Out of Dutch: hard work pays off for BC interior contractor John Van Ommen, who has gone from trading RRSPs to buy a used skidder to running a 20-employee operation

Canadian Forest Industries, Sep/Oct 2004 by Tice, Bill

When mechanical harvesting is used, it is sometimes in flatter ground, and is almost always in second growth, which means the Van Ommen crews can use just the faster, rubber tire skidders. In addition, they try to deck the smaller wood in tree lengths, streamlining the process for the Lim-mit operator.

The work Van Ommen does for LP is stump- to-truck, as in most cases the trucks are contracted directly by LP, while for Bell Pole, everything is stump-to-dump, with Van Ommen taking care of the trucking as well. The company operates one logging truck, a Kenworth, while all of the other trucking for Bell Pole is contracted out by Van Ommen. In addition to the logging truck, Van Ommen Contracting also has two low bed trailers that are hauled by an additional C500 Kenworth. Both Kenworths are Cat powered. "We actually bought the low beds to move our own equipment, but we found we couldn't keep them as busy as we would like, so we started to contract out the low beds to other loggers and building contractors, and that has proven to be a good side business for us," explains John.

The logging business has worked out well for a guy that started bucking logs at 15 years old. John's eldest son, 19-year old Tyson, seems to be following in his father's footsteps, and works with him in the bush bucking logs, and as a part time skidder operator. If Tyson sticks with the logging business, it probably won't be long before he buys out the skidder he is operating and contracts back to his Dad. After all, buying the equipment you are working on has proven to be a winning Van Ommen formula.