Honest Question

Hey, I like being lazy!

Look we are all trying to defend Mercer and I don't think we need to. One of two things will happen here. People will either learn how to make mercer work for them or they will move on to greener pastures. All of our bickering (all though entertaining at times) is never going to change that. So to ALL parties I suggest a weekend off. Lets help eachother more and disagree a little less.

That's just my 2 ¢ and I know it's not worth 1.

 

Spyder, that's correct, one thing I mean by patience is not trying to unload and load same day everytime, a little patience helps you select better loads and end up better overall with less miles ran. I ran 84000 miles last year in 41 weeks running, I too 11 full weeks off, , that's not days added up weekends or other days at home not included in that 11 weeks, I could tell my gross numbers but. It wouldn't believed, my net was up 21 per cent though. But I pay rent for my kids at both college places and utilities, also pay for daughters car, besides. My bills , also help those 2 out with other stuff. I also pay 800 a month health insurance. But I ain't broke. I am not bickering, not arguing, just pointing out if you take the time to listen. And hear, be willing to adapt to a different way of doing things, let the guy in the mirror accept responsibility for the position your in, realize that guy is the one accepting the loads, its that guy who makes you end up in the places you are, when you get that guy to change, then you will see a change. I can say this because I was. That guy. I have done it , I am still doing it. Fellows quit chasing the deal of. Good old boy networks, scams, and your getting screwed attitudes. Its a waste of time. Ask yourself, how can many find a way to happiness here and I can't. If you take this as criticism. Your dead wrong. You don't think I don't sit here in this truck and have a talk with myself??? I get to picky and miss loads, or i pick the wrong one. I shoot myself in the foot on a fairly regular basis still. But I know who to blame, me. Not good old networks, load board jumping, agents, fan boys etc etc etc. I look to myself, as I am the one making the decisions. Ask yourself truthfully, if there's anything you can do to improve the situation.

 

Well since you put it that way, as I look at myself an ask myself, "hey self, what do you suppose you can do to improve your situation?"
Self looked at me and asked "why would you go sign up to be leased on to a carrier you were already doing great business with as your own carrier?"

Not one of my brightest ideas but it was a lesson learned. Sometimes it's not always the smartest decision to try an eliminate responsibility. Great rewards come only with great work behind it. I guess I wanted to be lazy an thought that I could come here an be lazy as well.
There are some amazing things I've learned by being on the "inside" of mercer. I'm thankful for that.
But just like @CJndaTruck & @mtoo said, this is a business so in order for my business to continue running the smartest decision would be for me to switch back over as an approved carrier an work with mercer that way.

 

That's makes a lot more sense and much more responsible, than going on about all that other stuff. But again the difference is about 8 per cent. Between brokered vs leased here. Like I said, this a business decision. You can't worry about hurting feelings. Emotions do not work well with business decisions.

 

Yea I understand the percentage difference but that only means I have to work a little harder to make up for what I'm losing. Once again, the money side of it was never the issue...I just don't have the freedom I was looking for.
If I want a load on my back twice a day or a 1 load 5 days a week or simply run one load per week, I want to be able to do that. Unfortunately, I can't make that happen here.

 

i am in davenport,fl got a ac unit unloading, 10 or 11 mercer trucks unloading crane booms and such right next door.
i got a load booking out of florida already. i booked it last week. all the trucks there were 15000 numbers and up that i saw. wonder if i shopuld stop by and let know the fanboy has a load , used my pull and jumped the line, called the agent and bypassed everyone, called in empty 2 days ahead of time????? or should i just tell em me and my cooordinator worked it like a beast , told me several trucks were gonna be in this same town, so when was offered that was decent out of here . no tarp and less than 20k paying 1.88 out of florida, i took it with no hesitation??? but that wouldnt cause much hyperactivity would it?? they wouldnt believe it anyway, you reckon?

 

LOL, you have to stop using that "Good Ole Boy" connection.

 

Trust me, I know there are guys here at mercer who actually put the legwork in to find their loads. I'm not doubting one word you just stated. In fact, if "everyone" here was abusing the system then it wouldn't be much left of mercer as a company. All I clarified was that NOT everyone here puts in the legwork to make money here. It's been proven over an over, but we can always agree to disagree on that subject

 

I have yet to see any proof of the good ol boy system. Just accusations. Now any system with agents makes abuse of the system possible, so I'm sure it MIGHT happen. But if it does it is on less than 1 percent of all the loads that go through mercer. I'm certainly not going to waste my limited time and energy worrying about the slim possibility of so few loads being messed with.

 

The good ol by system worked in my favor today. As I was delivering my load today I get a strange number to call.
Of course I didn't answer it so they left a message. It was a mercer agent asking me to give her a call an that she saw my truck was posted in the area.
I call her back an she says hey I got 3 loads for you to choose from an i will let you pick whichever one you want since you are the closest to it. She said these loads will not hit the board until you make your selection of the 3. So I picked the load I wanted an 5 min later my coordinator Calls an says hey I see you got accepted on an Was just making certain I actually committed to it.
But that's neither here nor there....no complaints or anything nor will I give out any info on who the agent was an blah blah...I just heard a lot of guys tell me that there were ways around the loadboard you just have to be in he right place at the right time or have a decent relationship with agents. Well I've never experienced it myself until today. So I guess now I can officially speak from the horse's mouth when I say yes it does exist here.
Probably not as much as some would like to believe but at the end of the day the load system here isn't "air tight"