Has anyone worked for Mason Dixon/Universal as an O/O?

Some of their agents only book broker loads and others have direct freight. They pay percentage and you find your own loads, much like Landstar and a few other carriers. You will need to allow yourself some time to learn their system. I don't like the way their loadboard is set up, but it works. I know owner operators who have done very well with them and some who have nearly starved. It depends on the type of freight you haul, where you run and your personal initiative. They are no better or worse than any other carrier. They are a little more laid back than some.

 

Had a neighbour work for them , he was not SELF motivated and was 1 that nearly starved ( not companies fault ) as he liked the NO dispatch part too much. I bought his truck & flatbed trailer at his bankrutcy auction , hired him to drive it and its hard to keep him ACTIVE.

 

I was with great american at one point. There part of there organization. I did really well but you must be on the ball for loads all the time. I left there when it slowed. Agents are really buddy buddy in the sense of keeping each others trucks moving then you get left over if there's any. The company doesn't bother you. Its up to you to make it. If I had it to do over again i wouldn't have left so soon. I gave up too quick. You could do 1.75 if you learn the agents and where there freight is.

 

The Universal AmCan companies is comprised of a number of companies, including Mason Dixon. When you lease to one of their carriers, you can haul for all of them. They all share a common loadboard. Not all their loads are posted on their loadboard. The better paying loads never see the loadboard unless the agent can't cover it from their list of trucks or contacts. If they posted the best loads, their phones would ring off the hook for hours after the load was booked. It will be up to you to find and develop relationships with agents who do have those better paying loads. If you hang in there long enough to develop some of those relationships, you should do well.

 

i was at mason dixon before i came to mercer, i had the freedom to book my loads etc etc. the problem i ran into was the way their system is setup.

here is an example, had a load on the board 10 miles from me and kept calling the agent and they kept saying call me back. she finally got peeved and said look dont call me back til 2 pm , if i have it then you can have it, i sasked why that?/ she says i am trying to broker it first, i make a better commission if i broker it rather than put it on a lease truck.

i called warren, mi HQ and they said she had that right.

also each agent will have trucks assigned to their agent code, it like you are assigned to them as a terminal, if a great american agent can load one of their trucks assigned to them they get a greater commission than a truck from a mason-dixon terminal.

also if assigned to an agent and you want to switch to another agent number to be assigned the original has to give permission.

and it is agent based, many of them own trucks also. so you have to work your way into relationships with agents , as they will hold loads for their assigned or agent owned trucks.

it is a far more complicated system than just one big company owning 5 or 6 flatbeds outfits and piling all the loads onto one loadboard.

now if you got an agent right in your backyard that you can start off with and know already it might be ok.

i was with mason-dixon and was struggling to get in the groove, discovered a georgia agent i used to work with at aplace years ago, she was with great american, but to switch from md to great a , i had to have the agent i was with permission, they said no and they said my only option was to leave and come back with great A in 6 months. i left , went to mercer and aint leaving.

it was just stange really inhow they operated between the companies, that was 2 years and 2 months ago when i left. they may have improved the intercompany realationships. but that was my experience with em.

 

g/man , were you ever leased to em? mson dixon of today is nowhere near the mason dixon of old, sort of like the deal with malone, far cry from the malone of old days when i was leased with em

 

I never leased to Mason Dixon. However, I was leased to Universal Am Can at one time and was also an agent for them. You won't have to worry about getting your money from any of the Universal Am Can group of companies. You are correct about companies changing. Things changed dramatically at Malone when CRST took over.

 

gettinng a settlement was no problem, but the mish/mash of companies isnt as smooth an operation as one might think.

the root of the problem i think is guys from different segments trying to get a leg up on guys in the other companies in the system. i mean at management level.