mercer transportation

Reply to # 1. You will love Mercer if you like people who love truck drivers!
Reply to # 2. Rates are low everywhere and I don't know why some say it's Mercer.

 

I agree whole heartedly. Why is it that thoes who understand that you have to have capital to run any business "before" you start always do better! That is just the way capitalism works in all businesses! You can't blame a company you are doing business with if you don't have the capital or business savey to run your own business! God Bless Mercer and capitalism it works for me! Signed an approved Mercer Carrier.

 

Some say its Mercer because they have to blame someone, and that is who they are leased to, wether it be Mercer or another company.

 

Just to try to help myself and others here I always figure half of what I gross is going to go to fuel, thats not quite accurate for me most of the time, but I would rather figure high than low. With that being said you would then have 14,500 left over for everything else, securement equipment, trailer, insurance and tags. Of that 14,500 you have only been paid 4,000? The rest has been deductions? So you have had 10,500 in deductions from those four things in two months? Something doesn't seem right, what am I missing here?

 

It appears to me that Mercer has the same problems that we have at LS. That problem is not the company, but the O/Os either not reading their contracts, or not understanding what is in the contract. I have never seen a Mercer contract, but from what I read it is not much different than my LS contract. It does list each deduction and the cost. It also states when those deductions will be taken out of the settlement. Yes, the company will get their money regardless of your home life and bills. Your home life is your own personal problem, not the company's.

Some people can't seem to do math. The amount you agreed to haul the load for is what you made, gross to your truck. Not what you have left over after buying fuel, company deductions and advances. The company doesn't care, nor should they care, what you have left over. They don't control your expenses, you do.

The two main differences that I see, between Mercer and LS is Mercer drivers post "To the truck" rates, where we post "Gross, to the carrier" rates and we don't have the "First In, First Out" game to play. We post the gross rates because we have too many variables, not all trucks get paid the same, even with the same equipment. The load I brought from Jersey, down here to AZ, was one of two identical loads. The stepdeck that loaded beside me, got the same, unless his contract is either much newer, or much older, than mine. The money would be fairly close, but not the same with those other contracts.

 

what you are missing is someone is a loser and blaming it on the trucking company

 

Autocar, if LS does not use "first in, firstout" how do they control the loads?

 

They don't control the loads, it is that simple. LS does not the prevent BCOs from booking loads, other than you must have the correct qualifications to haul them, ie you must be a qualified team to haul ammo and explosives and they don't control who the Agents put the loads on, other than the Agent must use either a qualified BCO or qualified Broker Carrier, unless it is deemed a non-brokerable load, such as high value, in which case it is for a LS truck only.
If a load becomes available, on the load board, the first one to call and accept that load gets it. If an Agent has a load and knows one of his/her good BCOs is going to be in the area and available, the load never hits the board, unless that BCO turns it down, for some reason.

 

That's not my problem I have a good driver. The problem is I'm not making money by owning the trucks o feel all I'm doing is giving them jobs.

The driver at mercer is only making $600-$870 a week and living in a truck can anyone keep a driver for that kind of money? For the ones that don't know I pay him 27% gross.

I have really enjoyed the last six weeks I can drive and not worry about anyone else but me. I can't even tell you the last time I've sleep in my truck it's been a few weeks!!!

 

I just put on a truck at Mercer and everything has been spelled out to me just fine. Everything is in pure black and white. I will be rolling another truck over here in about one month. I chose to lease a trailer from them even though I could have purchased one outright as I see it a better fit for what I am trying to do. I can always buy the trailer or turn it in if I decide to go somewhere else (which I doubt I'll do). I am testing the waters outside of the company the other 9 trucks are leased on to. I will never pull those trucks from that company but I will rotate team trucks into solo flatbed trucks once we see it fit to rotate in new trucks and old ones over here. I will say everyone has been up front with me. I like the feel of mercer they don't pressure you for anything it took me three months on deciding to bring a truck here and not once was I pressured. I wasn't pressured on buying anything from mercer not will I feel pressured to take a load. So far I like mercer and obviously contractors make money here. I guess it's all in how you manage your money. I hear the same thing from people at the other company can't make no money blah blah blah and we do perfectly fine. Went from 1 truck to 10 will be 11 in a month.