My Mercer Experience 8-31-15

Latest update.

Picked up Tuesday at a coal mine in Brookwood, AL near Tuscaloosa. That was pretty cool. I've never been to a mine site before. It was cool to see how everything worked. I picked up 7 rolls of conveyor belts which was also the first time I've picked up anything round like a coil. I got everything chained down and headed to Raven, VA.

I got to the delivery that night and stayed at the place until the next morning. I pulled in and started unchaining. There was another driver (not a mercer) waiting on me so he came over and helped me unchain and he brought the chains up to me so I could put them back in the rack. He had nothing but good things to say about mercer. He said he has been running broker freight from mercer for the past few years and that he has never dealt with such friendly people and he has never found anyone who pays as fast. I would have to agree with him. He was a very nice guy and I offered to stick around and help him unstrap since he helped me. He said he wasn't in a hurry because he lived 10 minutes from there and he was headed home.

I jumped down to Knoxville for my next load. Picked up at a plastic pipe yard that I'm sure some of you have picked up at. Mercer does a lot of freight in and out of there. If it's your first time going there, you have to sit and watch a 7 minute video on safety and strapping and they actually used the safety director for mercer (Len) in the video. They were very nice and very easy to deal with. They tell you everything you need to know. I got a load of vertical coils of rolled plastic pipe. That stuff was fickle. It seemed like it loosened up every 30 minutes. I took that load down to Tucker, GA on the east side of Atlanta. I got down there Wednesday night and unloaded Thursday morning.

My next load was picking up in Birmingham going to Laurel, MS. It was supposed to load today (friday) but they called and said I could load Thursday or Friday. Since I was already in the truck and headed west, I told them I'd go ahead and pick it up. I ended up sitting over there for a few hours and I was the only truck there. The agent warned me before I got there that they don't get in a hurry so I knew what I was in for. I ended up getting 1 54" diameter pipe that was 47ft 9in and another 36" diameter pipe that was 45ft. I got everything loaded up and they are expecting it on monday.

After I deliever Monday, I'm picking up another load that is a blind shipment. I've never done a blind shipment and the agent just called to confirm that I know how to handle those. $950 on 200 miles with a 25,000 pound load. I would say that is a home run for a 200 mile load with a deadhead under 40 miles. I don't have anything planned after that yet.

Also, I encourage anyone new to Mercer or coming to mercer to make connections with agents. I spoke with an agent for 30 minutes yesterday and told him that I've been having problems getting out of alabama. This is the first time I've talked to an agent other than getting load info. He explained how everything worked and told me to stay in touch with him and give him a call during the week when I know I'll be home and he will find me something. He explained that they always have loads that they don't take because they don't have any trucks in the area. Using me as an example, if I know I'm going to be home Thursday and I need to pick something up Friday morning delivering the next monday, I could call him on Tuesday and let him know and he would be looking for loads that he could accept and put me on picking up for that Friday that he otherwise wouldn't have accepted. I'm still in the learning process but I'm starting to get the hang of everything.