The transport of materials, especially in the timber industry, is the most archaic one can imagine.
To avoid dispersion, I put it down simple: long logs? Long trucks. Very long trunks? Very long trucks. Not a compact truck, but more often a myriad of huge (and polluting) trucks that remain huge even when empty, that is, half the way, when you don't need to carry the load. We need a transformer, like those in cartoons.
Indeed, in Germany they have developed a very special vehicle for this type of load. It is a compact transformer truck called Ratioplus, produced by the company Doll Fahrzeugbau.
The stages of metamorphosis
When Ratioplus is headed to the construction site, its appearance is this:
Once in place, the driver jumps into the seat for the on-board crane, and the transformer truck begins to change appearance.
Then he unloads a kind of "companion" to the truck that was parked in the back. A second piece of the truck, which will be remotely guided during transport.
Once the logs have been arranged, the "remote" trailer adjusts to the required length, which can vary from time to time depending on the load.
As he rests the former on the little friend, he simultaneously controls him remotely to get away from him, essentially setting the length the truck will take.
Once finished loading, the "new" long truck is ready to leave: the small crane is brought back on board and goes away.
The transformer truck configuration allows Ratioplus to tackle windy and rough roads with ease.
Here is a video showing the process:
What to say: the solution (then we can talk about deforestation, more calmly) responds to a logic if nothing else. The logic of using means and vectors only when they are needed, and to the extent that they are needed.
