My Mercer Experience 8-31-15

Maybe I got lost... You talking bout the load that required 6ft drops that you have on now?

 

I got ya now. Taylor was right, it wasn't what you agreed to, but before I would have tarped I would have got my LC involved and had new rate updated to computer... Then I tarp.

 

What I would have done was call my coordinator who would of handled it all from there. More than once Louisville had taken money out of the agents cut and put it on the truck pay over these type of issues.

 

And don't forget which agent it was. It's only a matter of time till they need a load covered and you are the only truck available. If you are patient and smart about it, that tarp job you did for free will be the best paying tarp pay you ever get.

 

Just posting my experience and hopefully it is helpful reference the fuel mileage issue. When I had a 1996 Freightliner FLD120, CAT 435, 13spd, 3:55 rears, running produce from Cali to New England I would average 6.35 MPG. Would usually try to run about 70 mph on the produce leg of the trip (78,000 lbs) as the extra 5-8 mph would make at least a half a day difference. It was kind of like a hedge between the extra money spent on fuel vs. the risk of keeping the produce on the truck too long (in the summer) and missing a reload and having to spend days in New England while waiting for another load. On the way back I would usually drive about 60-65, those loads were usually much lighter on average. On the produce leg the truck would get about 6 mpg, and the rest of it was a little bit over 6.5 mpg. That truck was kind of a mix between aero and classic style, and I drove the truck pretty easy.
My humble opinion is like what some of the more learned posters here have mentioned, the truck has to be spec'd for the type of work that it is doing in the area that it is doing it, and, lower speeds will get better fuel mileage than higher speeds if it is spec'd correctly. If that is not happening then there is something mechanically wrong somewhere.

 

how is mercer flat bed freight and do they have many short loads out of ky wv va tn see a few on broker board but just like to have little heads up thinking about joining mercer looking for info on them thanks