Duration of stages of delivery of large-sized Scots pine wood to the sawmill

The efficiency of wood transport depends not only on the maximum load capacity, but also on the duration of individual transport operations. The purpose of the presented research is to analyze the duration of transport stages of Scots pine large-size wood (saw logs) and indicate the factors that affect the structure of the duration of the entire operation. The operation was divided in to truck driving for a load on a public and forest road, driving between loading points in the forest including timber loading, driving with saw logs on a forest and public road, waiting for entry to the sawmill as well as verification and unloading of wood in the sawmill. Data on the duration of each operation was determined on the basis of information obtained from the course information cards. The waiting time for entering the sawmill as well as wood checking and unloading was based on data from wood reception in sawmill. 1514 randomly selected transports in a period of twelve months from 40 forest districts were analyzed. The average time of empty drive for a load by public road was 1:03 [hh:mm], with the range from 0:01 to 7:30. Driving time with a load to the sawmill was an average of 1:23, with the span from 0:05 to the 5:30. Driving on forest roads for load and with load is at a similar level of 11-12 minutes. The average time of loading wood in the forest was 39 minutes, with a minimum of 10 minutes, and maximum of 3 hours. Most trucks entered the plant immediately, nevertheless the average waiting time was 38 minutes, and the majority (75%) of transports need to wait up to one hour. Volume and quality checking, as well as unloading in the plant, took 42 minutes on average. The shortest delivery lasted 1:00 and the longest 17:37. The average transport duration of wood to the sawmill was 4:51. The number of places for loading wood in the forest has significant impact on the duration of collecting the load, and thus also on the time of the entire delivery. The largest fraction in the total duration of transport is associated with traveling on public roads. 27.1 and 28.8% is the time of loaded truck, and 20.5% and 21.7% is the time of the empty ride. A big difference (5%) occurs the time of collecting wood in the forest depending on the number of places from which wood was loaded. This time has a significant share (17.45%) in the structure of the delivery duration. Duration of the individual stages of wood transport in particular months shows little variability.