Mercer Van opportunities?

All dispatches go through Louisville. Every driver is assigned a load coordinator or in another word... A dispatcher. We do have a load board online & can select the loads over that. But you are not confirmed on that load until the coordinator says everything is AOK. Mercer works on a FIFO (first in first out) system. If another truck gets empty before you & wants that load... He gets it unless you are already preplanned!

I have my name on 3 loads coming out of New Jersey on Wednesday... I'm not scheduled to empty until Tuesday sometime... I may be able to get one of those loads, but I'm not confirmed through Louisville so another driver can take grab one if he is empty before me.

When I went through orientation earlier this year, there were 2 other drivers leasing on who had no clue about flatbeddin'. They were offering a flatbed securement orientation on the 3rd. day...

 

Thanks REDD. Good info as always.

 

Justification? Well sometimes you have to look at the costs of everything. Not just the cost to run the truck.

Sometimes there is an abundance of trucks in a certain area. The more trucks in the area at one particular time means it will be more difficult to get freight out of there.

I'm going to use my last stay in Jersey as an example... I was there waiting for a decent load for 6 days (I was offered loads but refused them because I didn't want to go to Maine, New Hampshire, or Vermont). During that 6 days I had to eat. I also washed clothes. And My truck needed to be serviced... I could have done the service myself, but that is extremely difficult to do it a truck stop parking lot...

Truck Service = $305.00
Laundry= $25.00 (buying single use detergent & quarter fed machines)
Meals= $150.00 (I guessed $25.00 a day for 6 days.)
Misc. junk= $30.00 (other junk... Drinks... Snacks... Blah Blah Blah...)

So I spent $510.00 in Bordentown, NJ & was there 6 days.

I could have put $360.00 in the fuel tank & went 900 miles home... Washed my clothes there... Eaten home cooked meals... be at home with my kids... & did my own service for about $150.00 & still have fuel in the truck & not be sitting in a truck stop somewhere. The cost would of equaled about the same... But I would have been home & not in a truckstop!

 

Redd

How'd it go? Did you get a load from NJ or have to deadhead?

Mercer doesn't put/require any qualcom or other units in their trucks do they? I hadn't heard one way or another and don't think to ask when I'm discussing more important stuff with them during the sign on process. What about trip reports, do you still need to put down miles by state or have the automated the process?

Hope you made it home for the weekend.

 

Yeah I came out of there with a load & been sitting here at home since Yesterday. Leaving Sunday to finish the trip to Florida.

No Quallcom, Peoplenet, or anything else. The only communications item they require is a cell phone. Yes you do have to keep track of the miles you run in each state & record them on your log book. They have log books designed to put that info on it... It is for fueel tax info only. The good thing is though is that Mercer pays 100% of the fuel tax with no charge backs to the O/O.

The only real paperwork you will have to deal with other then logs or BOL is the delivery report with works as a trip sheet.

 

Glad to hear you got a load passing by the house. I'll look for loads to central or southern NJ so I can go to Bordentown. I don't get to visit my mom enough anymore, and that is only fifteen miles from where she is in PA. When I'm home for Christmas I will be looking to see if there is anyplace in her town where I can park for a few days or a week on occasion. We used to have a steel mill in town, USS Fairless Works, and used to have a few trucking operations over near that part of town. These days I have no idea how much freight is coming out of that area.

Do you have a load planned to run back out to CA again? That seems to be working out pretty well for you. I'm still trying to find out exactly what exhaust mods I will need to do to make my truck legal for CA.

 

From what I've learned in this forum, 10 years with one company is pretty rare. I'm a wannabe (will be in school next summer) so if you'd be willing to share which company you were with for 10 years, I love to know about it. If you don't want to put it out in the open forum, you can send me a PM.
Thanks

 

Actually it isn't rare at all... Or never use to be. As more & more people lose their jobs & enter the trucking industry to make ends meet... It becomes more common to job hop.

Most of the people I've seen entering the industry lost their jobs elsewhere & are using the trucking industry as a GET BY method until they find a REAL JOB. Their heart isn't in trucking & all they are going by is the rumor that truck drivers make all kinds of money... So they jump from company to company looking for the truth to a rumor. They are the ones who offset the longevity that some have at particular companies.

I've met drivers who have only driven for one company.... And have close to 2 decades of driving experience.
I've also met driver's who have driven for 20 different companies & only have 10, 11, or 12 years experience. Those are the people that I tend to try to stay away from. They have a negative outlook on the trucking industry & life in general.

As for Mercer... We have drivers who have been here 5, 10, 15, 20 or more years. We even have a driver who leased on a Brand new 1973 Kenworth W900.... In 1973 & still to this day he is driving that same truck up & down the road.

 

well its pretty well all covered.......so REDD how is Antonio doing?????

 

Who's Antonio? Or did you mean to say Angelo?