There must a lot of trust involved in selling timber,standing or at roadside etc?

[cessna]

I ask the above as a lot of wood is being extracted from a wood not far from our house. When walking by the stacks of different grades of cordwood and trunks on the ground which I think may be good enough to be containerised and sent to the far east (Vietnam??),I said to my wife there has to be a lot of trust  between the landowner and the tree extraction company, as regards keeping track of how  many artic loads/tonnages of wood that leave the estate,as open to a few loads going missing !!!!!    

[gdh]

There is a degree of trust (and arguments over stack sizes usually lead to only weighs being used) but in general it's separate people doing the felling, haulage and purchase plus usually an agent or overall manager checking things so any discrepancies would get picked up on.

 

Not to say it doesn't happen but a bad reputation gets around fast when it's a relatively small industry.

[Vedhoggar]

I have had in the past a few loads removed not documented from standing sales sold on an out-turn basis (weight sales), but had fortunately recorded lorry reg number, time, date and produced lifted and so changed timber buyer and got paid for those loads. Had a load rejected also so drove 2 hrs to check only to find the timber was not from our site (was a different species of tree to that sold), challenged buyer and got paid. It has not happened to me but know of loads skimmed on way to mill (timber transferred from one lorry to another). Have had a cutter fell good timber that wasn't included in a standing sale - complained and cutter removed from site.  Most of the time no problem but contracts need to be properly supervised. 

[Muddy42]

Yes, there is normally a separate haulage company.  The timber lorries go over a weighbridge and both the seller and the buyer should see the tickets showing the weight.

[dumper]

5 hours ago, Muddy42 said:

Yes, there is normally a separate haulage company.  The timber lorries go over a weighbridge and both the seller and the buyer should see the tickets showing the weight.

And lorries paid by ton on haulage so in there interest to max loads

[Vedhoggar]

As you say ‘normally’ the haulage company is a separate enterprise but not always and have encountered problems with timber merchant with owner timber lorries taking timber away  undocumented until challenged. 

[Muddy42]

3 hours ago, Vedhoggar said:

As you say ‘normally’ the haulage company is a separate enterprise but not always and have encountered problems with timber merchant with owner timber lorries taking timber away  undocumented until challenged. 

Sounds horrendous. I do keep a close eye on things but have never even suspected such foul play. I think you need to shop around a bit more. 

[petercb]

When we took over our wood contractor already on site clearing windblow, moving artic loads out. Then we visited wood early one morning to find they were selling unknown to us to a local small sawmill for fencing using flatbeds. They didn't even try to bluff their way out of it just complained that we had gone there early which the previous owner never did! They were off the site promptly.

[dan blocker]

Cutters have been ripped off by land owners and timber merchants as well. Many years ago there were times when we occasionally worked for a dealer who often claimed tags were knocked of large sticks and claimed they measured out less than we claimed! Tosser used to turn up in a new reg Jag every year? He had previously lost an arm in a motorbike accident and it’s no surprise we used to call him the One Armed Bandit🤔

[trigger_andy]

The firm that felled and extracted a lovely parcel of Oak for someone in kind of know  totally took their pants down. If it was not for a mate who owns the surrounding Estate he’s have been decimated. 
 

When confronted they did a fly bolt. About 20t of mill grade oak was left. I milled most of it for them.