The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) today announced the launch of an innovative new tool, the Log Truck Route Planner, to help forest owners, mill operators, and log truckers in the Pacific Northwest allocate timber and schedule log trucks. The system can assist users in coordinating routing between logging sites and sawmills which can significantly increase the returns to log truck owners/operators, create efficiencies in the operation of sawmills, and ultimately increase the market for U.S. timber products.
The new tool, available on AMS’ Transportation and Marketing website, offers a way for the timber industry to reduce empty backhaul miles and increase the volume of timber moved daily, with a goal of increasing efficiency and revenue earned. The tool was developed in partnership with Washington State University and the Forest Service and is available on AMS’ Transportation and Marketing website.
Log Truck Route Planner
The tool provides both a log allocator and truck scheduler, which can be run sequentially or independently, by uploading your own log delivery requests and using the scheduler to identify the optimal set of trips. The log allocator identifies the least-cost allocations from forests to mills to generate log delivery requests. The truck scheduler identifies the most efficient set of trips to fulfill log delivery requests.
For more information check out the Log Truck Route Planner, User Guide, and Technical Documentation.