That's what I hear. My buddy on the van side ordered the automatic. I just couldn't pull the trigger.
I found this thread when I was going through the process of getting my own authority. I enjoyed reading it because there is just a ton of valuable information scattered throughout the thread. Once I got rolling I didnt have much time to keep up.. I tried to find where I left off but there are so many responses to read through. I picked a spot as close as I could remember leaving off and still had to read through hundreds of pages to get to this point.. Great info here and a little drama too at times...lol I got caught up in the debate about rates and in case anyone is intrested the rates on the spot market for Flatbed have been terrible for a while. Last week I didnt move my truck until Friday waiting for a decent paying load. Rates dropped throughout the week with the lowest being .98 cpm on a load going 1000 miles. So rest assured there is no conspiracy at Mercer to have agents lower rates. The rates are down in every market and every lane as compared to last year. Granted if you can be on the load boards all day you can still find that decent paying load but generally its tough everywhere.
Unless I'm mistaken, this is not the first year for the DD16, I believe they have been around as long as the DD13 and DD15. I have the 600 1850 DD16, its a pullin machine for sure. Getting 1mpg better than my 625 2050 Cat did pulling the same freight.
Did any of you pick up at the gas plant in table rock? One of our trucks got a oversized all the way to Alabama. 1700 miles bet that is paying good lol
Well I don't do a great job of keeping up with engines, but when I said at the dealer that I had never heard of the DD16 he said something along the line of it being new. I can't honestly say he said first year but that's what I took away from it. I ordered the 5700xe. I hope to pick it up in 2 or 3 weeks. Right now I'm at home in WA when I leave the house I'll start making my way to Texas to pick it up.
