mercer transportation

If you get a longer truck like me, you don't have to back in as far.

Merry Christmas and home all is home for the holiday.

 

Hey, what happen to Redd and lil blue Pony?

 

I 'll drink to that

 

I was wondering that myself. I haven't seen either one for a really long time.

 

Redd made his final post last summer saying that he was happier before he found this site and left.

 

ok......What ever that mean.

 

Did any of you fellow Mercer drivers read the latest blog entry from Mercer on the Mercer Blog site? I think that it is a bunch of crap. If this is the direction Mercer is going, I think I will be finding a different company very soon. If its going to get bad I would rather be home more often. They could at least raise the rates if they are asking you to comply with all these regs.

 

HAHAHA. wow good for you. Go ahead and ask everyone one on here thats got any sense, I bet they will all just agree that at 4 dollar gallon fuel, cut throat rates, tires up to 5 to 6 hundred a piece does not equal what you call "good ol days". just becasue you havent been undercut by someone on your current customers, doent mean you wont be. i hope you DONT get undercut becasue thats a big problem in this business enough with rates the way they are. You acutally sound like some kind of broker or shipper instead of a owner operator by the way you like to pat yourself on the back.only reason I really even said anything about this at all is bacause you said you do the opposite of what everyone else does because they "cry" about what they are doing.ALOT of guys are doing the exact opposite of what YOU are doing, guess what....they are doing just fine. trust me, i'm not crying one bit about my gig. i seee alot of men runnig older trucks and are MUCH more reliable than any newer truck out there.good luck. you drive your truck, i'll drive mine.

 

I was looking hard at this earlier this year. Short answer is NO.

It's very unlikely you'll make a rate much higher than your current average to justify the cost of the conestoga kit. An Aero is about $14000.

Only way it'll work out is to get constant high rate conestoga specific freight. I can't find any way to make this work within the Mercer system. You need your carrier authority to make it happen, to fully gather the fruit of such an investment in equipment.

 

Sounds like scare tactics from Len. Seems too many of us aren't upgrading our debt-free and reliable current equipment. He says we need to adjust our business plan, fall in line, and ABSORB these huge costs while accepting less HOS flexibility and productivity per hour logged.

Problem is, we need higher rates and less deadheading and less sitting between loads to make our business plan work amidst this storm of regulations coming along with blind abandon.

I really think Mercer is worried about retaining it's title as a top military carrier if so many of it's contracted trucks cannot enter California. Perhaps military contractors could get a federal exemption from the CARB insanity. Otherwise, it could be the end of Mercer if contractors here can't earn enough revenue to afford equipment upgrades and the rest of it without incurring a mountain of debt.

I'm telling you right now, I will liquidate and close up shop before I sign up for a mountain of debt as a single operator in this industry.

I think the regulators, brokers, and carriers are about to create the perfect storm of a REAL driver shortage. They are killing the drivers and especially the contractors by putting it constantly at our feet, then turning away and going home, expecting us to work a miracle overnight while they rest soundly in their bed.