mercer transportation

You must not be driving and have lots of long nights 10 truck when I had 4 of my own and two leased on I was ready to kill someone!!

 

My contractor currently has 38 trucks leased to Mercer. I think he's about ready to pop a cap in a few drivers. They'll go to LA, then whine and cry about having to sit for week while they wait for a load.

He had a driver that finally got a load, then refused it. The load went from Cali to MA for $1.79 a mile.
The coordinator didn't understand why he would refuse the load so a call was made. The driver was told to take the load or else.

 

Thats why I set up with my DC that my drivers don't accept or turn down anything. I have the ultimate say. I will allow them to look for loads and they find one under my perameters I will book it for them. The will not have the flexibility to do it themselves. I have tried doing it before on letting drivers dictate what they do and some do it great and others are horrible. Revenue has gone up since I started this and hometime is the same as it was.

 

Some guys were never meant to operate their own trucks. I had the option of letting my coordinator run my truck, but I wanted to do that myself.

If anyone has a FB account, send me your link through a pm and I'll add you.

 

I also had the option of letting my DC dispatch my truck also but I didnt want that either. I didnt set up impossible perameters either. I'm not going to limit load offers just because I'm not open minded. I'm not making money sitting but I'm not going to set up something unreal. I might take a good load that goes into a bad area and it coincides with knowing I'm going to get a cheaper load to bounce me into a better area. If I set my parameters up saying I will only haul something over let's use $2.00 a mile for instance and I take a load in that pays $3.00 a mile wouldn't I be making $2.00 a mile if I took a load for $1.50 per mile. But I would never get offered that load if I set my perameters at $2.00 a mile and the guy below me might take it. I just actually got paid $2.25 a mile for both runs which makes more sense than bouncing empty or sitting. I'm not for hauling cheap freight at all and will not take a load unless it is worth it. I will not set myself up for missed opportunities either. I can always say no.

 

First of all Thank you to all of those who replied to my last post. I am still thinking about if I am going to sign on with them. I will have to lease a trailer from them but will probably get all my own equipment. How are the their trailers?

I do have to say, reading this thread has made this a hard decision for me. I really think that a lot of the things I see on here that are so negative are all by the same two or three people. I really can't eve figure out if they are actually leased with mercer or not. I don't see to many other people contributing to these conversations. So I don't really know how much stock to put in much of what I have read on here.

However, there are a few posts that are rather helpful and to those people I say "Thank you". I guess it really is going to be "what I make of it" So I will probably wind up trying them out.

One more thing, what the hell is with this "koolaid drinking" thing. I rather like kool aid.
Maybe it's a flatbed term or something?

Anyway, any info about their trailers I would appreciate. I don't think it would be very smart to go out a by a flatbed having never pulled on before.

 

I take the cool aid thing as....... if you drink the spiked cool aid that the cult doctored ..... Then your very happy. But maybe I've got it wrong..........




best of luck with your decision !

 

I would spend some time at the truck stops talking to mercer drivers if i was you........not just the few guys on here that worry about someone seeing there post and getting in trouble. Every driver i see on the roads have the same problems spend some time and talk with some other drivers!

 

You will have your choice of trailers that are available when you are in orientation. Some may be a year or two old, and much less costly, others may be near new. Inspect it carefully so they can repair any issues, or reimburse you for said repairs. One advantage of the lease is you are not committed to anything long term if you choose to leave, or if you decide to buy a trailer outright from another source. I'd get a different setup now that I've decided what would be better for me, but I have less than a year left to pay off this one so it doesn't make sense for me to walk away now. In a year it will still have decent resale or trade-in value. I signed on in 09 and the trailer is an 09. All dents, scratches, dings, and floor damage has come from forklift drivers.

 

i dont think anyone posting here is worried about anyone seeing there post, the ones conspiracy theorist kenworthy spoke of, the guy redd once posted some exact loads and exact revenue data and sheets i think , and he was asked to have it removed. i talked to him personally about that.

the guys kenworthy was talking about are the guys in the office at mercer who handle the blogs, face book pages and stuff, one of them is also contractor relations guy. they are all decent folks.

if you post the truth and can back up what you say in a coherent , resonable manner you will have no problems with anybody. a few things in kenworthys postings are off base, first he states that after hitting a deer mercer had adjusters out who deemed damage was above an estimate he had already had done, whats the problem with that???

that seemed to be done very quickly, then why did it take him 3 months to repair the truck? i just called this week for an ins claim for my windshield, called at 4pm on monday , the glass people called at 6:30 was given a shop to call tues day morning, set up and they ordered glass, and by wed evening i was installed and ins took care of it no deductible.

and as far as inspections, you never have to pay for an inspection at mercer, not at speedco , not anywhere. you cant just go in anywhere and get an inspection , pay for it and send it in. they have approved inspection locations. so no one told him to pay for an inspection . and if he had been at mercer for 3 years he would have known the routine by then.

and as far as the load he was on, thats the breaks when your truck breaks, he conviently left on perhaps how far the guy that rescued his load had to d/h and what he wanted to rescue the load. when ya got a load on , and you break, you do what ya gotta do, and of course they took the remaining fuel money, you get an advance and dont deliver, you think you get to keep the money for christ sakes.

and beethoven, living in cincy, if ya run the midwest region you will do fine.

the only truth kenworthy gave in his posts was where not to go.

and bayou, how many told you that mercer wouldnt be a fit for you? you keep comparing apples to oranges quoting load board rates with authority vs a truck leased at 75 per cent.

yep, i guess the only way any of us make it at mercer, and arent looking to leave is because we drink the kool-aid and lie. some of you fail to realize that some of us were doing this before a good many of you could wipe your own behind.

we simply work, adapt to changing situations instead of moan and groan on how someone stole our candy