Mercer Transportation left hundreds of us drivers stranded.

I remamber when this happened. Mercer said in a press release that they where letting their low producing contractors go due to the slow down in the economy.

 

How do they all become big "O' fat-arces" if they dont eat? Ever see one of these slobs waddle through the parking lot? Ain't noboby starving

 

Ok BW9 time to be honest.... You run for your buddy who only takes 10%, so in reality terms or at a leased o/o percentage thats 1.35 a mile with surcharge at 75%.

Now if I was to take .30 cpm for surcharge that leaves you with 1.50. Take 75% of that and you have 1.13cpm. So in the end it comes out to 1.43cpm.

If someone called me with 1.80 a mile freight with surcharge included, I'd laugh my ### off at them, then hang up!

Sorry KC I'm not picking on you, but I've been doing alot of thinking myself. I may have to go the same route you are doing now, but it really isn't all that great. AFter you really start doing all the figures, its down right depressing! But so many O/O's have gone the Own authority route that all its done is made the brokers richer!

 

I ddrive for Mercer still and never heard of them leaving anyone stranded... As for returning "their" trailer is baloney.. Everyone # Mercer has their own trailer.. If your lease w/ Mercer is terminated I don't see why you would have to turn in the trailer. You are not leasing it but rather purchasing the equipment. They would have to offer you a buyout or a option to obtain your own financing if that was written in the lease purchase aggreement..
I got my first trailer through them (a new step deck). I had equity in the truck and traded it just like I would with any other piece of equipment for a better trailer.. (I did not finance the trailer through Mercer in any way on the 2nd trailer..
As for letting drivers go, yes.. I did hear of some leases being terminated. I heard it was a bit of house cleaning... Most of the people they let go were a lot of old timers from what I hear.. Ones that had constant log problems, or a unreliable truck with a lot of breakdowns.. That is the story my coordinator told me at teh time.. I never received and official notice or even knew anything was going on.. They did it so casualy. I never heard of them stopping the orientation classes with new drivers comming in.
As for drivers that do not run... I'm a driver that does not run... so the excuse that they got rid of dead beat trucks that don't like to work cannot be accurate.. I am a disabled vet and trucking is not my only income.. I've never been asked to work harder or to explain myself as to why I drive so little miles each year.. Why work your truck to death..
I have NEVER heard of a cutoff on how old a truck can be to work for them..

There are trucks there that are 20 years old... It's how they are maintained! If it is all bashed in, faded paint.. miss matched colors, rusty, frame... might have somthing to do with it!

Well I don't pretend to know everything but I've been at Mercer since 2005... & I am still with them to this day.. I am not looking for another company, I intend to stay with them till I retire....

 

Naw, she will spend a couple of years in medium or minimum security prison where she will be golf carted back and forth to pottery class. Then she will be ordered to pay the money back at a max of 33% of her after tax income what ever that may be. So unless she hits the lottery Mercer will never get all the money back.

 

Since I have been leased to Mercer since 1989, I have an opinion on this subject. Im not one with a big sleeper, Im not a favorite of any agents. I just keep my nose clean and do a good job. In my opinion, in the old days Mercer was hands down the best flatbed outfit in the country. For a while they had month after month of record revenue, then they lowered their standards for the drivers and the trucks just to get more freight.

Then the bad economy came, to many trucks not enough freight. Time to clean house. If they had an issue with you, you were gone. I could be tickets, logs, always combative with agents your coordinator bad inspections ( on the road or in Louisville )
They had a reason to let a truck go. A few trucks have been asked to come back, some of them have.

They used to be a Great company! Things have changed, its a lot harder to manage 2000 trucks than it was 500. It would be very hard to find a company as honest as Louisville is. If you have a problem with an agent, just dont haul for them. I would not call them a Great company today, but they are better than 99.9% of the others.

If you need a baby sitter, this is NOT your company. You have to be able to think for yourself, when you screw up dont blame every one else.

If you feel, I own the truck, Im going to do it my way, the hell with everyone else. This is NOT your company. They have rules lots of them, get your own authority.

Why are they still putting on trucks? Len Dunman told me, because there are a lot of very good contractors out there. Mercer has again raised their standards, if you qualify it is a very good company. Remember they will not baby sit you and they have lots of rules.

If they fired me then a year or two later was told I could come back. I would be back!

 

My issues with them was my coordinator. He was alright, but sometimes got a case of the stupids. Would call and offer me runs that I could not make. I would ask him do you bother to look at my preferences? More than once I would ask him why are we having this conversation? I can not run canada, why are you offering it to me? I did go off one time on him. I got a load and got there and it turned out to be LTL. Was a 2 stopper. The shipper said it changed to a 2 stopper. They told me we called and they said it was OK. I told them it is not OK. I am the driver and no one asked me. I called and he said I thought you would be OK with it.

I said quit thinking. You offer me stuff I can't do. Make decisions without asking me. I got burnt on that run. Had to wait a long time to kick off the first stop. Lost my pre-plan. My biggest gripe was I would agree to a run. Would get a call. We been out bid. If you want the run you will have to haul it for less. Not my problem. You eat the loss. I let him talk me into a run one time. I kept telling him I wont get a load out of there. It will be dirt cheap if I do. He kept saying no not necessarily. We have a lot of freight up there. So I get there and get the song and dance; well sometimes freight is hard to get. I told him that is it. When I say no it means no. Do not try to talk me into a load. I just got tired of having to bounce farther and having to haul cheaper freight. If I am not going to make decent money. I can do that in my driveway.

 

Didn't you work directly with the agents? i did that about 50% of my time with the company and it worked very well for me.

 

They don't want the driver's talking to the agents anymore.... Everything must be done via Louisville. Even when you call a agent on your own, the agent talks to you like your a torn in their basvk side.

 

I have not had a problem YET talking too the agents. In fact yesterday the agent offered to do my precalls on this 2 stopper for me and then called me back too let me know they knew I was comming and I could deliever both on tues instead of tues and weds.. Did you get a new coordinator Redd?