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REPORT SUMMARY

This is a summary of Optimal Timber Truck Routing Under Coordination in the Pacific Northwest by 

Eric Jessup, Jake Wagner, and Timur Dincer.1 This research and analysis received funding from USDA’s 

Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) through cooperative agreement number 20-TMTSD-WA-0009. The 

opinions and conclusions expressed are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the views of USDA or 

the Agricultural Marketing Service. The full report is available online at http://ses.wsu.edu/wp-content/

uploads/2022/08/Optimal-timber-truck-routing-under-coordination-in-the-PNW.pdf .

WHAT IS THE ISSUE?

The forest products industry contributes significantly to the economic welfare of large portions of rural America. This is 

especially true in places endowed with the natural resources necessary to produce timber. The Pacific Northwest (PNW) 

region has large areas that produce timber, both on private and public lands. Currently, transporting logs from the forest 

to sawmills is a very costly and inefficient activity. The log transport process significantly reduces the returns to log truck 

owners/operators, hampers efficient operation of sawmills, and ultimately reduces the market for U.S. timber products. The 

process is most inefficient where sawmills are sparsely situated across vast, remote forests with limited road and highway 

access, as is the case in PNW.2

Part of the challenge is the fragmented, independent nature of small, owner-operator, log transportation businesses. In 

most cases, these carriers contract with logging companies to transport logs from harvesting locations to specific mill 

locations. Typically, carriers will travel with empty trailers from their homes to the forest. There, their truck is loaded and 

then sent to the mill for delivery. After delivery, carriers typically return to the same forest to pick up another load and 

deliver it to the mill. They repeat this cycle for as many trips as can be completed in a day, before returning home with an 

empty trailer.

1  Jessup is a research professor; Wagner is a assistant research professor and Dincer is a research assistant at Washington State 

University, School of Economic Sciences.

2 A sparse road network serves as an additional barrier to identifying efficient backhaul opportunities.

Optimal Timber Truck Routing Under Coordination in the 

Pacific Northwest (Summary)

Kranti Mulik and Matt Chang

Agricultural 

Marketing 

Service

Aug 2022
2

The high share of empty backhaul miles in these trips is inefficient, not only because they are empty, but also because 

they limit the number of trips that can be completed daily—and thus limit revenue earned. These inefficiencies in 

transportation stem from a lack of information and a lack of coordination. Log-transport carriers do not know the 

optimal routes they should drive to maximize use of their time and trucks. Such routes require coordination, so the 

fragmentation within forests and between forests and mills prevents such routes from being driven.

This study identifies the value of an information system that facilitates coordinated optimal routing, within the PNW 

timber industry. 

WHAT DID THE STUDY FIND?

The researchers evaluated the net benefits of an information system that facilitates optimal coordinated routing. The 

evaluation is done by comparing the costs, both private and public, of timber transportation under two scenarios—

status quo (no coordinated routing) and coordinated routing. Under the status quo roundtrip routing scenario, 

roundtrip routes averaged 33.6 miles in length, with annual flows on each route averaging 97,984 cubic meters (2,500 

truckloads). Because of the roundtrip routing constraint, 50 percent of all miles traveled were empty backhaul miles. 

Under the coordinated routing scenario, coordinated routes averaged 32.5 miles in length (haul + backhaul), with 

annual flows on each route averaging 78,010 cubic meters (1,950 truckloads). Without the roundtrip routing 

constraint, the share of empty backhaul miles were reduced from 50 percent to 43 percent, reflecting gain in 

efficiency. Annual total public and private efficiency gains from coordinated routing were estimated to be

$6.8 million. This efficiency gain results in a $5.6 million (6%) cost savings/year and a 7% reduction in annual 

greenhouse gas emissions due to the decreased mileage travelled (valued at $656,628/year). Reduced mileage also 

results in less wear and tear on the roadways, generating approximately $0.12 per mile saved (FHWA, 2000), for a 

total of $505,099 annually. Annual total costs were estimated at less than $6.8 million annually (or $5.2 million if we 

consider only private investments). The results indicated adoption of coordinated routing would have a positive return 

on investment within the Pacific Northwest. However, identifying coordinating routing opportunities is often difficult 

as opportunities are not always obvious. Therefore, investment in a coordinated routing information system may be 

beneficial as a next step. 

HOW WAS THE STUDY CONDUCTED?

The researchers developed a transportation optimization model to identify the most efficient routing of timber 

from each forest plot to each mill in PNW. In this way, they simulated an environment where information associated 

with truck transportation services, log harvest, and mill operations was shared across a platform. The exchange of 

information was used to increase coordination and maximize operations regionwide. The model treated mill demands 

as exogenous outputs from a Land Use and Resource Allocation (LURA) model (Latta et al., 2018). Given timber supply 

at each forest plot and timber demand at each mill, the model identified the least-cost routes to meet mill demand, 

without exceeding forest supply/harvest constraints. The model was solved under two operational scenarios: a status 

quo scenario under which all trips were roundtrips with empty backhauls; and an optimal scenario which flexibly 

allowed for coordinated routing and non-empty backhauls. The difference in costs and efficiency between the status 

quo scenario and the optimal routing scenario was used to estimate the value of investing in information technology 

that would achieve improved product flow and efficiency through coordinated, optimal routing. 

PREFERRED CITATION

Mulik, Kranti and Matt Chang. August 2022. Optimal Timber Truck Routing Under Coordination in the Pacific Northwest 

(Summary). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service. 

Web. <http://dx.doi.org/10.9752/TS350.08-2022>

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