Forest products ransportation tomorrow

sions. Our patterns have not yet changed, though we are more aggressive to Canada and southern yellow pine."

Rick L. Jackett Executive Vicp President Forest Products Traffic Association Memphis,Tn.

"As fal as mode of transportation, there has been a strong move t0 containerized shipment of rough random width hardwoods. The cost has gone down due to the double stack trains. You'd be surprised how much hardwood is shipped in concainers, espesially on the domestic side.

"In many areas, Southern California especially, a lot of distribution centers are cropping up, little storage operations to unload the box car for the customer.

"Then there's the shrinkage of the rail industry. They're taking a lot of the track out of rural cities.

"On the trucking side, the cost per mileage is going up, due to neverending fuel increases, and with the CDL license test that drivers have to take there's a shortage in drivers. The cost of lumber on the truck end seems to be going up right now while rail seems to be holding."

Joe Casella Owner Casella Transportation San Leandro, Ca.

"I think that the proprietary carriers will continue taking more business, leaving us (smaller trucking companies) with more marginal accounts. We'll have to be more innovative in cost cutting.

"Regulatory issues will have more and more influence. They talk about deregulation; what they mean is reregulated rates. In its place they've put increasingly rigid guidelines, safety, driver qualifications.

"Fuel prices have gone up and down. They fluctuate. But by and large, fuel's going to be a major factor. I honestly believe that it's going to put us out of a lot of markets, where we'll lose business to rail. Still, one trend that I've noticed is customers seem to be willing to pay a little more for the quick delivery. Nobody wants to carry an inventory anymore."

Story at a Glance

Transportation executives forecast forest products transportation five years into the future ... changes in truck, railand cargo.

George Rogers Traffic Manager Sierra Pacific Indusries Redding, Ca

"The most prominent change has been trailers on flat cars. We're going back to more large trucking companies striking their own deals with the railroads.

'As for third party carriers, transpor0ation's equivalent of the lumber wholesaler, in order to survive I think they're going to have to invest in some equipment of their own."