Star Trek: Quebec loggers find heavy savings in lighter truck

GASPE, Que. (Sept. 20, 2004) — Brothers Maurice and Marcellin Savoie run Les Routiers de Saint-Omer, the first fleet to participate in the Star Truck program in servicing the Tembec mill at Nouvelle in the Gaspe region of Quebec.

The program was launched in 1999 by the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada, and the basic principle was to build a truck in collaboration with its owner and then compare its performance with a control truck from the same carrier, and use the results to get costs down.

The other goal was to disprove the assumption that logging trucks are supposed to be strong and heavy, not light and fragile.

The process for the Savoie brothers was very enlightening, and very profitable. Because there’s a healthy resale market for gravel trucks in the region, the Savoie brothers used to spec bigger but also heavier axles. Regulations allow 7,250 kg on the front axle of a gravel truck, but a logging truck is limited to 5,500.

“We were carrying some additional weight on the front of the trucks that was useful only at resale time,” says Maurice Savoie. “We have determined with FERIC that the profitability over the total life cycle of the truck was better when a lighter axle was spec’d at first.”

On the other hand, the brothers convinced FERIC that it should use a bigger engine in their Western Star than suggested. “We knew a small block wouldn’t do here,” Maurice tells us. “We’re hauling in the mountains and we want an engine brake that’s powerful enough. Also, we’ve noticed that fuel efficiency is better with a bigger engine because it’s not over-working.”

Les Routiers de Saint-Omer is still in contact with some of the manufacturers who took part in the Star Truck program — Alcoa, for example, for whom they tested three generations of wheels in a forest environment.

The results of the two-year study showed a 10 per-cent gain in productivity for the St-Omer fleet. The lower tare weight and other savings achieved by the Star Truck dropped haul costs by $1 per ton, from $11.25 to $10.25.

Today, the other Les Routiers de Saint-Omer rigs include many of the improvements of the Star Truck. “We’re always looking for ways to spec our trucks lighter,” says Maurice. “Incidentally, our trucks are today some 500 kg lighter than the Star Truck, mainly because of the new steel technologies that allows a thinner but also more resilient trailer chassis.”