Mercer

wow so have we all stopped posting here? I know it's cause we are all swamped with work and have no time to post right?

 

Sure would be nice to have that kind of problem.

Things have been rather mundane lately. Not much to say, not much to complain.

 

well at least ther is one other Mercer out here alive and well.....talked to REDD last week i think.....he went through the yard

 

Hey Pony-it' 6:30 am here in Afghanistan. Internet is actually working for a change. Goes sometimes weeks at a time on the fritz. Hope you and the rest of the Mercerites are doing great. Have rates picked up any or are they still expecting you to pay them for the honor of hauling their stuff? Got to go to work. Have a great evening.

 

Hey Duker, how are things going over in the sands?

 

Yup, I'm alive alright, but not doing so well. I'm on my way home - gotta go see my dentist. Ugh.

Rates are starting to suck, but it's a minor annoyance compared to what you have to deal with over there every day. Stay safe!

 

Okay I got a story.. I go to pick up a load in Ladson, SC going to St. Louis, Mo. I sign in at the office and meet the fork lift driver and tell him what I am there for (24000lbs of aluminum framing) well after a little search we find 45745lbs of something that does not look like framing to me but the guy says it is so what do I know.. He goes to the office to double check and I call mercer to do the same. They say the weight things was a screw up and the guy comes out and says yup that's your load.. Okay fine whatever lets get it on.. He loads me then asks if I could pull out after I roll my tarps out and finish securing them outside (in the rain) he has another truck waiting.. Okay fine... til the rain turned to a monsoon.. So there I am soaked and on my merry way.. Well 35 miles down the road I hit the first scale house and get the pull onto scale light.. Then I get the pull over and bring paper work inside light.. Then I get the nice officer telling me that I am at 81900lbs!!!.... then the nice officer gives me a violation and tells me I must pay 69.50 in 20 days or it will be 169.50... So I call mercer and get patched thru to safety and explain the above too her.. She gets the agent on the phone and we do a 3 way and Mercer says they will pay the fine.. Okay better then I expected.. we agree that I should turn around and get the extra pounds off and the agents says he will make sure I am compensated for my trouble (found out today it was 150.00) I get back to the shipper go in the office and say you over loaded me.. She says "see I told them at universal (consignee) that 49800lbs was too much weight but they said they had a truck that could handle it" WTF!! I said "if you knew you were putting that much on me why did the BOL say 45745!!" on that note she disappeared real quick.. I back in again and the fork lift driver says I saw you pull up and said to my self "he is over loaded" and he tells me see we normally only put on 14 pallets not 16.. right about now I want to shove 2 pallets up a couple of #####.. So I un tarp un strap have two pallets off loaded and get this.. The guy looks at me with a straight face and kindly asks if could pull out past the gate and finish securing my tarps outside (in the rain.. again) so they can go home cuz it is past there quiting time...
True story.. could not make that up if I wanted too.. Got to give Mercer and the agent a thumbs up for doing what they could to make it right..

 

Note to self: Refuse "aluminum framing" out of Ladson - the shipper likely to pull bait and switch on me.

What a bunch of crooks.

 

Hell.... That ain't bad!

When I came off my home time way back when ever I took it....

I was dispatched to pick up 2 empty 20' containers in Sweetwater, TN going to North Bergen, NJ. It paid decent & what can 2 empty containers weight?

Anyhow, I show up at the place to find not one container in sight. So I go inside requesting information about my load... Come to find out I'm getting 27 skids of bagged sand.

Now how can you confuse 27 skids of bagged sand with 2 empty 20' containers?

 

OMgosh I am actually going to the yard in the morning.....anyone gonna be there?