Forestry has shown a successful recruitment of younger forest machine operator in recent years, and the young operators seem to be staying in the profession. However, the difficulty of attracting women to the profession remains.
An investigation from 2018 showed a significant risk for forestry that a serious shortage of competent forest machine operator would arise in the period up to 2028. The survey, which was carried out on the initiative of the Forestry Technical Collaboration Group (TSG), showed that high retirements, weak recruitment and dropouts to other occupations were the main reasons. After five years, TSG has now conducted a new survey with the aim of clarifying how the industry has managed to tackle the problems.
The new study does not shed light on the issue of a possible shortage of machine operators in the forest, but shows that the recruitment of younger operators has been significantly strengthened. The data no longer shows signs that drivers aged 30–40 are leaving the profession. Overall, the corps has been rejuvenated considerably in the five years that have passed since the first study. The average age of all active drivers has fallen from 44 years in 2018 to 39 years in 2023. This is a significant and statistically significant change.
A lingering silver lining is that women do not see the machine operator profession as an attractive opportunity, although the optimist can point to an increase from 1.7 to 2.8 percent female drivers from 2018 to 2023. The fact that the proportion of women in the profession has increased is statistically significant.
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That’s a remarkable amount of work hours for a single machine, the Norcar 600 owned by Erkki Rinne is taken well care of, it even has the original Diesel engine.
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Kieran Anders is a forestry contractor working in the lake district. His work involves hand cutting and extracting timber using a skidder and tractor-trailer forwarder.
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It is not possible to eliminate chain shot, but there are simple steps that can be taken to reduce the risk.
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Arwel takes great pride in the fact that the mill has no waste whatsoever, “the peelings are used for children’s playgrounds, gardens and for farm animals in barns in the winter and the sawdust has multiple uses in gardens and farms as well.
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Timber hauliers need to encourage young blood in, and also look after the hauliers we have, we need make the sector a safe and positive place to work.
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Forest Machine Magazine is written and edited by a forest professional with over 40 years hands on experience. We are dedicated to keeping you informed with all the latest news, views and reviews from our industry.
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