mercer transportation

It's in the contract for a reason.
YOU have no idea when and where it will come up or even IF it will.

But it is there.

I'm with Schneider on Choice and we went through this new contract crap too.
As someone mentioned here there was a lot of arguing and questions(glad everyone was entertained).
Most said it was business as usual..nope it's not.

 

Ok boys, as I'm getting closer to drinking the koolaid Mercer has to offer, I have a couple questions to ask the flatbed drivers. Now I have been reading your post from page 1 to present and I know how you get about questions being covered in the past post, but please keep in mind sometimes I can't remember where I was last week. And I don't believe I saw anything relating to these topics. You have talk about load position when you send in your empty (number of trucks in that area), and some have said that if they stay in that area they can move up in position. My question is how big are these areas, and how many areas are there? If I wanted to run between Indiana east to Massachusetts, New York to Virginia as my primary areas how many areas would that include roughly speaking? Also when you get an OD load who is responsible for the permits? Just to clarify my position I don't think I need any koolaid for Mercer, from what I have read and the drivers I have talked with I'm sure I'm making the right decision. Be Safe

 

What's your name, I'm over at sni for now too

 

I don't think you started an uproar, landstar guys have told me they get corrections long after loads have paid, so that might no be his solution either. I don't see any uproar, I see folks voicing their opinions. You guys must not see some of the Facebook pages, this topic is getting beat to death there, the odd thing is what never gets mentioned, like you don't have to run their tag if you choose to, if you run yours though you are responsible then to pay iota whereas mercer takes care of it now, but another choice which again separates employee and contractor relationship. All the changes, as a whole, do this. But this one seems to have gotten the most attention.

 

There really are only a few areas. The biggest being the west coast that has a seperate board. There is a way to keep your spot in other areas if you do a short haul (less then 200 miles I think) but to be honest the only places that board position has ever effected me was on the west coast and New England.

 

Mercer pays permits.

 

I knew I was forgetting part of his question. LOL

 

Mercer gets the permits on OD. They pay for them, order them, etc. All they need from you is your proposed route. The only exception I know of to that is Wyoming, where you have to buy them at the Port of Entry, but they reimburse you for those permits.

The West coast area includes the eleven western states (WA, OR, CA, AZ, NV, ID, MT, UT, WY, CO, NM) and El Paso, TX. Sometimes you may need to remind them if you go to El Paso since it's in TX, but it does count for the West Coast because we do a lot of back and forth between CA and WSMR/Ft Bliss.

Like CJ said though, the rest is mostly just if you run local (within 200 or 250 miles whatever it is). You just gave to make sure that your coordinator realizes you're doing a local run so that he/she can put in whatever super secret squirrel code they need to in order to hold your position.

 

I must be a slow typer.....

 

I think it's 5 maybe 6 areas. I'd have to look in the blue book to be sure. For example I was number 20 on a load in one area then number 3 on a load in a different area then I was 11 on the load I ended up grabbing. Still slightly confusing but it's a little more clear for me. Make sure your coordinator don't have your preferences real tight.