EN
Timber hauling from the forest, either directly to the consumer or to the place of transshipment for a rail transport, is carried out by vehicles adapted to the transport of long or short logs and medium−sized wood. In Poland, regulations restrict the total weight of a vehicle traveling on roads, which consists of the weight of the empty vehicle and the weight of the load. When transporting the wood, the variability of the species, assortments, and wood moisture content does not allow for the unambiguous determination of the weight of transported timber, which often contributes to the excessive gross vehicle weight (GVW). In the conducted study, we analyzed Scots pine wood shipments (mainly short logs of length of 3.7−5.0 m) in different seasons of the year: in January (652 shipments), in March/April (1586), in July/August (1324), and in October/November (1914). GVW was calculated, based on the weight of an empty set and a weight of the load. The weight of the load was determined in two ways. In the first one it was calculated as a difference between loaded and unloaded truck. Measurements were carried out on the stationary scales. In the other method the volume of transported wood was taken from a delivery note and multiplied by the conversion rate for Scots pine, which equals 0.74 Mg/m³. The difference between both calculation methods reached 17%. It was found that in 2016 timber loads varied greatly, ranging from 41.3 to 66.9 Mg. The average GVW for the year 2016 was 50.64 Mg and it was on the similar level as in 2009 – 51.12 Mg on average, ranging from 40.06 to 64.20 Mg.