mercer transportation

#### I thought I was bad having my first at 35 and second at 36 recently lol.. Congratulations!!! Get ready sleep as you know it will be a thing of the past for the first few months lol

 

I thought this was funny. A owner op was picking up in WI last week with me. He was a proud ooida member. He started talking to me and he believes that we should be paid 100 an hour for detention pay. I agree with this but he feels they shouldn't get 1 hour free.
How do you expect a customer to unload 3 trucks in front of you within an hour? Does it happen yes it does but not too often lol.

Then he started on why companies are going to automatics. I told him 2 reasons better mpg and less wear and tear. He said no its because they are trying to get more women in trucking.

All I could do was finish strapping faster to get out of there. Oh he says he worked for Mercer for 1 week and they forced him to run new York.

 

Ron
sometimes goes by Red

 

If your in the market for a new truck. International has a good deal 2 year engine and after treatment warranty plus 2 year PM maintenance on all cummins used trucks.

 

I don't expect them to unload three trucks within an hour, I do expect that I will be paid for my time.

How do you justify that everyone else there is paid by the hour while we sit and wait? Our pay system needs to be not just mileage or percentage but a combination of pay for our driving (time will vary based on conditions and we accept that) plus ALL time spent at a customer. When you've been around long enough you realize appointments can be a joke, yet so many places are quick to either deny detention because you are a minute late, or turn you away and reschedule, or worst now all the places that want to charge us $200.

Most food service delivery places have it right, you are paid by the pieces you deliver, plus the weight, and the miles, and if you have to wait (like can't deliver during lunch) then you are on the clock.

There is NO reason that ALL our time should not be compensated. Imagine any other job where you were only paid while being productive. Standing around or BS'ing on the phone with your friends you'd be off the clock. Dock workers standing around doing nothing, guys holding up shovels at a job site. Not working, not on the clock. See how well that would go over. WHY is everyone so willing to give up their time in this job? We don't need different HOS, we don't need to work 70 hrs a week which everyone is more than willing to lie and cheat and make that 100 hrs. We need to get paid for all the time we spend at shippers and receivers, no "free time" at all. That would rock their world and make them become efficient, rather than using us drivers to absorb the inefficiencies in the transportation network.

 

The Mega companies are also going with Automatics so they can fill the seats with even more steering wheel holders. That's the true.

 

That wouldn't rock there world. It would stop all these places from being FCFS. I'm more then happy to give a customer 1 hour of free time. 15-20 of that is me taking straps and stuff off and putting it away. I think 1 hour of free time is fair.

 

Yes and no I always said I'll never work for a company with a auto. I did for 2 years and made great money lol. If I ever buy a brand new truck I'm get a 13 or 18 speed auto lol.

 

Ya but your an inexperienced driver. The Mega puppy mill training companies can market to and attract more people with having automatics. Now more so than ever they can hire ANYONE with a pulse.

 

try that with a 20 stop load ... you are fine giving up a minimum of 20 hours ... half of a work week that everyone else gets paid for. The rate per mile needs to justify that. Stop pay (usually about $55) partially covers that, but why should any of our time be free? If you accept an hour, then then next guy says hey I'll give you two, and so on. At one time, probably before you were born, all time was paid for. In order to compete after deregulation companies started giving up accessorials in order to retain or obtain customers. Most of those concessions came primarily out of driver pay whether company or O/O.

Try telling any other worker that an hour of their time doing their job doesn't need to be paid for, let me know how that works out.