Sugar Cane Backlog

It's the height of the sugar cane harvesting season, so a backlog of trucks waiting to dump their load at the sugar cane factories would be understandable. But from what we've seen at the main factories (most recently the one near Erawan today), there were easily 100 trucks laden with cane camped out in the parking lot....and more arriving by the minute.
I've always been curious what the waiting period is at the height of the season? Anyone out there with a family member involved in the business?

Parrot, I have limited input derived from a small conversation with a truckdriver with a 'lot-puwang' (truck and hanger) who was loading next to my garden. He told me that his usual waiting time was about 6, 7 hours, and/but very often he slept in his truck during the night in the parking lot.
This was the Kumphawapi factory, maybe it is different in other places.

What I found the most striking from this talk was him telling me that his gross weight was 75 tons and his engine was 210 horse power !! How can you drive that ?
Slowly, he said...

I passed a lot of the older trucks today, but the newer double-trailer versions seem to have more power....and a lot more capacity.

....... gross weight was 75 tons ........

That's amazing! In the US, I think the maximum legal gross weight (without special permit) in most states is 40 tons for an 18 wheeler (semi tractor-trailer). Engines for these trucks are between 350 and 600 horsepower. Hard to imagine that trucks are allowed to travel on Thai roads and highways at nearly twice that total load and with limited horsepower.

The reson there is a weight limit in Europe/US is because the roads are not constructed well enough to take any more ..... whereas in Thailand .....

Scheduling the cane delivery is a difficult process. There are differences as well in the grades of cane that the different factories will accept, so some cane gets trucked quite long distances. The most important thing is to keep the factory running at full capacity 24 hours * 7 days between November and early April. Cane production is up, so the season is longer this year.
If the number of loads is building up rapidly it suggests a problem with the processing - especially if dirty cane has been brought in and the crushers are wearing too quickly.

Kumpawapi, any idea how they test the sugarcontent of sugarcane in a particular lorry ? Do they test ?
I cannot imagine them cooking up some stems and then test the solution with a diffraction meter.

It is easy to determine the type of sugarcane and whether the leaves have been burnt off.
I know that the latter yields about 250/300 baht per ton less, quite a percentage.

As far as I know the payment is based on variety and quality of the stems - thickness and length of stem and maturity- and is assessed in the field, then per tonne delivered.
The sugar content is measured in the syrup flow, but is not linked to individual lorry loads.