Wasn’t a fit for us

Man oh man - We rolled out of the parking lot today full of emotion. My husband was energized and felt we were overdue in leaving. He is right - but I had tears in my eyes because it has been such a struggle and we had such high hopes for Mercer and the smiles in our badges (from orientation) reflected that. I said “aw look honey, this is back when we had hope!”

This post is not to trash Mercer - we still believe there is a lot of good about them. We had pride in driving for them. Bought the T-shirt even. We just never seemed to “get it”...like, what’s REALLY going on?? My husband was previously on Regional dedicated routes before this. So we definitely didn’t thrive with self dispatch & strategy. We thought we would - but when we screwed up and sat in a truck stop waiting again and again - we learned we weren’t. Our coordinator would always let us hang ourselves. We would ask and ask...are we screwing up??? Never really got a serious answer. Some loads we pre selected and some were offered. When we expressed we were struggling...”well you went to Cali...” BTW: the two best weeks we ever had were loads to Cali. (Not knowing that was really two weeks pay ha ha)

As we left Mercertown today - I saw some four digit old timers there...just doing whatever it is they do there...we never had occasion to visit Mercertown after orientation - so that made me remark “well again...maybe we should’ve hung out up here. Rubbed elbows....idk.”

The best part of the entire experience was the other drivers. We met all good ones out on the road. Some fantastic old timers too. They helped us more than anyone. (Lower your rate bottom, expand your deadhead miles, don’t tie up your week with little BS loads, screenshot your s$&@“ One gave us a number to help us get out of Cali - as “these loads never hit the board”. We have often wondered...hmmm how many others “never hit the board”?

The worst part was sitting. We learned the hard way about all of the dead spots. We would take a decent paying load and have a good week - but pay for it dearly when we sat after. N Carolina, Houston even? Who knew? Because we took so many unplanned days off - we never took “home time”. It was a beating. We started turning on each other and arguing “shoulda taken that load!!! Shouldn’t have taken that load!!!” Ultimately we needed to make a change and I’m glad we did.

For new Mercer drivers, I would say as long as you know how to book your own loads...then you will be fine. Also - know the dead areas...don’t take a Cali or Oregon load at all without a round trip ticket out. Just know - good loads get snapped up QUICK! Several other states are tricky too...get a 4 or 5 digit mentor...it would deeply flatten the learning curve.

I left corporate America and went into trucking with my husband. I was highly successful and fully expected to be again. My husband is “the Charlie Daniels of the semi” But for all of our skills, we just were not a fit at Mercer. And we are paying for it financially. But we will put on our big kid pants and keep on trucking.

Trucking is hard! I have mad respect for all the skill sets required to be successful. This message was not endorced by my trucker, and does not necessarily reflect his POV, but it’s my way of processing the experience. Safe travels y’all! ✌️