Evaluating Profitability of Individual Timber Deliveries in the US South

Timber transportation is an essential and often unprofitable segment of the wood supply chain. This study evaluated profitability individual timber deliveries for log truck owners in US South. Origin destination data were collected from 909 257 harvest sites. Travel time distance estimated using ArcGIS GPS tracking. Monte Carlo Simulation was used to calculate 1000 unique combinations payload, site turn-time, mill percent-loaded km, yielding a dataset 909,000 deliveries. Hauling costs revenues each delivery published estimates. Driver wages two ways: hourly wage $30.60 (USD) 30% gross revenue load being delivered. Logistic regression evaluate relationship between six dependent variables profitability. Only 14% profitable when driver paid versus 42% revenue. Deliveries with one-way haul distances 49 113 km (31–70 mi) least likely be profitable. Many could if logging businesses mills reduced turn-times under 20 min at 30