A new federal mandate is expected to come into effect next year making electronic logging devices (ELDs) mandatory for federally-regulated motor carriers and their drivers. With few exceptions, anyone who currently uses paper logs to keep track of their hours behind the wheel will need to use ELDs beginning in June 2021.

Transport Canada included the mandate in the recently amended Commercial Vehicle Hours of Service Regulation. It comes into effect on June 21, 2021. All provinces and territories are expected to adopt the rules as well.

The move towards ELDs is to improve road safety. “It’s the key factor,” says Adime Bonsi, a senior transportation researcher with FPInnovations. “Transport Canada wants to ensure that drivers respect hours of service (HOS) regulations and accurately and efficiently account for driving hours, to reduce drowsiness that leads to accidents.”

FPInnovations’ transportation research group has extensive experience conducting third-party verifications of several ELD systems for the U.S. market. It is applying that know-how to advise fleet managers in their decision-making and implementation process.

Bonsi says transitioning from paper logs to ELDs is not a trivial matter. “It’s a learning curve for everyone. Fleet managers must select a certified ELD device that is registered with Transport Canada. They have to train drivers and technicians on how to use it, implement it within their fleet and ensure they fully understand the new ELD requirements, within the space of about a year.”

For forest-haul managers, the new regulation may also create challenges in fully optimizing the shift time of drivers and may require changes to how trips are scheduled.

FPInnovations takes steps to become an ELD certifying body

Bonsi leads a team that conducts ELD verifications for the U.S. market and is leading the organization’s application to become an ELD certification body in Canada. The certification process is expected to be in place by this summer. Several ELD suppliers have already contacted FPInnovations’ transportation research group to have their systems certified for the Canadian market.

How fleets can prepare for the coming ELD regulations

Forest-operation companies can become familiar with developments at Transport Canada by frequently checking this Transport Canada webpage, which has resources and information about ELDs.

Fleets with existing electronic on-board recorders should ask whether their suppliers will have their systems certified for use in Canada.

Thinking about an implementation plan takes time. It’s not too early to begin assessing the impact the plan will have on fleets, such as the cost of labour and training.

Few trucks to be exempted from ELD regulations

The coming ELD regulations will exclude trucks built before the model year 2000 and for short-term rentals under 30-days. Drivers operating under either a permit or a statutory exemption will also be exempt from having to use an ELD. The terms and conditions of a permit or an exemption can be complex and vary significantly depending on the circumstances.

FPInnovations’ transportation research team is available to support fleet managers through the process of acquiring and implementing ELDs. FPInnovations will be holding webinars this spring to present our members and their trucking contractors with an overview of ELDs. For more information, please contact Adime Bonsi.

Canfor Corporation is undertaking additional temporary reductions in production capacity due to the impact of COVID-19 on the price of lumber and demand.

The following changes to Canfor’s operating schedule are in addition to the capacity reductions announced on March 26.

Effective April 13, Canadian lumber production will be curtailed by approximately 100 million board feet through to May 1, resulting in a total production run rate of approximately 30%. These reductions will be achieved by taking downtime at the majority of their British Columbia sawmills.

Canfor Southern Pine and Swedish facilities will continue to operate at less than full capacity with variable operating schedules and downtime, which will be adjusted to align production with market demand as required. These reduced operating rates are expected to remain in effect through May 1.

“As the global impacts of COVID-19 continue to evolve, there is the potential that further adjustments to operating plans may be required,” the company said in the press release.

Canfor is a leading integrated forest products company based in Vancouver, Canada. Canfor produces primarily softwood lumber.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Carrier Group of Companies have made decision to temporarily suspend operations at its Tabor Planer in Prince George, and the entire operation in Big River, Saskatchewan.

Tabor Sawmill will continue operations, as will Carrier Manufacturing and the Bar K Ranch. Shipping will continue at both the Tabor and Big River Mills

Photo: Big River Mill / Carrier Group

Covid-19: Supporting essential services by continuing essential activity across the forestry sector.

(Also see: www.teururakau.govt.nz)

Wood processing, sawmilling, forest harvesting and forestry management are NOT essential services. However, MPI is working on a phased restart of some businesses to ensure essential service supply is maintained.

Businesses will need to register as an essential service and can start this process by emailing info@mpi.govt.nz and request a forestry registration form. Businesses can restart while the registration form is being processed.

Once this registration process is completed, a registration number will be issued.

Operators resuming activity will need to adopt best social distancing and health and safety practice to minimise the risk of community spread of Covid-19. MPI has guidelines to assist industry to develop their own site specific safe operating procedures. More information is available here: Safe work practices for businesses and workers.

Phased restart: From 14 April

• Sawmills will be able to resume production of essential service products such as sawn timber for pallet manufacture or wood for heating using log stock that already exists at their place of business. Dispatch from sawmills is still restricted to only material required for the provision of domestic essential services. Transporting logs between sawmills and sites will be allowed, to create sufficient scale at some operations rather than running multiple sites for short periods.

• Loading and cartage of existing log stockpiles in the forest, and other points of the supply chain, will be allowed to resume to provide feedstock exclusively for Oji’s Kinleith pulp mill, firewood and solid fuel producers.

• MDF and other Engineered Wood Products plants will be permitted to restart production on a limited basis to prevent perishable inputs e.g. resins from compromising the supply chain and creating significant adverse environment effects. This production will only utilise existing raw materials that are already on site or in the associated supply chain.

From 20 April

• Loading and cartage of existing log stockpiles in the forest, and other points of the supply chain, will be allowed to resume to sawmills to support the domestic production of other essential service inputs e.g. pallet material.

After 23rd April

• Forestry management and harvesting are not essential services under Alert Level 4.

• MPI will continue to work with industry to determine how harvesting could be undertaken to keep essential services operating, in the event that Alert Level 4 remains in place.

The information given here is current at time of publishing but MPI will continue to give updates as more information comes to hand and further decisions are made.

Financial help is available for the forestry sector who are not part of the restart.

A range of government support is available, including a wage subsidy, business finance guarantee, business cash flow and tax measures amongst others. If you’re an employer, contractor, sole trader or are self-employed you may qualify.

The wage subsidy is a lump sum payment for the employer to pass on to employees and covers 12 weeks per employee. The aim is to help keep your businesses going, if you face laying off staff or reducing their hours because of COVID-19.

More information on support packages is available on covid19.govt.nz

Strict limits as some wood processing resumes – Some wood processors will be cleared to resume limited operations this week in order to ensure supplies of key products during the current lockdown or to avoid costly damage to plant.

The Ministry for Primary Industries’ forestry arm – Te Uru Rakau – will oversee a phased increase in activity by sawmills that produce essential goods such as timber for pallets and crates.

Harvesting will not resume, and those mills will be supplied with felled logs already in forest stockpiles and then trucked to mills.

In addition, makers of fibreboard and other engineered wood products will be allowed to restart on a limited basis to use up perishable products such as resin that would otherwise wreck machinery it has been left in or have to be dumped, creating environmental issues.

Forestry Minister Shane Jones said the government has always been willing to take a pragmatic approach in dealing with potentially anomalous situations arising during the covid-19 lockdown.

In doing so, it had to manage both the health risks and the potential economic risks from the shutdown – the latter of which could have long-lasting and “systemic implications” if not dealt with carefully.

“There’s a lot of expectation on the forestry sector that they will be able to live up to the standards that have been required of them,” Jones told BusinessDesk.

No further widening of processing is expected before decisions are taken by the government next week on the next phase of the lockdown, he said.

All the country’s forestry harvesting was halted last month as the government worked to maximise the number of people kept at home in order to suppress the covid-19 outbreak here.

Sawmills were shut nationwide and only plants making packaging and pallets for essential food, export and medical supplies were allowed to continue operating.

Norske Skog Tasman’s paper mill at Kawerau was allowed to continue operating until April 12 to ensure sufficient domestic newsprint supplies, while Oji Fibre Solutions was required to concentrate its activities at its Kinleith mill in order to keep supplying packaging and tissue makers.

In a statement today, Jones said a national stocktake last week showed supplies for several key products would be exhausted before April 22.

As well as timber for pallets, shortages were also expected in wood supply for domestic heating in Canterbury, for wood pellet production for prisons and food processors and for wood chip for fuel and animal welfare in the central North Island.

Additional logs were also needed for Oji’s operation at Kinleith, and commercial nurseries have also been allowed to resume work in order to keep seedlings for the industry alive until the end of lockdown.

Jones said public health remains an “absolute priority” and that was reflected in the staged and minimal reopening of only those parts of the industry that were needed for essential supplies.

Source: BusinessDesk

Tumut – Salvage operations in softwood plantations impacted by this season’s fires are well underway, with local crews working at a significantly higher rate of production than normal, planting programs ramping up to restock plantations and preparations underway for some export operations.

Forestry Corporation of NSW’s Regional Manager Dean Anderson said Forestry Corporation is placing all the burnt wood it possibly can with local customers to allow as much as possible of the unburnt plantation to continue to grow to be there for the future.

“Unfortunately burnt wood does not last forever and some of the trees burnt are either too small or too young for the local sawmills. Some of these logs exceed what Visy can take, so they will be exported so we can clean the sites up ready for replanting as soon as possible,” Mr Anderson said.

“While timber from older trees is suitable to be processed into house frames, furniture and other essential renewable wood products, trees between 12-24 years old are generally not large enough for sawlog processing. “Our local industry cannot process this timber, but there is an opportunity to export it to offset some of the cost of the operations required to remove trees from fire-affected sites and prepare them for replanting”.

“Everything that can be processed locally will go to our local industry, and the surplus that is not suitable for domestic markets will be transported by truck to the Port of Melbourne for export. There is a significant task ahead of us, we will be looking to harvest about twice what we would normally harvest in a year from the full region just from the Green Hills area in less than 12 months”.

“With all this extra activity concentrated around Green Hills between Wondalga and Tumbarumba, we are asking the community to keep an eye out for trucks and please be patient, as there will be new drivers in the area taking our hills very carefully.”

Source: Forestry Corporation of NSW

New Zealand foresters are saying that log supply to domestic and export markets is inextricably linked and can’t be separated, as Forests Minister Shane Jones now seems to be advocating. Forest Owners Association President Phil Taylor says a harvest of just about any forest will produce higher grade logs for domestic construction, some logs for export and some lower value wood which is only suitable for domestic chipping.

“We just can’t go in and cut down some parts of a tree to cater to one market without harvesting the whole tree for other markets too. That was clearly shown up when forest companies were unable to export earlier in the year and how difficult it physically was to keep our local mills supplied,” Phil Taylor says.

“It’s not true either that we send all our logs overseas. In most years, the majority of the export value of our forest products comes from added value categories, such as sawn timber and pulp and paper. About 15 million tonnes of logs a year are consumed by our domestic processors and this represents just under half of the total annual harvest from New Zealand’s forests. That has been remarkably consistent and a welcome market for us over the past twenty years.”

“Of course, at the moment most of the industry is closed down in support of the government aim of ending the COVID-19 infection crisis. We have supported this measure,” Phil Taylor says “But the shut-down has meant we are getting increasing reports of tens of thousands of tonnes of logs left deteriorating on harvest sites and in yards around the country, which urgently need to be exported or processed before they are worth nothing.”

“When we do get back to business, we’d welcome new infrastructure projects the government says it intends to generate to get the economy going. It would be tremendous if wood construction was a major part of that,” Phil Taylor says. “It would also be great if some of these wood dependent projects could be in the regions. That would help those communities which grow, supply and process these logs. The forests are often in regions where other employment opportunities are generally scarce”.

“We are concerned for the forestry workforce in our rural communities. They have felt the market effects of Covid-19 right back to the beginning of this year, well before the shutdown began. Any restriction on exports has the potential to severely impact their well-being and that of their families.”

“Shane Jones is talking about creating new jobs. We’d love to see those, but not if we fail to protect current ones. We need a sustainable domestic market for our logs in New Zealand, just as we need a healthy export market.”

The Chief Executive of the Forest Industry Contractors Association Prue Younger says contractors as an industry sector will want to get back to work as quickly as possible, whether it be export logs or domestic processing. “Both offer opportunity to return our contractors to financial viability.”

“Ultimate stability with the right product balance needs to be the medium-term vision where retention of a skilled workforce is seen pivotal in the supply chain. Otherwise once again they hold the greatest risk as has become apparent through recent episodes of low log prices and the COVID19 crisis,” Prue Younger says.

Phil Taylor says if the export market was restricted it would most likely mean that less timber would be available locally. The Farm Forestry Association shares Phil Taylor’s concerns. President, Hamish Levack says he doesn’t know what Shane Jones is actually proposing.

“If the government introduced compulsory acquisition at low prices for instance, then I suspect most farm foresters, because they are not going to harvest at a loss, would shut up their woodlots and wait for a change of government. Our sector represents 40 percent of the currently harvestable trees.”

Phil Taylor says he doesn’t think some iwi would be very pleased either. “That is something of course that they might wish to speak for themselves about. Land owned by iwi which is growing commercial forests on it represents another 40 percent of the New Zealand forest estate, and Māori outside of the iwi estates own forests in their own right too.”

Phil Taylor says the industry has also been pushing for the Labour led government to fulfil its election promise of a wood preference policy in construction. “Ever since the government was elected, we have been trying to get Labour to prioritise New Zealand wood use over high carbon emission materials, such as mostly imported from overseas steel and concrete. It hasn’t happened unfortunately.”

“We would hardly be pushing for this policy if we wanted to keep logs for export. If the policy had come in during 2017, when it should have, we’d be well on the way of using a New Zealand grown resource being available for New Zealand workers to construct with when the COVID-19 lockdown ends,” Phil Taylor says.

‘As it is, it’ll will take years to grow New Zealand timber processing, while our immediate need will be many jobs to be available when the lockdown ends. Right now, we cannot afford to take an everyone for themselves approach. It is even more important than ever for all parts of our supply chain work together which can deliver solutions that are the best for all.”

Source: Forest Owners Association

A good news story – and they’re rare as hen’s teeth right now. Whanganui father says he is rapt to be spending so much time at home with his kids, after years of working 80-hour weeks. The lockdown has seen logging company owner Harley Pomeroy trade his 3am wake-up and trudge into the dark forest for a “sleep in” and cuddles with his three young daughters.

“I have been in the bush for 23 years and I work between 70-90 hours a week and to actually wake-up at half past five in the morning and having my kids in bed with me – you can’t beat it,” he said. “I am not used to waking up in the morning having my kids next to me in bed and giving them breakfast, making them lunch, and seeing what they do day-to-day. I have never seen that side of things because I am never home for it.”

Pomeroy said his work commitments in the forestry industry meant he missed a lot of his two teenage sons growing up. He is relishing the opportunity under alert level four to have quality time with his daughters Jasmine, 11, Amber-Rose, 6, and Rhyana, 4.

But he admits, the reality of spending 24/7 with his children can be a “nightmare”, albeit a “good nightmare. I am not used to being home and seeing the girls actually physically do what they do during the day. I don’t know what they do during the day! Trying to keep them entertained is like a bull at a gate, especially three of them!”

“Go for a walk with the kids, have fun – that’s how I see my day. Okay, what are we doing today kids? What can we do together? And enjoy it that way.”

As for the business, Pomeroy said he had been worried about his workers, two of whom he had to lay off.

He is uncertain about how the company will fare after the lockdown, but he said the government’s wage subsidies had eased some pressure.

NZ forest industry organisations are planning how to get back to work when restrictions on non-essential work are lifted for the industry. Organisations, representing forest growers, transport, processing and contractors have set up a working group to develop risk assessment protocols in readiness for start-up of the industry sector.

The National Safety Director of the Forest Industry Safety Council, Fiona Ewing says the aim is to assure government that the sector will be able to comply with the epidemic management conditions of COVID-19. “The priority and starting point is health and wellbeing.

“There is the complex technical side of start-ups that will be a ‘whole of industry’ scan of the value chain. That starts in the forest and moves through transport, processing and export through to the work at the ports. The group will be working with our stakeholders to get the start-up protocol proposal right.”

Fiona Ewing says the forest industry had accepted the government decision two weeks ago that forestry was a non-essential service provider. “However, we now have clear guidelines on MPI approved safe practices from other parts of the primary sector that we are working to adapt.”

These protocols will provide the guidelines and will still require companies and individuals to adopt safe practices specific to their sector groups says Fiona Ewing. “Our intention is to take the start-up protocol proposal directly to decision makers in MPI and Forestry Minister Shane Jones, so that the government is fully aware of the industry led recovery plan to re-activate the industry.”

Already there is also a fast-growing call from New Zealand’s international customers to provide wood-based products that are deemed essential in their own countries. “We need to act on this now. Even though the industry shut down in two days when lock down was announced, it will take much longer to get the forestry supply chain organised and moving again and advance planning will ensure a safe and successful restart.”

DSE M-Series encompass displays, controllers and slave products that can be used together or independently to provide a range of flexible control solutions, allowing OEMs to meet the varying demands of Forestry equipment.

The DSE M8xx Displays provide programmable display solutions for controlling off highway vehicles and equipment, through a robust, optically bonded, colour screen and button fascia.  A full range of displays with screen size options 3.5” ,4.3”, 7” are available with a 12” version available later this year.  Many of the standard switches and controls that are normally found within the cab or control panel can be incorporated into the on-screen functions, to enable full control through one device if required, leading to a simplified system design.

The newest display is an extremely powerful CAN display, compatible with latest Tier 4F and Stage V engine applications. Programmable using CODESYS, the DSE M835 provides clear information for forest equipment where space is a premium as the high resolution, 3.5” optically bonded, full colour TFT display provides excellent readability, even in the most extreme environmental conditions.

Within the displays multiple independent CAN interfaces are each configurable for different CAN protocols including CANOpen, J1939 and Raw CAN; each CAN protocol offering its own unique property making them favourable for different uses.  This approach to product design optimises the versatility of the controller and enables the design engineer to produce a very efficient system by minimising the amount of data on each bus.

The displays are highly robust and reliable throughout the harshest environmental conditions including humidity and extreme temperatures and are IP67/NEMA 6 rated.  Offering camera input options for improved operator viewing and a choice of fixing solutions for in-cab or panel mounting to suit multiple operator locations.

The fully programmable screen presents clear information in a combination of text, graphical, numerical and icon formats providing the user with quick and easy access to operational functions. Features include multiple configurable I/Os, which are programmed using industry standard CODESYS. PWM and PWMi digital signal logic maximises efficiency, response and signal integrity even under the pressures of the harshest environmental conditions, continuing to operate at full load in widely varying climatic conditions from -40^oC to + 85^oC.

Photo: The M870 can used in landscape and portrait views ideal for a variety of different cab layouts.