100% owner op companies

I can only tell you about my experinces with them which took place about 5 years ago. They were really good to me and eaasy to deal with. Many of the agents are friendly and are willing to work harder so everyone makes money. Plus they weren't to strict on equipment age as long as it was road worthy and passed DOT. The pay was okay on some of the longer stuff, but I found the best pay on the short loads. Plus they lets us load the wagons until we said stop (I don't think this is happening anymore due to idiots getting caught). Also if I had any problems I could get a hold of some one pretty quick and have a answer within 24 hours. As for bad experiences...many agents play favorites and a few won't even talk to you unless you are one of their trucks.

Also agents can get pissy with each other. A example of this is when I was running between Middletown, OH and Michigan. I was loading for the Middletown agent going north and the Toledo or Dearborn agent going south. Well this worked great for about 6 weeks until the south bound freight dried up. My gal in Middletown stumbled across reject coils out of Detroit going to the Cincinnati area. I still gave the northern agents first chance to load me, but when they couldn't I loaded the rejects. Well this pissed the Toledo office off since I wouldn't sit 3-4 hours waiting on them to drum up a load. The Toledo office went to corporate claiming that the southern office "stole" the loads from them. In all reality the loads were going to the Middletown's customer facility. When it was all said and done it was just a temper tantrum that a person needed to have.

All in all I do recommend Kaplan to only the true iron haulers that know how to properly run the iron business. This is not the place if a person wants to pull a open flat and haul sticks.

 

Mercer's a conglomerate of brokers? Sence when?? I've been # Mercer for 6 yrs. and would like to know where your getting your information.. As for those other replies... Do your homework, I've heard some pretty screwed up things about TSH (Tenn. steel haulers, Ace Doran, Jones Motor... & CRST/ Malone <I worked there for 1yr and hated it...

 

Jones Motor still owes me $400 for a LTL I did for them 3 years ago luckily it was in route so it really only cost me about 1 hour loading/unloading time. Don't think I will ever see that money and not worth hiring someone to go after them.

 

Thanks PullingTrucker, for taking the time to respond. My dispatcher is going to attempt to advance his career as an agent. He's been leaning toward Kaplan and if I'm going to stay with him,,,I wanted both the pro's and con's and you helped..
thanks again,,,Model A

 

Does anyone know of any companies in Louisiana that I can contact for loadds?

 

Crst Malone is all owner or lease operators for flatbed.