Mercer

1st off,i disagree on how Mercer drivers refer to the gross,some may do it the way you do others do not. why own a truck? My last trip out my net before expences was $2.08/mile,$4000.00. Sounds OK! 1 pc. 13'5" wide # 12,600#,plus 34k of iron. The wide pc. came up heavier than what was called in. No more money for more wt. That will not happen again. My point is,for the investment in equipment and time we are not making what we should. Maybe you are happy with what you make today i'm not. I'm not trashing anyone,i'm saying we all are way overdue for a sizeable rate increase. You want to see something go to ABF.com,their FSC before discounts is 60%,Admiral thinks 30% is fine. Notice they got rid of their fleet back in the 70's. They know full well that the return on the equipment investment is not that good. If it was Mercer,Admiral,Landstar would own trucks.

 

Alrighty. Let's agree to disagree on this one, not saying you're wrong. I don't know every Mercer drivers. However, every one of them I've talked refer "gross" rates as in gross truck pay after Mercer took its cut, because that is how they post on their load board.

I've reverse calculated 100% gross rates just for academic purposes, but normally I don't do that. Maybe there are some who do that, and use that number when they talk to Landstar guys, etc.

You've been around this industry a lot longer than I, so I'm not going to argue how much O/Os should be making.

I certainly agree that inflation has been way outpacing rates and wages. But it is not just trucking industry. It's hard to find a $50k desk job these days, unless you work for the government or a big corporation in a big city, neither of which I have any inclination to do.

So I am happy with what I'm making especially considering I can go on vacation when I feel like it. And like I said, the crappy rates we've been getting was pay raise for me, even though it has been pay cut for you old timers.

I honestly don't think we'll get any rate increase any time soon (unless you go fully independent and bypass brokers/agents). I personally think it's far bigger than just a problem within the trucking industry.

IMHO, American capitalism has gone a little too wild. I've said this before somewhere, but I believe capitalism fails without good moral compass. Many of us seems to have lost that somewhere along the way.

I'm not just talking about those "evil" CEOs and politicians, but average Joes and Janes too, who have been living paycheck to paycheck because they just had to buy a new dirt bike or another pair of shoes on credit just to satisfy their instant gratification, then they demand more from job providers when they can't pay bills, instead of trying to change their irresponsible behaviors. And the resultant over-reaching by the gooberment in every aspect of our lives to "fix" things made it even worse.

And you know as well as I do, rates can only go as high as what the market will bear. Suppose all shippers see "the light" from trucker's point of view and raise the rates. Consumer spending will drop due to higher shelf prices, and businesses will start conducting inter-business commerce locally as much as possible. Number of freight drops while the number of trucks remain the same, and the rates will be right back to where it was again.

None of what I perceive as bits and pieces of viable solutions is likely to happen, due to unwillingness by politicians, corporates, and average people.

Last but not least, I apologize for mistaking your intention.

 

i also dont know of any mercer drivers who refer to load pay as anything other than what the truck gets paid. the rate we are quoted and rates on the load board are what the truck gets. as was said if the load is quoted as 2 dollars a mile that what the truck gets.

i could get 10.00 a mile and wouldnt b entirely happy, if i get ten, 11 would make me happier

 

The rate per mile doesn't make difference if it takes too much time to complete the load. I of course look at the per mile rate when I book a load but what is more important to me is how much time it will take, a $1000.00 on a 500 mile run isn't worth spit if it takes two days to do it.

 

OK,i based my statement on what a friend on mine told me after talking to one of your drivers. Our website uses gross numbers before Admiral takes their cut. Based on what my freind told me i assumed your board listed work the same way. I apologize if i offended anyone. Most of the work on our board is in the $1.50 mile to the truck range. There is some $2-3.00/mile freight also,but few and far between. I figure i need to be in the $2.00 truck money range to be in the game. And to Redd i do what you do Portal to portal all miles. What pizzs me off is Admiral lets the agents juggle the numbers anyway they want. As a rule i stay away from the agents that really abuse that.

 

Has anyone tried to install that mobile software on thier PC yet? I got an error MSG after I installed it. Boy,.. so much easier huh? Nope.

 

I can tell you that Mercer holds it's agents to a very high standard... they fired the SLC agent while I was there for working in cahoots with the transportation agent at the air base in Ogden...

 

I ain't installing #### until it scanning is alive & active.....

The last i heard was May 1st we will start using trippak/transflo scanning. Here it is 14 days later then planned & they don't even have the system online.

But the trippak envelopes continue to get delayed even more. I dropped a envelope Monday morning..... Got paid on it today.

 

You guys that pegasus transflo software is crap. It will always have background service running,slowing down your pc. I could never get it to work after the first time. Just scan your sheets with your scanner software and save as .tif document. Must be CCITT group 4 monochrome type of .tif. Yeh I didn't know there were more than 1 type of tif either. I use ZAN Image Printer to convert to that type of tif as my old scanner won't.

Then just email your docs to ****(at)e-transflo.com (****being your company's four letter code with transflo) - example "LSTR@e-transflo.com" for Landstar.

No need to mess with the Pi-lot!

 

we are using trippak for the in cab scanning