the Arkansas Kraft wood yard in Morrilton. After a brief shutdown at Kraft that required him to find work elsewhere for a while, Bill spent the next 18 years on that Kraft wood yard.

During that time he started dabbling in short pulpwood for extra money on the side, buying his own wood and cutting and hauling it to Kraft in his spare time. “We had a short truck and in the evenings after I got off work, and on the weekends, I’d cut and load a truck, and we’d unload it on Monday morning,” he recalls. “Most of it you could load by hand.”

By 1989, Arkansas Kraft was a division of Green Bay Packaging. The company moved to treelength material and started shutting down all its wood yards again. For Bill, the job he’d had since high school was gone. “That’s all I’ve ever known,” he told his wife when he came home that night. “I don’t really know anything else to do.”

A transition from part-time pulpwooder to full-time logger made sense; it met their need. “Already had the truck,” he shrugs. They used the severance pay he got from Green Bay to buy a skidder from one of Joyce’s cousins who was in the business, like all of her family. Then it grew from there, as they gradually added loaders and eventually feller-bunchers, too.

Family Affair

Duane, their only son, finished high school in 1990 and joined the business right away. Seems like sawdust was in his veins even in the womb. “When I was pregnant with Duane, I would go out in the woods with Bill and sit down under a shade tree, so I think I marked him,” Joyce says. “I wanted to send him to college, but he didn’t want to go to college; he wanted to do this.”

Duane’s cousin Brandon did go to college, earning his degree in agriculture science from Arkansas Tech before joining the expanding family team.

The McGuires are a true family enterprise; even the clan’s matriarch, who normally handles the office work, has stepped up to man a machine when needed. Before Brandon joined them, it was just Bill and Duane in the woods. One day while leaving work, Bill stepped in a hole and broke his ankle. Doctors said he’d be off his feet for at least six weeks. Joyce

The McGuires keep enough equipment to run two crews when they need to.

They prefer first thinning pine pulpwood for Green Bay Packaging.

was working in a restaurant at the time, but told her employers it wouldn’t be safe to leave Duane in the woods alone; they were still felling with chain saws at that time. “So I went out there and stayed with him,” she recalls. Duane taught her how to run the skidder, so she drove that till Bill could get back to the woods. In those days, the mother-and-son duo was getting about three loads a day in pine logs. “Back then, doing it like we were doing it, we thought that was ok,” Joyce says.

McGuire Logging officially incorporated in 1995. They set up officers formally with their incorpora- ➤ 12

Left to right: Joyce McGuire and Bill McGuire, their son Duane McGuire, their nephew Brandon McGuire (in back), their grandson Drake McGuire, and James Clark, whom they jokingly claim as an adopted member of the family

Duane's wife Lorie, an insurance underwriter who is also VP of McGuire Logging, helps maintain the company's emphasis on safety; she keeps all crew members in high-vis, company logo shirts and each man has his name printed on his personal hard hat.

9 ➤ tion paperwork, naming Joyce the President and Duane’s wife Lorie as Vice President.

Behind The Camera

Eventually, only son Duane had an only son of his own: Drake. The three generations of McGuires share a first name: Billy Dean, 69, Billy Duane, 49, and Billy Drake, 28.

Like his father before him, Drake grew up around the woods business. He worked for the crew out of high school for a while and has continued to join his family’s business off and on, but he has a whole other career of his own completely outside the forest products industry. He makes music videos and manages musicians, mostly in the country/rap genre.

He’s self-taught in videography; he had toyed with it some in high school, enjoyed it, but never thought he could make money at it; turns out he was wrong. He and some friends entered and won a national music video contest sponsored by Ryan Upchurch a few years ago, which opened many doors for him, including getting the chance to work as an assistant director on Upchurch's documentary The Holler Boy. He also did some camerawork for an upcoming Vietnam War movie that was filmed in Arkansas called Love In Country; he has an IMDB credit for that one. He lived in North Carolina and Florida for a few years working with various recording artists like Savannah Dexter and John Holleman. He came back to Arkansas recently simply because he was tired of being away from home, he says. “I think he kind of missed us,” his grandmother says.

At this point Drake isn’t sure what his long term plans are, if he’ll remain part of his family’s logging company or continue pursuing a career in the music video business. He still goes to Nashville, more than 400 miles from Lamar, to work on videos pretty regularly and manages Leroy Biggs.

Drake also made a video about his family at McGuire Logging, which you can find on YouTube, along with several music videos he’s directed. Just type Drake McGuire in the search bar on Google, YouTube or Instagram, to see examples of his work.

Truck driver Jerry Birkhahn Truck driver John Richardson

Operations

Equipment is all Tigercat: 630E skidder, 718 feller-buncher and 234 loader with an R Squared Solutions

R Squared Solutions pull through delimber pairs with Tigercat loader to keep wood ready for hauling.

Duane McGuire shops all over the South for good equipment deals, and turns to MidSouth Forestry Equipment in Caddo Valley for parts.

pullthrough delimber. Dozer for roadwork is a John Deere model 850C.

Rather than sticking with a local dealer, the McGuires have bought machines from all over, traveling great distances for good deals. Duane seeks them out online. “He’s our equipment finder,” his mother says. He’s acquired several pieces from Mississippi Tigercat dealer B&G Equipment, and for others he’s gone to Tennessee and even South Carolina. For replacement parts and major repairs, the

McGuires do look to their local

Tigercat representative, Mid-

South Forestry Equipment in

Caddo Valley, Ark.

While anything they can’t handle goes back to local dealers or repair shops, Joyce says the crew can take care of most repair jobs that come up: “They’re self-sufficient.” Service trucks are well equipped with hose machine, air compressor and fuel tank as well as spare parts and tools. Skidder driver James Clark—the only non-McGuire on the crew, though they claim him as an adopted member—does a lot of the mechanic work for the crew.

They all handle routine maintenance and minor repairs as needed, and the crew keeps multiple spare pieces to back up any machine that goes down. “We have a backup for everything except labor,” Duane observes.

In fact, they have enough equipment to split off into separate crews, and not so long ago they did run two jobs, but had trouble finding enough reliable quality help for both. So for now it makes more sense to streamline and consolidate into a single unit.

“We’d probably consider two crews again if the demand was there to justify it, and if the help was there to man it,” Bill says.

He doesn’t know if he believes the situation with labor availability is going to get any better; in fact, he expects, “It’s probably going to get worse.” Joyce agrees: “I’d hate to be young trying to start out right now.”

Markets

It can be as hard to find good, and insurable, truck drivers, as it is to find qualified help in the woods, Bill admits. “It is different to haul on the highway than in the woods,” he says. Brandon, Duane and Bill all have CDLs and can haul loads if they need to.

The McGuires own two Peterbilt trucks that pull McLendon trailers full time, with two others in reserve, and they hire a contract hauler to supplement production. Summit Truck Group in Russellville sold them

the last rig they bought.

They usually get about 10 loads a day, but then it depends on where they are working. Last year they hauled 50,000 tons for Green Bay, not counting what they hauled to PotlatchDeltic and Evergreen Packaging in Conway.

They haul mostly pine pulpwood. Right now paper mills are doing well, they say, with only some shutdowns and slowdowns, allowing them to work pretty consistently. The holdup has been not markets but weather; rain and snow has been plentiful in recent months. The winter storm that brought such well-documented misery to neighboring Texas in the middle of February kept the McGuires from working an entire week. Bill thinks it was probably the worst snow they’ve seen in a decade.

How can a logging business make up for lost time after losing a whole week like that? “Hope that next one is good,” Duane laughs.

“This is a bad deal if you miss a week,” Joyce stresses. “You might spend $500 on fuel to go to work that day and if you don’t get a load, you’re $500 in the hole. There is a lot of praying that goes on.”

Brandon adds, “It’s like a slot machine without the ding-dingding.”

Duane buys private timber for the crew, and they contract for Green Bay Packaging, hauling 90% of their pine pulpwood production to that company’s paper mill in Morrilton.

When Southern Loggin’ Times met the family in March, they were working on a 300-acre tract of PotlatchDeltic land, doing a fifth-row first thinning prescription; the land manager was calling for a 65 basal area.

Last year the McGuires got to perform a final harvest on a tract that they had first and second thinned years ago. Bill says he’d rather do a first thinning than anything else: “Seems like you can get more done,” he believes.

The pandemic never affected them very much; they worked about every day in 2020. “We kept on moving pretty good,” Duane says.

Safety is a top priority, so everyone in the woods wears orange shirts and hard hats with their names on the back; Duane’s wife Lorie, who helps Joyce in the office, is also an insurance underwriter. Assure Agency provides workers’ comp, sending a man out twice a year to look everything over and ensure the crew is in compliance with all safety regulations. They do tailgate safety meetings monthly. And they have all been trained in first aid.

Looking ahead, what plans do the McGuires have for the future? “Get a better job,” Duane jokes. “Something that makes money.” But the truth is, the McGuire clan looks to be in the woods for the long haul. SLT

Bill’s father owned a wood yard in the ’50s. His house burned, and the pictures are the only things that survived.

Firm Foundation

■ Sugg Logging navigates the Carolina coast in search of the next, best stand of timber.

By Patrick Dunning

ELLERBE, NC

Growing up, Wayne Sugg, 44, owner of Sugg Logging, LLC, didn’t have a background in logging. His father and grandfather were farmers, growing peach orchards and harvesting tobacco in Richmond County. Tobacco exports were the backbone of North Carolina’s founding, dating back as early as 1663 when settlers moved from Virginia to the dry, sandy soil of the Coastal Plains. Sugg says North Carolina’s agricultural staple has dwindled in the last 15 years, though the state still ranks first in the United States in tobacco production. “(There’s) not quite as Wayne Sugg, owner

John Deere 648L performs a pine clear-cut prescription in Richmond County.

Sugg's all-inclusive fleet of John Deere equipment is easily maintained with help from the folks at James River Equipment.

The Sugg Logging crew, from left: Alberto Soria Gloria, skidder operator; Luke Diggs, loader operator; Brian Heavener, skidder operator; Brian “Hoggy” Lee, loader operator; Wayne Sugg, owner and cutter operator.

Sugg’s operation averages 80-120 loads weekly and maintains a good relationship with Jordan Lumber & Supply in Mt. Gilead.

much tobacco harvesting as there used to be,” he acknowledges. “People still produce some in Scotland County but hardly any in Richmond County.”

Right after high school, Sugg pursued a different path, going to work for a local logger in Ellerbe. He helped R. R. Mickey Logging in Hamlet for over 15 years. “A lot of trial and error starting out,” Sugg remembers. For him, the transition from traditional agriculture to timber harvesting was smooth. “I ran farming equipment with my dad growing up, so logging came natural. Every piece I ran felt natural.”

In his younger days, Sugg enjoyed racing street bikes. He ended up selling one of his motorcycles, a ZX14R Kawasaki, and bought his first truck, a FLD120 Freightliner. “I told a guy I was cutting for then that I would find some drivers. I’ll run the crew and let my trucks haul the wood,” he says. “That’s how I got started. Been like that ever since.” He would go on to found his LLC in late 2010. Operations

Sugg focused on the trucking side of operations before meeting Chris Brooks, territory manager for James River Equipment in Mt. Gilead, through mutual logger friends. “I had my own trucks to start and was focused on helping other people,” Sugg says. “Me and my wife talked

with Chris and he was reasonable; he got me going. Top notch fella.” Sugg purchased three new pieces of John Deere logging equipment through James River and later added more.

Southern Loggin’ Times found Sugg Logging in late 2020 clearcutting plantation pine on a 100acre private tract for Jordan Lumber & Supply Co. of Mt. Gilead. “Most of what we cut is plantation pine and thinning prescriptions,” he says.

Sugg built the landing on the highest point of the stand after Hurricane Eta dropped over 10 in. of rain in some parts of North and South Carolina. A year-long creek runs through the tract that Sugg made plans to cross and deck again once it dries enough to cut poplar in the hardwood bottoms. There were also several very large holes left by the landowner’s mining efforts. “The wood buyer told me the landowner has dug for a little bit of gold out here,” Sugg explains.

The Carolina Gold Rush, the first in the United States, began in 1799 following the discovery of a 17pound nugget by 12-year-old Conrad Reed while playing in Meadow Creek on his family’s farm in Cabarrus County, NC. Reed’s initial find as well as others were celebrated in print throughout the country and even Europe, prompting a rush of miners to the region.

In the peak years of North Carolina’s gold rush, the state was home to about 56 different mining operations with boom towns established to support the new, thriving industry and its 25,000-strong workforce.

North Carolina’s gold belt counties included Davidson, Guilford, McDowell and Randolph, producing the nation’s gold supply from 1803 to 1848. North Carolina was the only state producing domestic gold for the nation’s coinage, prompting the U.S. government to open a branch mint in Charlotte in 1835 until the start of the Civil

War in 1861.

Between 1838 and 1847, North

Carolina mined nearly 140,232 troy oz. of gold, equating to approximately $2,898,505, which was the state’s peak market value.

Recreational panning remains a pastime in North Carolina but there are no active gold mines operating today and the odds of finding significant gold deposits are slim.

Depending who you ask, some would say trees are as valuable as gold, at least to the economy as a whole. North Carolina’s logging industry accounts for over 6,000 jobs and contributes almost $500 million annually to the state’s economy. Though Sugg isn’t panning local creeks for placer gold, he says logging SYP will certainly suffice, and believes his fleet of exclusive

John Deere woods equipment is a treasure trove of its own.

Industry Friends

“John Deere has come a long way,” Sugg says. “I talked with Chris Brooks and they (James River Equipment) have been good to me ever since I started and keep me going. I like to run all the same equipment because they have good mechanics and I can go to one place and get parts.”

Sugg Logging runs two loaders (a ’15 John Deere 437D and ’18 437E), two skidders (’17 and ’18 model 648Ls), and a ’19 843L-II feller-buncher.

Main species targeted are pine and poplar. An average of 80-120 loads are hauled weekly to surrounding mills. Sugg says plantation pine tracts are limited and rarely cut compared to hardwood stands in Davidson county. “Pulpwood has been tight; saw timber has been nice though,” he ob serves. Thankfully, Jeff Edwards, owner of Edwards Wood Products, Inc., headquartered in Marshville, expanded his jurisdiction and com pleted a pine mill installation about five years ago in Laurinburg, 30 miles southeast of Ellerbe. Jordan Lumber accepts grade pine logs and was a blessing for

Sugg’s operation in 2020. “Things didn’t look good in February but markets did a 360-spin and came back,” he says. “No quotas or shutdowns at Jordan.” Sugg has contracted for Jordan Lumber for four years. “The guys at Jordan Lumber make all this possible for me and their loggers.”

Sugg says some hardwood quotas were tight through the summer last year when he was logging rough, mountainous terrain. His solution: Troy Lumber Co. in Troy. “When we have to get rid of hardwood it goes to Troy.”

His fleet of Kenworth T800 log trucks, ’07 and two ’20 models, are accompanied by four or five contract haulers. “KW is just a good log truck,” he says. “It’s got heavy specs for hauling a lot of weight.” Sugg uses exclusively Big John trailers as well.

Bouncing back-and-forth across the South and North Carolina state line used to be an issue for Sugg. South Carolina has a maximum weight limit of 80,000 lbs. while North Carolina trailer weights are capped at 90,000. Then Sugg purchased a set of Maxi-Load scale systems from dealer Ken Murray in Virginia four years ago. MaxiLoad scales accurately determine the weight of the truck, trailer and load to comply with respective gross weight tolerances and save on fuel. “It used to be a problem going between states but the Maxi scales help,” he attests.

Sugg Logging services woods equipment every 250 hours with Rotella 15W-40 and John Deere filters. Every 500-1,000 hours he does a “big service” where he lets James River Equipment get involved with changing axle and transmission oil in skidders and the feller-buncher. Larry Robison, Sugg’s truck mechanic, lives right around the block from Sugg and has been looking after his trucks since he started. Oil is changed in trucks every 10,000 miles using Rotella 15W-40 synthetic.

Sugg runs a single crew of four in the woods: Luke Diggs, loader operator; Brian “Hoggy” Lee, loader operator; Alberto Soria Gloria, skidder operator; Brian Heavener, skidder operator; and two truck drivers, Bobby Greene and Jamie Cook.

Forestry Mutual Insurance covers Sugg Logging’s woods operation and helps with routine safety meetings, while Shelton Insurance, Albemarle, covers truck insurance.

Sugg and his wife, Tina, have three children: sons Peyton, 11, named after Sugg’s favorite football player Peyton Manning, and Porter, 13, named for Sugg’s father, and daughter Kinley, 21. SLT

Risky Business

■ Risk management for trucking can reduce costs, boost safety and improve efficiency.

By Dale Kleffman

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dale Kleffman, CPCU, CIC, CLCS, is working for Mauck/Loggers Insurance Agencies with an extensive background in commercial insurance relating to all aspects of the forest products industry including logging, trucking, and manufacturing. Mauck/Loggers Insurance Agencies are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Assn. and Michigan Assn. of Timbermen through their respective holding companies. Dale can be reached at 906-281-1604 or dalek@mauckinsurance.com

The biggest liability many businesses have is their vehicles and trailers that are operated on the public roads. Many in the forest products arena don’t typically see other people or deal with much property other than raw logs while in the woods. These factors help to insulate them from many of the factors that other businesses face.

Yet vehicles present a challenge to both business owners and insurance companies. This challenge has continued to evolve and we see more and more insurance companies struggle with profitability in the auto line than any other line of business. Many insurance companies have struggled drastically over the last 5-10 years in the auto space, often producing combined ratios of 110% to 120% or more. A combined ratio is the percentage of dollars out vs. dollars in when operating costs are analyzed. Carriers shoot for something under 100% here typically as it means they are making a underwriting profit without realizing investment income.

There is more volatility, price increases and new underwriting guidelines in the auto space than any other segment that affects the forest products industry, with the possible exception of property insurance related to sawmills, wood pallet and wood pellet operations.

The factors that lead to this volatility are many: They include busier roads, more distracted driving, increased repair costs for vehicles and larger court settlements. In my mind the cell phone and how it affects drivers is the biggest single culprit. From the elevated view in a semi it is even more obvious the amount of people trying to do multiple things at once and not just focus on the road. That being said, even though many accidents are attributed to other people, they can affect your business.

When you are operating a vehicle under a commercial business and generating revenue you are held to a higher standard in the eyes of the law than just a commuter or other recreational driver. This can lead your business to be financially liable even if they are deemed not at fault on a police report. There are a variety of things you can do to mitigate this exposure. These are particularly relevant to semi/heavy trucking operations, but many of them can help even if a pickup and a job trailer are the only autos you own.

The list is long and intimidating when it comes to all the rules and regulations that govern the commercial trucking world. There is no way to get detailed information across on all of them in an article like this but we will touch on what we can in relation to compliance. Different items relating to laws and compliance include: l Enrolling in a drug testing program; even if you are the owner and the only driver at your company, this is still required. l Maintaining a driver qualification file that includes the appropriate items. Again, even if you own the company and as the owner you

are the only driver, this is still required. Items that need to be in this file include: — An application for employment (yes, you have to hire yourself even if you are the only one). It’s your government looking out for you. — A current motor vehicle record (MVR or driving record) from each state your driver has held a valid license in during the preceding 12 months. This needs to be run every 12 months. — MVR for the preceding three years from each state your driver has held a license in. — A review of the MVR to determine if your driver meets standards for safe driving. This review needs to be done every 12 months and must include the name of the person reviewing and the date. It needs to include any FMSCA violation data review and moving violations review along with anything that could be construed as a disregard for public safety. — A record of all violations within the last 12 months from each driver — A copy of each driver’s CDL — A copy of each driver’s medical exam certificate — A note or record verifying that the doctor performing the medical exam is on the national registry of certified medical examiners list.

If you meet the requirements to use a log book, make sure you are in compliance here. This is a whole topic on its own, and many of those who only haul raw logs are exempt. At the end of the day, know the laws and be in compliance if it is required.

Make sure you have the required periodic vehicle inspections on file.

Make sure you are in compliance with weight restrictions. We all know that judgment plays a part in hauling in the raw forest products arena. Species, time of year, moisture content, time on landing, etc., all can drastically affect weight. That being said, if you are continually and grossly overweight and involved in a serious accident, the odds of a financial judgment against you are immensely higher and the dollars awarded are likely to increase also. We have been insulated from this in our region of the country to an extent but it is happening in other areas. It is much easier for a plaintiff attorney to paint you as a negligent business owner if 75% of your loads are overweight.

Have any required pre- and posttrip inspections done and documented. Stay in compliance with any applicable federal and state law.

There are a lot of resources out there for trucking companies in regards to safety and compliance. These include the Michigan Center for Truck Safety, various insurance company loss prevention staff, and a variety of third-party companies that focus on safety and compliance in the trucking world. The latter of these often charge a fee.

If you need help in this area and it seems overwhelming, it is much better to ask for help and try to be proactive than to ignore it and be forced to be reactive. If you are doing all these things and have your ducks in a row make sure your insurance company is aware of this and that it is well documented. It can only help your profile in terms of how an underwriter evaluates

your business and if you are ever in a serious accident it will help your outcome following that too.

There are a variety of things that aren’t laws or rules that can help your overall risk affecting your trucking business too. These include: l Consider camera systems on all trucks. These are getting much better from a technology perspective and a complete system with front and driver facing cameras is a lot cheaper than you think. These systems provide awesome data to accident investigators and can often eliminate the he said/she said component within a police report. l Have driving hiring standards and follow them. Do the same with driver evaluations. One of the biggest things a company can do is have a written procedure regarding what is and isn’t acceptable. Having these items documented makes your company more consistent and helps you evaluate what is the best for it. Insurance companies love when you have written standards documenting what is and isn’t acceptable. If you have such rules in place and enforced, share them with your company. It will be a feather in your cap. l Evaluate inexperienced drivers with caution. Everyone understands that there is an absolute shortage of truck drivers and we always get asked to make exceptions regarding drivers with minimal experience or a colorful MVR history. For us this is always done on a case-by-case basis and we don’t have a catch-all answer. Every insurance company handles it differently and some are much more rigid or will charge exorbitant premiums for the exposure. Putting a young driver in your truck is a huge exposure for you and your insurance company. We know that we will need people to replace existing drivers and we know that young people need to get experience somewhere. If you are going to put an inexperienced driver in a truck, then have a program in place to train and evaluate his or her progress. At the end of the day you can let who you want drive your vehicles without typically affecting coverage; your insurance company might not like it but it is your business decision. Come renewal time, rates may increase or you might get nonrenewed if you don’t get their buyin, but it is still your decision. You are much more likely to get acceptance from an insurance company if you have a program in place that details training and evaluation going forward. Things like ridealongs, skills testing, documentation for formal schooling/training, working in tandem with an experienced driver the first several months, and providing timely feedback on performance can help your company and your young driver succeed. There is no easy answer to this situation, but there are things you can do to help mitigate your risk. It’s better to document and face the challenges associated with young drivers than ignore them. l Don’t rent, lease or borrow your equipment to other people or businesses. This is a more prevalent practice in some regions of the country than in others, but if you do

it, it’s a huge exposure you are picking up by just being friendly. If you must do this, thoroughly discuss the situation with your insurance agent and attorney prior to doing it so you can do all you can to protect yourself and your business. l Have safety incentive programs. These can be monetary or something like a nice company logo winter jacket if your fleet goes a defined period with no accidents or DOT violations. This type of program can be completely flexible but it will help keep safety and compliance a top-of-mind issue. l Keep all vehicle service records as long as you own or operate it. This is a huge deal.

Make sure you are recording what you do, even if it’s an oil change, walk-around inspection or changing a tire. Having detailed records if you get dragged into court for something really helps your chances of being successfully defended. Having a regular inspection program, and documenting it, really helps as well. l Have a zero tolerance cell phone policy (unless hands-free) and enforce it. This could go with the compliance side also but it’s really important. As a commercial truck driver or company you are going to be held to a higher standard than the average citizen and cell phone use is a real top-ofmind issue for the general public.

A court is much more likely to make a martyr out of someone involved in using a cell phone illegally than many other things. l Fix the little things before they turn into big things. This applies to brakes, lighting, tires, etc. We understand the challenges facing forest products trucking related to OTR issues and the adverse environment many loggers operate within off public roads. That being said, the DOT inspections and scoring associated with trucking businesses isn’t going away. Almost every insurance company and many shippers and consumers regularly use the

DOT web site to evaluate a trucking company. This information, when poor, can really affect pricing and availability of insurance for your trucking company.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help on this stuff and also don’t be afraid to tell your insurance company what you are doing to operate safer. The insurance world loves documented information and anything you are doing proactively can only help your overall profile. Stay Safe! SLT

This article previously appeared in the March/April 2021, issue of Timber Harvesting, another Hatton-Brown publication.

Double Whammy

■ In 2020, the American timber industry was crippled by trade war and COVID-19.

By Andrew Muhammad, Professor of Agriculture and Resource Economics, University of Tennessee

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. It was originally published on November 16, 2020. Visit https://theconversation.com/americantimber-industry-crippled-by-doublewhammy-of-trade-war-and-covid-19147720 to read the original article.

The forestry sector—landowners, logging companies and sawmills—lost an estimated U.S. $1.1 billion in 2020. Devastating wildfires and Hurricane Laura played a part, but the COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to significant losses. If workers are required to stay home, then no trees will be felled or logs sawed into lumber.

These losses have been exacerbated and amplified because of a longstanding trade war that has severely curbed the sale of U.S. forestry products to foreign markets, particularly China.

I am a professor of economics with a specialty in international agricultural trade, trade policy and global food demand. My work at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture is informed by my nearly 10 years as a senior economist with USDA researching international trade issues affecting agriculture and forestry.

China Connection

Forest product exports in the U.S., including logs and lumber, were valued at $9.6 billion in 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Forest products are the third leading U.S. agricultural export sector after soybeans and corn. In 2018, China accounted for nearly $3 billion of U.S. forest product exports.

The forest products relationship between China and the U.S. is complex. The U.S. sells logs and lumber to China; China uses the logs and lumber to produce finished wood products, such as furniture and hardwood flooring; and China exports these finished wood products to the world. Interestingly, the U.S. market is the leading destination for these exports. In 2018, U.S. imports of wooden furniture and other wood products from China exceeded $9 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

This raises an obvious question: Why doesn’t the U.S. simply make furniture and flooring? The answer is wages. The wage differential between U.S. and Chinese workers makes it more profitable to sell logs and lumber to China and then buy back finished wood products.

Since the demand for products like logs and lumber is directly linked to the demand for finished wood products like furniture and flooring, any decline in the latter negatively affects U.S. forest product exports. To say that what happens in China does not necessarily stay in China is an understatement.

Vulnerable Industry

COVID-19 has caused a major disruption on U.S. forest exports and hindered production because of lockdowns, business closures and production stoppages. Many of these supply disruptions started in China, where lumber was being turned into furniture, chairs and other goods where the pandemic began.

However, another major factor has been the interruption of demand because of decreased incomes and delayed purchases by consumers. In the U.S., furniture sales decreased as much as 66% in April 2020 when stay-at-home orders went into effect. As of August of this year, U.S. imports of wood furniture and other wood products from China were down by nearly $2 billion, or 40%.

Consequently, U.S. forest product exports as of August 2020 had dropped by more than $670 million overall, with exports to China down by more than $100 million. Geographically, most of these losses are in the South, a loss of $246 million, followed by the West, with losses of $183 million, and the Northeast, with losses of $143 million. In addition, these substantial losses are com-

pounded by a multiplier effect that goes beyond the raw export numbers.

In my state of Tennessee, for instance, the forestry sector provided nearly 100,000 jobs and had an annual economic impact of more than $24 billion in 2017, accounting for nearly 3% of Tennessee’s economy. This, of course, was before the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. trade war, which has devastated the forestry sector. When considering the related activities associated with the forestry sector, such as trucking or equipment, total income and job losses are likely double the direct losses from export sales.

U.S. Forest Product Exports by Region: 2019 and 2020

These data are based on state export sales as reported to U.S. Customs. Data are compiled by the Census Bureau and reported to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

US Regions Jan. – Aug. 2019 Jan. – Aug. 2020 Loss %Loss South $2,237 m $1,992 m -$246 m -11% West $1,465 m $1,282 m -$183 m -12% Northeast $900 m $757 m -$143 m -16% Midwest $907 m $840 m -$67 m -7% Other† $212 m $179 m -$33 m -15% Total $5,721 m $5,049 m -$671 m -12%

†Puerto Rico, Virgin Island and Other Territories Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Table: The Conversation, CC-BY-ND Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service, Global Agricultural Trade System (GATS). Fallout

Prior to the pandemic, the U.S.China trade war had already made the forestry sector vulnerable because of the tariffs that the Chinese government imposed on U.S. timber and the resulting loss in exports. The industry was in a crisis when COVID-19 hit.

In 2018, President Trump ordered that tariffs be imposed on Chinese imports, including a 10% tariff on furniture and related goods from China. In retaliation, the Chinese government imposed tariffs on many U.S. agricultural goods, including 25% tariffs on U.S. logs and lumber. This double taxation resulted in nearly halving the export to China—from $3 billion in 2018 to $1.6 billion in 2019. The trade war, compounded by COVID-19, has had a major negative effect on forest products export sales—from timber harvest and lumber production to timber exports—which hurts working people including loggers and mill workers. Sawmills, in particular, have taken a serious hit.

How is this related to the current pandemic? In January 2020, the U.S. and China signed the Phase One Trade Agreement. Based on the details of the agreement, timber and other forest product exports to China were expected to reach more than $4 billion in 2020. The fact that current export sales to China, as of August of 2020, were only $1 billion suggests that COVID-19 is having an even larger impact than the numbers reveal. SLT