Log truckers put on brakes

Log truckers across Northwest Montana stopped working for Plum Creek Timber Co. on Tuesday, saying that the timber giant doesn't pay enough for them to stay in business.

In a steady downpour, about 40 log trucks were parked at the Flathead County Fairgrounds on Tuesday morning. The truck owners and drivers huddled in a building, reinforcing their solidarity in continuing with a work shutdown until Plum Creek provides better compensation.

"I'm not going anywhere," said Jody Jeschke, who owns several trucks. "I can't. My back is against the wall. I can't afford to operate any more."

Jeschke and other truckers speculated that most working trucks in Northwest Montana were parked Monday, because most of them deliver to Plum Creek and only a handful deliver to the one or two independent mills still operating in the region. Several Missoula truckers had also reportedly stopped hauling to Plum Creek.

The truckers are in an awkward position, because they do not contract directly with Plum Creek. Rather, they all work for loggers who directly contract with the state's largest owner of private forest land.

Compensation rates for the truckers are supposed to be included in the contracts, but all the truckers gathered at the fairgrounds contend those rates are far from adequate.

"It doesn't reflect the cost that it takes to operate these trucks," Kalispell trucker Scott Mitchell said.

Lance McCully, another Kalispell trucker, said he is operating his dump truck, mostly for construction work, at a rate of $75 per hour, rather than the effective rate of less than $57 for most Plum Creek log hauling.

He drives his dump truck mostly on asphalt, but logging trucks are

subjected to severe wear and tear on remote forest roads and they tend to haul much longer distances.

Tom Ray, general manager for Plum Creek's northwest region, said the company's leadership considers the negotiated logging contract rates to be appropriate.

"That compensation is fair," he said, noting that the company increased the base rate for log hauling by 20 percent over the last two years, and the company provides a fuel surcharge when diesel prices increase.

Asked if Plum Creek might provide any type of concession to the truckers, Ray said the company will stick with its negotiated contracts with loggers.

Truckers at the fairgrounds said the log supply at Plum Creek's plywood plant in Evergreen will last less than two weeks. But Ray dismissed the suggestion that log supplies might dry up if the shutdown persists.

"The weather is too wet to work today, so the trucks wouldn't have worked anyway," he said. "We received logs all day yesterday, and as soon as the weather is dried out, I assume we'll be seeing logs arrive again."

Truckers were assuming the opposite.

Joe Keller, a Kalispell driver who owns seven logging trucks, said he worked part time for Plum Creek and he's done with the company until rates improve.

Keller said he and other truck owners are having a difficult time keeping drivers when local construction jobs pay better. Plus they face insurance costs, continuous maintenance costs and ever-increasing fuel costs.

Three years ago, he said, diesel costs accounted for 10-12 percent of his total overhead costs. But now, fuel accounts for close to 24 percent, and Keller expects fuel prices to increase over the summer.

"The other thing that people don't realize is that we are seasonal," said Jim Weinman, a 17-year veteran trucker from Libby who owns eight trucks.

Truckers sit idle during spring breakup, bad weather and severe fire seasons, at no cost to Plum Creek. Those trucks are essentially "on call" whenever Plum Creek needs them, Weinman said.

"When those trucks aren't making money, the driver doesn't make a dime," he said. "I think that should be worth something to [Plum Creek], for us to be on call to move their product."

Weinman, McCully and Mitchell said they will sticking with the shutdown until conditions improve.

"That's the only kind of language they understand, is when they aren't getting their product," said Tina Mitchell, Scott's wife.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com