Do the Right Thing
Robert L. Rice Trucking
Sweet Home, Oregon

by Darin Burt

They say that if you want something done right, then you best do it yourself.
Bob Rice is one person who applies that philosophy to his business. It seems to be working too, as he has been successfully logging and trucking out of his hometown of Sweet Home, Oregon for the last three decades.
“I’ve always said that the price may be cheap, but I am going to log the way I want to log,” he says. “I’ll either do it that way or I’ll just go broke.”
Robert L. Rice Trucking and Rice Logging are both owned and operated by the Rice family. Son Chris, also a part-time pharmacist, manages Rice Logging’s three sides, which include a tower and two shovels. Son Doug, who also runs a shovel during the day, takes care of the trucking end of the business. Rice’s wife, Rose, takes care of the office with the help of their daughter, Janette, and niece, Heather Swanson.
And Bob? Well, he works with the mechanics, builds roads and landings, moves equipment and oversees the whole shooting match. “I really try and do as little as I can,” he jokes.
Rice Logging has been contracted to Weyerhaeuser since the day they started. Their dozen or so trucks - depending on what may be in the shop - carry their own logs. They also have two trucks that haul for Willamette Industries.
Like most people in the timber industry, Bob Rice got his first experience in the woods at an early age. Logging jobs were plentiful in the Sweet Home area, and Rice worked the woods during the summer when he was in high school and took it on as a full-time job after graduation. 
“Back then if you could work you could get a job,” he says. “I would work for the gypos in the summertime and then hit the bigger outfits in the winter for choker setting jobs.”
He did most jobs from the rigging on up and also hauled veneer and some logs for the Vaughn Lumber Co. in laggard.
Rice’s experience was put to good use while he was logging superintendent for American Can in the Cascades. The company eventually bought out Snyder Lumber and sold all the logging equipment. Rice took over as contract administrator for a year or so until they sold all of their timber sales.
He went into partnership with Ed Layfette, a local farmer, and started logging for American Can, and also did a few jobs for Tomco out of Sweet Home. One fall they, they had a couple of months to spare and had the chance to work a Weyerhaeuser sale. Rice impressed Weyerhaeuser and has been fortunate to be working for them since that day.
“It’s steady and you will never have to worry about the money,” Rice says.
The partnership between Rice and Layfette lasted about eight years. Rice continued to log on his own and bought his first truck in 1980 when one of the gypos hauling his logs wanted to sell his 1975 Kenworth. Over the years, he gradually built up his fleet of log trucks as he ran across a good deal.
“We are trying desperately to take what profit we make into updating the trucks. I’m the type of person who puts kits together because I can pick the components and put the truck together the way I want it,” Race says. “I don’t like the big payments on new trucks. I buy components until I get the components for a kit and when I get enough money, I buy a kit to make a new truck. I’ve tried to steer away from electronics as long as I could because I can always fix a throttle rod, but I just got to the point where I couldn’t do it anymore with the newer trucks around.”
Rice prefers Kenworth to other truck lines because he has found that their cabs stand up the best. 
He has a long relationship with Roberts Motor Co., in Eugene, and says that having one make of truck in their fleet makes it easier on their shop when it comes to parts and repairs. 
Rice is proud of having good looking trucks and takes it upon himself to install most of the wiring and pick out the perfect color and stripe combinations. 
“All the comments that I have ever gotten are about the trucks,” he says. “It’s not that I have a good looking logging outfit, but rather ‘hey, you’ve got good looking trucks. The next time they see the truck they will want to know what name is on it.”
Doug adds that “half the time when I get an application from a new driver it says that he saw our trucks on the road and that is why he wanted to work here.”
Rice likes to see the trucks washed regularly and kept as clean as possible inside. The drivers take care of the brakes, lights and loose bolts on the trucks. With a dozen trucks and three sides of logging equipment to take care of, Rice relies on the drivers to alert them if something is wrong with the truck.
“We expect the oil changed every 10,000 miles and we want the trucks washed once a week — but we get kind of flexible on that in the wintertime. Cleaning it up is also the time when you can find little problems,” Doug says.
Rice has a full-time mechanic whose main responsibility is to work on the company’s logging equipment and some on the trucks. Another repairman works around the shop six days a week taking care of the trucks and logging crew transportation vehicles.
Most of the repairs are taken care of in the Rice shop, but rearends and transmissions normally go out to Stallic International, in Springfield. Reliable Welding, in Sweet Home, and Southfork Welding, in Lebanon take care of some of the Welding
For tires, Rice says he tries to stock up when he sees a good buy. VE Tire, in Eugene, handles the tire capping, and according to Rice, they have the best prices on tires in the area.
Rice says that he is lucky to have a good group of drivers on his payroll.
“I like a driver that is mechanically inclined and knows how a truck is put together. That way when something does happen he has some idea of where and what the problem might be,” he says. “I like to have somebody who has experience driving off-road, whether it be a log truck, dump truck or belly dump, so that you get an idea that they can handle a truck on logging roads.”
Rice offers safety incentives for the drivers, and provides them with health insurance, and a 401K plan. The drivers are paid 32 percent of the gross of the truck and are compensated for their time if they help with major repairs. A couple of the drivers have been with Rice close to 20 years, but the company still faces some turnover just like everybody else.
“Employers need to do better about checking previous employment. If you need a driver you usually need them right away and a background check can take up to a week,” Doug says. “We’ve had to terminate a couple people in the last year and we don’t usually fire people unless it’s something really bad.”
Weyerhaeuser often sends their company tours to look at Rice’s logging sides as has earned a reputation as a logger who uses sound practices and is conscious of protecting the environment. He puts garbage cans on every landing and expects the chaser to police the area. 
“It’s just good housekeeping and by having the chaser pick up around the landing you just get better housekeeping in general,” he says.
Rice’s desire to put a good face on the logging industry also goes for his trucks.
“I don’t care if were on a county road or a private road. The people who live there have been there a long time before we were,” he stresses. “We watch the jake brakes, the dust and the speed by the houses because you never know when there may be kids playing out there. I don’t want anybody coming by my house going six hundred miles an hour. It’s just basic common courtesy.”
Weyerhaeuser expects the drivers to wear personal protection equipment, drive with their lights on at all times and keep the speed down on the logging roads.
“Weyerhaeuser is really safety conscious,” Rice points out. “If you hire a contract trucker they expect you to see that they follow all the rules. We haven’t had a problem with that because we use certain people and we know what to expect.”
Rice goes the extra mile towards maintaining the logging roads. He stresses to his drivers to keep the road in good condition by not keeping their tires in the same tracks. 
“A lot of guys drive 12 to 14 hours a day. They get a load on and the next thing they think is that they have to get to the mill and get unloaded. An ordinary truck driver will just head down the road and turn on the autopilot,” Rice says. “I insist that my drivers don’t drive down the same track every time. I want them to use the whole road right down to the edge on both sides. That way they can get the berm off so the water can run off and there isn’t a big pile of rocks down the middle to poke holes in the tires.”
Rice is telling has story as he drives his pick-up down the mountain from the logging side. Every so often he will swing over to the other side of the road and flatten down a pile of rock.
“I bet you thought I was going to run off the road,” he asks later.
Not at all. In typical fashion, he was just doing the right thing.
“If you are going to get into logging or trucking you need to like what you’re doing because it’s not a real big money maker. It is a living if you can get a steady job,” Rice says. “We do a lot of the work ourselves and try not to get over-extended. We try and run just enough trucks so that they work year round and then hire the few other trucks that we need.”
“They do fulfill a need for us,” he adds, regarding having his own trucks. “We can tell them where to go and when to be there. We aren’t always depending on somebody to do the job for us.”