# Forestry & Logging

GPS tracking for forestry and logging: full trip records on forest roads without coverage, loads counted at the scale house, and engine hours on skidders.

Source: https://www.highpointgps.com/industries/forestry-logging
Last updated: 2026-09-21

High Point GPS provides GPS tracking for forestry and logging contractors: log trucks on forest roads with no signal, and the harvesters, skidders and loaders working the block. You get a complete record of every trip, load counts at the mill scale and maintenance on real engine hours. A logging operation runs on roads no map service knows, where a phone has no signal for hours. Trucks leave the block before dawn, call their kilometre posts on the radio and reach the mill scale by mid-morning. The GPS tracking device records the trip with or without coverage, stores it and uploads all of it once the truck reaches the highway. The office sees every trip in full, with the speed on each forest road segment and every stop, even if the truck was out of contact for six hours. A geofence at the scale house counts each truck's loads for the day and the time between loads: the number the contractor is paid on and the number the mill reconciles against its scale tickets. On radio-controlled roads, the trip replay shows whether a driver called the posts and kept to the loaded-side rules, and the platform enforces forest-road speed limits as zone rules. Harvesters, skidders, forwarders and loaders carry a rugged GPS tracking device that reads engine hours and fault codes, so maintenance runs on real hours and a hydraulic fault reaches the mechanic before the machine is stranded a hundred kilometres from a shop. On the highway leg, drivers fall under hours of service, and the driver app records duty status and the pre-trip inspection on truck and trailer. When a load count is disputed or a truck is late, you have the record.

## Common problems

- Log trucks out of contact for hours on forest roads, and the office hearing about a breakdown at the end of the shift
- Daily loads reconciled from mill scale tickets days later, with the contractor and the mill disagreeing
- Speeding on forest roads and ignored radio-call rules, with no record until two trucks meet on a corner
- Harvester and skidder hours taken from the operator's memory, and faults that surface as breakdowns in the block
- Hours-of-service violations on the highway leg found at a scale inspection instead of at dispatch
- Trailers, loaders and fuel tanks left in the block and stolen over a weekend

## Highlights

- Complete trip records without cell coverage, stored on the GPS tracking device and uploaded when the truck reaches the highway
- A scale-house geofence that counts each truck's loads for the day and the cycle time between loads
- Forest-road speed limits as zone rules, with speeding and hard braking recorded by segment
- Trip replay showing where the truck stopped and for how long, with the radio-post sequence visible
- Rugged GPS tracking devices on harvesters, skidders, forwarders and loaders for engine hours, idle time and fault codes
- Maintenance reminders on real engine hours for machines that are days from the nearest shop
- ELD hours of service and electronic DVIR for truck and trailer in the driver app
- Battery trackers with movement alerts on trailers, loaders and fuel tanks left in the block

## Does GPS tracking work on forest roads with no signal?

Yes. The GPS tracking device records position, speed and engine data on its own, stores the trip while there is no cellular signal and uploads it as soon as the truck reaches coverage on the highway. You will not see the truck live while it is in the block. By the time it reaches the mill, though, the full trip is in the High Point GPS platform with every segment, stop and speed. A dispatcher who wants to know where a truck was at 5:40 gets a complete answer once the truck comes into range.

That record matters most when something goes wrong. A truck that has not reached the scale by 10:00 has a last known position on the map from the moment it left coverage, and the replay of earlier trips shows where the driver usually is at that hour. A breakdown on a spur road gives the service truck a location to drive to, with no search. When two trucks meet on a corner and the loaded truck's driver says they called the post, the replay shows where the truck was, how fast it was going and whether it stopped at the pullout.

![A timeline of one log truck load: leaving the landing at 4:50 with no signal and the trip stored on the device, passing the kilometre 42 radio post at 5:35 under the speed limit, reaching highway coverage at 6:20, entering the scale-house geofence at 7:05 and leaving the mill at 7:30.](https://www.highpointgps.com/images/guides/forestry-logging.webp)

*One load from the landing to the mill as the GPS tracking device records it, with the forest-road leg stored offline and uploaded once the truck reaches coverage.*

## Loads per Day, Counted at the Scale-House Geofence

A logging contractor is paid by the load or the tonne, and the count is the argument. A geofence around the mill's scale house records each truck's arrival and departure, and each arrival is a load. The High Point GPS platform reports loads per truck per day, the time between loads and the average cycle from the block to the scale and back. The count is independent of the mill's tickets and available the same afternoon, which is how a contractor knows before the end of the month whether the mill's reconciliation is going to match. When it does not, the times and positions of each load are in the record.

The cycle time between loads is where the money in a logging season is made or lost. The report shows how long each truck spent at the landing waiting on the loader, on the forest road in each direction, in the queue at the scale and unloading. A landing where trucks wait forty minutes needs a second loader or a different schedule; a scale queue that builds every morning at 8:00 needs a staggered departure from the block. High Point GPS sets up the report so the woods foreman and the office see the same numbers, by truck and by day.

## Forest-Road Rules and the Drivers Who Follow Them

Forest roads have speed limits, radio-call posts and loaded-side rules, and none of them is enforced by anyone but the drivers themselves. Each forest road is a zone in the High Point GPS platform with its speed limit as a rule, and every trip records speed by segment inside it. A driver who runs the loaded side at 80 where the limit is 60 shows up in the driver scoring the same day, with the segment and the time. Hard braking on a switchback and a truck that did not slow at a known blind corner are events the woods foreman can see and raise before the next shift.

AI dash cams on the log trucks add the picture. A road-facing camera records the corner where two trucks met, a washout that opened overnight or a moose at dusk, and the footage is retrieved by event without downloading a day of video over a slow connection. Driver ID by NFC fob ties trips to the driver, which matters when a truck runs two shifts. On the highway leg to the mill, the driver app records hours of service under the ELD rules in either country, and the dispatcher sees which drivers have the hours left for a second load.

## Harvesters, Skidders and the Machines in the Block

A harvester in the block is the most expensive machine the contractor owns and the farthest from a mechanic. A rugged GPS tracking device on the harvester, the skidder, the forwarder and the loader reads engine hours, idle time and fault codes from the machine and stores them until the machine, or a truck passing the landing, is in range. Maintenance reminders run on those hours, so a 500-hour hydraulic service on a skidder is scheduled before the machine reaches it. A fault code that appears on Tuesday is the reason the mechanic drives out on Wednesday with the right part instead of on Friday after the machine stops.

Utilization comes from the same data. A skidder that ran nine hours and idled four is a number the contractor sees at the end of the week, and a loader that sat two hours waiting for trucks is the other half of the cycle-time report. Battery trackers on trailers, the fuel tank and the loader left at the landing over a weekend report their position on a schedule and raise an alert the moment they move. Electronic DVIR on the machines in the driver app gives the operator a walk-around checklist for tracks, hoses and the saw, with a defect going to the mechanic as a work order.

## FAQ

### Does tracking work on forest roads with no cell coverage?

Yes. The GPS tracking device records the trip on its own, stores it while there is no signal and uploads it when the truck reaches coverage on the highway. The office does not see the truck live in the block, but the full trip, with every stop and speed, is in the High Point GPS platform by the time the truck reaches the mill.

### How are loads per day counted?

A geofence around the mill's scale house records each truck's arrival and departure, and each arrival counts as one load. The High Point GPS platform reports loads per truck per day and the time between loads. The count is independent of the mill's scale tickets and ready the same afternoon, with the time and position of each load.

### Can it enforce speed limits on forest roads?

Yes. Each forest road is a zone with its speed limit as a rule, and every trip records speed by segment inside it. Speeding, hard braking and a truck that did not slow at a known corner show up in driver scoring the same day, with the segment and the time, so the woods foreman can raise it before the next shift.

### Does it track harvesters and skidders?

Yes. A rugged GPS tracking device on each machine reads engine hours, idle time and fault codes and stores them until the machine or a passing truck is in range. Maintenance reminders run on real hours, and a fault code reaches the mechanic before the machine stops in the block, so the service truck goes out with the right part.

### What about hours of service on the highway leg?

Drivers of trucks under the ELD mandate log duty status in the driver app, fed by the GPS tracking device in the truck. Before assigning a second load, the dispatcher sees each driver's remaining hours. The electronic DVIR for the truck and trailer runs on the same tablet at the start of the shift, so inspections and logs sit together.