MY EXPERIENCE AS A Mercer FLATBED DRIVER

well , it has been a good 10 days off. i also took 10 days when he graduated high school in may, and home weekends on a 4 times in between. it was a wonderful time at ft jackson, i saw my son and 990 other fine young men and women graduate basic training and go on to further training, mine is off to airborne to be a paratrooper. funny thing is, i didnt see a whiner in the bunch.

Taking the time off didnt put me in any financial bind, we always save money to allow me to do that. i load tommorrow in ga with tractors going to indiana, then camp attebury to fort polk. couple of light loads to get the old man back in the swing of things.

in contrast to some other my experience threads, i am happy with my life, love where i am leased, dont think the world is out to get me, dont think everyone is stupid, not every driver on the road is out to get me, i dont sweat it when another driver makes a mistake.

i dont expect everything to be roses and candy, i take it as it comes. life is good. Go mercer

 

dieseldog the best way is to talk to owners close to you, look in several places, and dont buy just on looks. you cant eat chrome.

 

thanks for that cpape, i am just an old guy who justs bends over and pulls the plow down another row each day. i also think you have a unique perspective also, in having to keep your fleet up and running. you try to keep em loaded, and keep the payroll coming each week. no small task this day and age.

 

norman, if you got that experience hauling the military stuff, it means you got some common sense. thats a the main thing you need. mercer has a extra day of orientation for flat training. and if you have any questions after that your coordinator will call and get an experienced guy on their board to call you and help you out. and faltbedderes are very good about helping if you ask.

and as far as buying a truck, its running a business, not necessarily owning a truck . if that makes sense. you got one employee and its up to you to keep his butt in gear.

in fact i started driving flatbed two months of leaving the army in 1979, i learned how as a member of e trp 2/2 cav, we would load and go to grafenwoer for a month, load all the tanks and m113 on the train and chain em, go to hof and guard the border for 30 days, then load em back up to bamberg for 30 days. after 2 years of that a load of plywood was easy.

 

well , its been a normal week. loaded monday with tractors in ga, going to indiana with 3 drops. got em all off tuesday from calvert city ,ky to palmyra,in. 225 miles between the 3 drops and done by 1:30 . then loaded from camp attebury to fort polk for friday delivery and then reload for del in minnesota mon. the minn load was simply to avoid sitting the weekend, but on the bright side i get to stop at clearwater, mn for a giant doughnut