Operational Parameters of Logging Trucks Working in Mountainous Terrains of the Western Carpathians

Abstract

Timber haulage is the last phase of the raw timber production process, necessary to transport timber to the customer. To improve the efficiency of logging truck operations, it is necessary to observe and assess several operational parameters through the electronic systems installed on the logging trucks. Measurements for this study were conducted for three logging truck types, which hauled 24,648 m3 of timber over 54,857 km and 1232 round trips. The RMC system was used for truck monitoring, equipped with a CAP04 capacitance sensor and a WGS 48 GPS module. The monitoring was continuous, lasting 27 to 74 weeks. Data acquired were evaluated via regression and correlation analyses and ANOVA. The results showed a moderately strong negative correlation between haulage productivity and haulage distance, ranging from r = −0.47 to r = −0.68. Simultaneously, a rather low efficiency of timber haulage was found for long-range haulage caused by legislation-based small utilization of the load-carrying capacity of the logging trucks. This showed in increased fuel consumption per production unit (2.01 Lm−3) as well as increased carbon emissions production (5.54 kg m−3).