TILLAMOOK, Oregon —
Don Averill has been in the trucking business for 50 years. During that time, as you would assume, his business has grown. It has grown in more ways than simply adding trucks, however. Don G. Averill Trucking, Inc. has grown to include solid waste hauling, composting, and wood waste recovery and recycling.
As Don has diversified his business, an important partner has been Oregon-based Construction Equipment Company (CEC), which has supplied equipment for screening materials, including key machines to serve a large sawmill business.
Don’s business is based in Tillamook, Oregon, a small city and the seat of the county by the same name. Tillamook is located near the southeast end of Tillamook Bay, a little over 70 miles west of Portland. The area is home to five rivers.
Don, 68, has been in the trucking business since 1968. The company’s trucks haul mainly lumber, wood chips, agricultural products, and solid waste.
He and Jo, his wife of 48 years, operate affiliated businesses, one being, Don G. Averill Recycling, Inc., a solid waste transfer station for Tillamook County that hauls garbage to the landfill. He also has several partners in a business that makes compost. And he has a dairy farming enterprise, Averill Farms, Inc.
The trucking company generates about 50 percent of revenues; recycling, 25 percent; and farming, 25 percent.
Don’s Chip Trailers Have Hallco Live Floors™
Averill Trucking is equipped with a fleet of 40 Kenworth semi-tractors and Western & Peerless chip trailer and flatbed trailers. Chip trailers feature the Hallco Live Floor™ System for self-unloading.
Don has been a Hallco Industries’ customer since 1968. He said he was the first customer to have the Live Floor™ System, which originally had a wooden subdeck with aluminum slats when introduced in the mid-1970s.
Live Floor™ systems are hydraulically powered and are comprised of a series of deck slats that move in sequence to both load and unload quickly and completely.
“There’s no better floor and working with Hallco is great,” Don said of the business, which is very near his own business. “We are in the same town and they are only four miles away.”
Hallco Industries designs and manufactures a full line of bulk materials handling solutions for trucks, trailers and stationary conveyor/bin systems.At the transfer station site, wood material is segregated from trash and garbage so it can be recycled. Brushy vegetation is processed into compost along with manure and some wood fiber material. Wood waste that can be recycled is processed with a Peterson 2400H grinder, and the wood fiber is sold for boiler fuel.
Don Provides Recovery and Recycling Services to Local Sawmill
Wood recovery and recycling services also are provided on-site to the Hampton Lumber mill in Tillamook.
Don had been a customer of CEC for 13 years when he bought equipment for screening compost. He added a CEC Screen-It seven years ago for screening and recycling material at the Hampton Lumber log yard, then four years ago added a CEC Separate-It to segregate wood and rock material for the lumber manufacturer.
Hampton Lumber’s affiliated mill in Tillamook, Tillamook Lumber Co., cuts 100 percent Hem-Fir, a species combination of Western Hemlock and the true firs. The sawmill has an annual production capacity of 240 million board feet, according to the company’s website. It manufactures framing lumber for domestic and export markets. The company produces kiln-dried 2×4 and structural joists and planks as well as green 3-inch and 4-inch material in various widths and lengths. Now a third-generation, family-owned company, Hampton Lumber has nine sawmills overall in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
Mills typically lay a foundation of rock or gravel in a cleared area that will be used to stack and store logs. Bark and other wood debris falls off in the process of unloading logs in the yard and stacking them in decks. Inevitably, it mixes with the gravel.
“You have to have some means of disposing of that contaminated wood fiber and rock,” said Rick Allen, president and owner of CEC.
In the past Hampton Lumber was forced to have the debris hauled to a landfill and pay landfill fees. Another contractor unsuccessfully tried to screen the material for Hampton Lumber, according to Don, before he got the contract.
With the CEC screening and separating equipment, most material now can be recycled instead of being put in a landfill, said Don. Only about 20 percent still needs to be landfilled. Two of Don’s workers operate the screening and separating equipment on-site at Hampton Lumber.
Beside eliminating costly landfill fees, the service benefits Hampton Lumber in other ways. “They can take the bark and wood debris and use it to fire their boiler,” noted Don, and the fines can be used in compost. The rock material can be used again to lay a foundation in the log yard. And it enables the lumber company to reclaim space in the log yard, eliminating the need to expand it further.
Hampton Lumber has a stationary hog to grind waste wood material. If it breaks down, however, Don’s company comes to the rescue. The Peterson grinder is towed to the sawmill and provides on-site grinding services until the company’s hog is back in service.
How the Screen-It and Separate-It Are Used
The combination of the CEC Screen-It and the company’s RWS 2000 Separate-It is designed to be used in log yard or mill yard environments that have an abundant mixture of wood fiber and gravel, explained Rick.
Material is fed into the Screen-It via a hopper. The company’s 5×12 screen sorts the material by size, depending on the size of the wire mesh screen cloths. Material is filtered by the screens and exits via a conveyor system. In the process, some wood fiber and gravel are segregated.
The leftover material exits onto a conveyor that dumps it into the separator, which includes a 2,000-gallon water bath. Of course, the wood material floats; it is pushed by a stream of water into an upper conveyor. The gravel sinks to the bottom, where another conveyor removes it.
“Now the log yard operator can take the rock back and use it for building bases for log decks, or sell it,” said Rick. “The wood fiber goes for fuel, landscaping material, or other markets.”
The Screen-It can separate out soil or aggregate less than ½-inch. It also separates wood and rock material larger than 5 inches.
The Separate-It produces five product materials. Four are sized 5 inches by ½-inch: rock, clean rock, grindable wood or fuel wood, and clean wood. The drag chain at the bottom of the tank that removes material produces a sand soil product.
The CEC Separate-It features hydraulic adjustable feed and hydraulic adjustable wood belt. It can be operating at full production in 5-10 minutes after start-up.
The CEC Screen-It can be used for screening mulch or related wood fiber material as well as compost and aggregate. The company has even sold units to dairy farms that use it for screening cow manure.
“We are building one and shipping it to Texas to a quarry,” said Rick. The quarry is for mining limestone, but trees that were on the property sank roots 8-feet deep into the limestone, contaminating the rock. Some of the limestone is contaminated as much as 10 percent with wood fiber. “Rock is far more valuable if it is not contaminated with wood fiber,” noted Rick.
Don said he has enjoyed excellent service and support from CEC. “They treat me really well. If I have a problem, I call them and they take care of it. They’re really good. Their service department and parts department are right on the problem when I call.”.
Don provides the screening and recycling services exclusively to Hampton Lumber. “I could use it for more places,” he said, “but I’m so busy I haven’t got time to do it.”
“It’s been a good relationship,” he said of dealing with the sawmill, which has changed hands several times over the years.
Don has several machines to move and load material into his CEC equipment: Cat 950 and 956 wheel loaders and a Link-Belt 210 excavator.
CEC Manufactures Screens, Conveyors for Wood Fiber Material
Started in 1981, Construction Equipment Co. (CEC), a family-focused and family-owned business, has been a leader in the manufacturing of heavy equipment.
CEC specializes in portable crushing, screening, and conveyor systems for quarry, mining, sand and gravel, compost, bark and other wood fiber products, top soil, and recycling operations. It serves customers directly worldwide.
At its manufacturing plant in Sheridan, Oregon, CEC builds high-quality equipment and customizes machinery for customer requirements. It has a knowledgeable sales and service staff.
Besides equipment for crushing, screening and separating, CEC also offers material handling equipment, such as conveyors and stackers, container loaders for wood products and other materials, and various types of feeding equipment. The company also offers a wide range of magnets for removing ferrous metal from materials.
For more information about Construction Equipment Co. and its products, visit www.ceccrushers.com or call (800) 600-5427.
Working Behind the Scenes in the Averills’ Businesses
Don Averill has managers over his different business units, but he is very active in them every day himself. He runs the shop where the companies’ trucks, trailers and equipment are serviced and repaired. He fills in dispatching, and he fills in driving a truck. “Just whatever comes up,” he said. “Whenever there’s an issue or a problem, that’s where I am.”
One son, Donnie, 46, oversees the farm operations, and another, Aaron, 44, oversees the solid waste collection services and transfer station operations.
The dairy operations include two farms with 700 milk cows. One of the farms is equipped with a robotic milking system with eight robots. Milk is supplied to the Tillamook County Creamery Association that processes it into various milk products.
Don has several partners in the composting operations, Compost, Inc. The work is carried out in a converted airplane hangar that was refurbished.
Don has trouble recruiting qualified drivers. “You can’t find them,” he said. “The ones we have are getting old and are retiring. And I’m not getting any younger.” Young people are not interested in driving a truck for a living “because they can sit at a computer at home and make as much as they can driving a truck,” said Don.
His drivers typically earn from $50-75,000 a year, he said, and some earn more. The company has a benefits program, too, including a 401(k) employee savings plan and paid vacation. “I don’t believe in not paying people well,” said Don. “If you don’t take care of your people, you can’t keep them.” The company runs new model semi-tractors, too, down to about the 2011-12 model year.
A lot of employees have been working for him for 20-25 years. “If I can get them, I keep them,” said Don.
Don is a member of the Oregon Trucking Association. He has one pursuit outside work, serving as president of the board of directors of the Tillamook County Fair.
“My hobby is work,” he said. “Every day, I’m living the dream.”
