Prospects and Challenges of Timber Trucking in a Changing Operational Environment in Finland

• Main Authors: Ville Nousiainen, Kari Palojarvi, Teijo Palander, Jukka Malinen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Zagreb, Faculty of Forestry 2014-01-01
• Series: Croatian Journal of Forest Engineering
• Online Access: https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/177904

The objective was to study how entrepreneurs taking care of the transport of wood perceive the current challenges in the operating environment and reflect these challenges in the changing climate. The data was collected in spring 2012 by mail questionnaire, which was answered by a total of 86 entrepreneurs giving a response rate of 19.1%. According to the respondents, the most debilitating factors in the changing infrastructure in future will be the challenges of the low volume road network, especially winter maintenance including removing snow and ice and preventing slippery conditions. The entrepreneurs were concerned about labour costs caused by a possible shortage of skilled drivers. The main problem concerning Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in timber trucking logistics is the inability to use one ICT system for two or more clients, which leads to problems in handling multiple clients. Almost all respondents agreed that timber trucking enterprises are too dependent on clients’ ICT systems.