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Better service thru better compensation
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Welcome to the Home of the.....
Northwest Log Truckers Cooperative of Washington
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Better service thru better compensation
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Fuel Surcharge Rally at the Tacoma Dome May 11th, 2004
Photos of the May 16, 2006 Log Truck Rally at the Tacoma Dome
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Executive Board of Trustee's
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Mission Statement
Our cooperative is dedicated to promote the mutual welfare and interests of log truck operators throughout the States of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Our membership consists of operators in every county in Western Washington plus many counties in Eastern Washington, as well as many members in Idaho, and Montana.
We desire our members to work cooperatively with northwestern logging contractors AND to educate timberland owners and logging contractors about the increasing costs we are facing and the need to fairly and adequately compensate the drivers who haul their products to mills and market.
Higher hauling fees equal safer log trucks !
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You have a new board ready to go to work to improve the cooperative so lets all get together and make it work. We have a lot of work to do before the next legislation session. The board members need your input and help to keep your Cooperative moving forward. If you have any question call one of your board members any time. If anybody would like to start a new chapter or needs any information posted here on the site, please contact Wayne Tuthill at 253-307-8321. I am here to help. We all know that the market is bad at this time but it will not stay this way forever so lets stick together and make it work . Your NWLTC Board Cascade Chapter meeting 11/18/08 8:00 Am Dijon's Restaurant Buckley WA Washington Log Truck Study- accomplished thru the efforts of the N.W. Log Truckers CO-OP of Washington and Senator Hargrove. The survey will soon reach your mail box. Your input is essential in filling out this survey accurately and completely It is the most important tool the legislature is going to have to base any and all changes within our industry on. We ask that you take the time to please fill this survey out, whether you are a CO-OP of Washington member or not. This is your chance to make a difference. Thank you.
A report on the log truck industry just delivered to the state legislature indicates that the number of traffic accidents involving log trucks declined 11 percent while collisions for all commercial trucks increased by 15 percent in Washington between 2004 and 2006. "This safety record has been built by drivers who have been in the business a long time," says Ken Casavant, Washington State University professor of economics and an author of the report. "A log trucker in this state is generally a seasoned driver with a lot of knowledge. Log truckers may not know everything about the business side of their work, but they sure know how to run their trucks." But that safety record could be jeopardized in the future, the report from the University of Washington's College of Forest Resources and WSU's School of Economic Sciences says. A survey of log truckers in Washington revealed an experienced but aging workforce with an average age of 55 and an average of 27 years experience in log truck operations. Fifty-one percent reported plans to retire or diversify out of the logging industry and nearly everyone surveyed said skilled drivers are harder to find now than 10 years ago. From 1998 to 2006, the number of log trucks registered in Washington declined by 36 percent. The business side has been tough in recent years. The report found that in 2006, 28 percent of log-trucking companies lost money, 50 percent broke even and 21 percent made a profit. No such figures are available for 2008 but the price of diesel this year has jumped 80 percent, increasing the total cost of operations by 20 percent. Problems for log haulers could also have implications for Washington's forest industry, which employs 45,000 people and generates $2 billion in wages and $16 billion in gross business revenues a year. "These guys are doing everything they can to make it under difficult circumstances. They're not buying new trucks. They work long hours," says Larry Mason, a researcher with the UW College of Forest Resources and lead author of the report. Concerns about costs and safety, he says, prompted the legislature, led by Sens. James Hargrove and Brian Hatfield, to commission the study. "Analysis of accident data provided by the Washington State Patrol and the Washington Department of Transportation for all collisions involving log trucks for years 2002 through 2007 showed no trend of increasing safety hazard to warrant public concern," the report says. A review of Washington Department of Labor and Industries data for on-the-job injuries and fatalities of log truck drivers also showed no trend indicating worsening safety problems. Of the 129 log truck companies that responded to a survey conducted as part of the investigation, nearly 65 percent are owner-driver operations with a single truck and trailer. In 2006, a trucker on average made $33,000 a year and worked 69 hours a week. "These are men and women who have worked all their adult lives in the forest product industry and love being in the trucking business," Casavant says. "Many are like small farmers -- they like to run their own businesses." Loading logs is often assumed to be the most dangerous part of log truckers' work, Mason says. Loading involves backing trucks up to log landings -- sometimes up steep, winding logging roads slick with mud or snow -- securing loaded logs with cable binders and making one's way along logging roads back to the highway. However, only 11 percent of surveyed log truckers said that was the most dangerous part of their job. The other 89 percent indicated that increasing traffic congestion and worsening road conditions are the biggest dangers they face. In addition to rising costs, aging drivers and long hours of service, other factors that could affect safety and economic viability include the ongoing effects of deregulation, poor driver recruitment and an influx of out-of-state log trucks, all of which should be monitored, the report says. "There is ample evidence to suggest that the sustainability of log trucking businesses is in question and such uncertainty is a legitimate matter for private and public concern," the report says. Changes to business and occupation taxes as well as state-sponsored programs to assist truckers making investments to reduce fuel consumption and pollution were cited as possibilities for relief. See the report "The Washington Log Trucking Industry: Costs and Safety Analysis" at http://www.ruraltech.org/pubs/reports/2008/log_trucks/index.asp. Other authors of the report are Bruce Lippke, UW professor of forest resources; Diem Nguyen, WSU research assistant; and Eric Jessup, WSU assistant professor of economics. ### For more information:
Special Membership Drive Prices 6 or more Trucks.... $350.00 3 to 5 Trucks..... $200.OO 1 to 2 Trucks.....$100.00 Vendors.... $100.00 Drivers.... $25.00 Starting June1st 2009 Membership dues will be due on or by June 1st each year. If you have paid your dues in another month we will prorate it to bring your membership up to date. This will keep the membership list current. ³ ³ ³ ³ ³ WCLA Log truck Insurance Insurance Agency Inc. For a Quote Jerry Chertude 360-3525033 |
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Log Truckers Cooperative Act
2009
Sponsored
by
SUMMARY
The following summary is not prepared by
the sponsors of the measure and is not a part of the body thereof
subject
to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor’s brief
statement of the essential features of the
measure as introduced.
Relating to log hauling rates for log haulers.
Be It Enacted by the People of the State of
SECTION 1.
(1) The Legislative Assembly finds that:
a)
(b) Central to the viability of the forest products industry is a stable
workforce of skilled,
experienced loggers and log haulers available to harvest and transport
wood from
(c) Stability of this workforce is endangered when inadequate
compensation rates for log
haulers induce the haulers to shortchange safety through inadequate
equipment maintenance,
inadequate investment in new equipment and violation of hours of service
limitations just to earn a living wage.
(d) The safety of Oregonian using the public highways is endangered when
log haulers
are induced to compromise safety to earn a living wage.
(e) Many log haulers serving (f)
The cost of maintaining a log-hauling vehicle in safe operating condition
is increased
by the need to operate the
vehicle on unpaved roadways in forest areas
(g) Based on patterns and
configurations of forestland ownership, the hauling of forest
products is performed by
numerous log haulers who are economically dependent on a small
group of large commercial
forestland owners (h)
An imbalance of market power exists when one forestland owner owns,
possesses or acquires economic control over more than
100,000 acres of forest
in a labor market area. (i)
The imbalance of market power in determining compensation and the lack
of opportunity to join together to bargain over compensation
prevents log haulers from operating in a manner suitable for the
public interest of Oregonians and results in inadequate compensation
for log haulers. (j)
It is in the public interest to ensure a reasonable rate of compensation
for log haulers to
ensure that log haulers earn a reasonable living wage without
compromising the safety
of their vehicles or the safety of their operation. (k)
It is in the public interest to create a process whereby the State
Forester will oversee a system to ensure adequate haul rates
for log haulers and
thereby ensure that the public welfare of the State of
(L)(A) 49 U.S.C. 14501 (c)(1) limits the authority of states to enact or
enforce laws related
to a price, route or service of a
motor carrier with respect to the transportation of property. (B)
49 U.S.C. 13506 (a)(6) provides that the United States Secretary of
Transportation and
the Surface Transportation Board have no jurisdiction over the
transportation by motor vehicle
of agricultural or horticultural commodities, other than the
manufactured products thereof. (C)
49 C.F.R. 372.115 lists “Trees: Sawed into lumber” as a commodity that
is not statutorily exempt from regulation by the United States
Secretary of Transportation and the
Surface Transportation Board, but not logs that are not sawn into lumber
or otherwise un-
processed (2)
The Legislative Assembly finds that (a)
The transportation of unprocessed logs by motor carrier is the
transportation of an
unmanufactured
agricultural commodity that is exempt from regulation by the secretary
and the board under
49 U.S.C. 13506 (a)(6); and (b)
The preemption under 49 U.S.C. 14501 (c)(1) of state regulation of
transportation of
property by motor carrier does not apply to the provisions of sections 1
to 6 of this 2007 Act.
SECTION 2. As
used in sections 1 to 6 of this 2007 Act: (1)
“Cooperative association” means a cooperative non-profit
membership-based entity; a)
Whose purpose is to promote the interests of log haulers through
participation in a
process to determine hauling rates under section 3 of this 2007 Act; (b)
That is registered as a cooperative association with the State of (c)
That represents at least 75 log haulers. (2)
“Economic control” means the legal right, whether through ownership,
contract or otherwise, to make or influence decisions regarding the
harvest of trees and disposition of
logs harvested from the
subject land. (3)
“Forestland” means agricultural forestland used primarily for the growth
of trees to be
harvested for commercial use. (4)
“Forestland owner” means (a) A
person or public body, as defined in ORS 174.109, that owns directly, or
through affiliated persons, or possesses economic control over,
more than 100,000 acres in the State of Oregon;
or b) An
agent or subsidiary of a person or public body described in paragraph
(a) of this
subsection if that agent or subsidiary is involved in contracting or
negotiating contracts or other arrangements, written or oral, with
forest products harvesters or log haulers. (5) “Labor market area” means: (a)Counties whose commercial forest land is comprised
primarily of Douglas fir located predominately in
(b)Counties whose commercial forest is comprised primarily of pine
located predominantly in (6)
“Log hauler” means a person having a place of business in this state who
is engaged in the agricultural activity of hauling trees
harvested from Oregon forestland
under a contract or subcontract, directly or indirectly, with a
forestland owner. SECTION 3.
It is the intent of this section to displace competition with a
regulatory program in the (a) An (b) If the forest landowners negotiate a haul rate through a committee under paragraph (b) of this subsection, nonparticipating land owners are not bound by the acts of the committee. (c) Any agreements that arise from negotiations conducted under this section are binding only on the parties that participate in the negotiations and agree to be bound. (d) The State Forester is authorized to
actively supervise the conduct of an (e) The State Forester may compel the parties to take whatever action the State Forester considers necessary to: (i) Ensure that the parties are engaging in conduct that is authorized under this section; (ii) Ensure that the policies of this state are being fulfilled under the regulatory program; and (iii) Enjoin conduct by any of the parties that is not authorized by the State Forester or conduct that the State Forester finds does not advance the interests of this state in carrying out the regulatory program. (f) The State Forester may adopt rules to carry out the State Forester’s authority under this section. (g) The State Forester may designate persons as deemed necessary to carry out the responsibility of actively supervising the conduct of the parties, including serving as intermediaries between prospective parties. Persons designated by the State Forester must be employees of the Oregon Department of Forestry. (h) The State Forester by rule may set and collect fees from the parties who are participants in a regulatory program as needed.
(i)
The State Forester may approve a proposed rate of compensation only if
the that the rate
is adequate to ensure a
sufficient supply of haulers, and that log haulers will earn living wage
will working within existing or future regulation regarding hours, fuel
costs, weight, and equipment maintenance.
SECTION 4. A
forestland owner may not:
(1)
Discriminate against any
person trade association, labor union, or cooperative association for
participating in
the rate determination process.
(2)
Once a hauling rate has
been determined by the State Forester, the rate may not be lowered by those forest landowners who participated
in the process in that labor market area for 12 months.
SECTION 5. (1)
Sections 1 to 5 of this 2008 Act are intended to displace existing
market
forces based on a legislative finding that the existing market forces do
not permit the af-
fected market to function normally and do not ensure the safety and
stability of the log-
hauling industry or ensure the safety of the general public (2)
Activities carried out under sections 1 to 5 of this 2008 Act do not
constitute a conspiracy
or a combination in restraint of trade or an illegal monopoly, nor are
they carried out
for the purposes of lessening competition or fixing prices arbitrarily,
as long as the activities
are carried out for the purpose of preparing for, initiating or
participating in a de- termination of a hauling
rate under sections 1 to 6 of this 2007 Act.
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APP Fueling Program thru the CO-OP sign up now and save $$$$ Contact Wayne Tuthill 253-307-8321 APP CFN® Locations
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Wayne Tuthill
253-307-8321
Email swampy_43@msn.com
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Copyright © 2006-2007 Northwest Log Truckers Co-op of Washington |
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