Özet:

Hauling forest products from harvesting sites to the mills is a crucial component in forest operation which directly influence the cost of delivered products. Although past researchers have focused on various aspects of transportation including logistics modeling, productivity of trucking on various road conditions and terrain, the challenges in forest trucking are by far unnoticed. This study attempted to address some of the prominent issues on forest products trucking by using cross-sectional questionnaire survey technique. The survey was carried out in a regional council of forest engineers’ workshop. With a response rate of 31.22%, the majority of respondents had more than 25 years of experience working in the forestry sector.  Location and availability of markets was ranked as the major challenge faced by the industry followed by the lack of skilled truck drivers. The effective ways to reduce truck waiting times at harvesting and processing facilities along with opportunities for back-hauling of empty trucks were also analyzed. Average distance traveled by a single truck in a typical harvesting operation was found to be 98 km one-way. The findings can be utilized by the policy makers to formulate laws to support the industry and to develop management guidelines for specific trucking situations.

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