Mercer orientation

Thanks for the info, most of all thanks for the entertainment.
@vangtransport & CJ thanks for honesty. it does make a difference to know exactly what is going on.
Up talking the money is what the big company recruiters do, That was frustrating... Glad to be an O/O now.
Unfortunately it is difficult to find honest answers to the money question even as an O/O.

Some loads I go 200+ miles deadhead no problem
Tarp....if I can avoid much the better but will take for good paying load or at least long distance loads with decent pay.
Anything above $2/mile is good.
about a week ago: I called Mercer Agent. He was nice enough to answer.
They had nothing coming out of here except $1.60 or less.... not good.

 

The vast majority of the brokers "ninja" loads off load boards and other brokers. In other words most of the mercer brokers just take another bite out of the Apple before giving it to you. That's why the rates suck so bad at Mercer. Unless you are one of their fanboy favorites.

Now don't get me wrong.....there are some brokers at Mercer that will go directly to the shipper for their freight, but those brokers are few in number. Most of the brokers are "pajama brokers" that sit on their couches at home and cut and paste loads and rebroker them. Mercer has enough of their favorites to keep them happy. You will get table scraps. The load board is nothing but smoke and mirrors. Lots of behind the scenes load hideing and under the table shenanigans going on. Trust me on this. I have no doubt the Mercer fanboys will read this and tell you how there is some system to learn. Its all BS.

I would keep one ore in the water with Mercer and look at other carriers. The best carriers are the ones you won't see littering the truck stop magazines and truckstops with their recruiting junk.

I am just going to give you a big piece of advice. Start checking out other carriers and get an exit strategy in place. This way you won't leave broke.

 

I want to add one more nugget of intell. Mercer had their annual Broker get together in Savahnna Georgia. The brokers were basically told to get busy and get shippers/customers or they (mercer) was going to let the brokers get freight in anywhere they want. In other words.....no more broker protected territories. This is probably Mercers solution to deal with the lazy agents and the pajama brokers. I say go for it. Let the brokers that want the business go after the customers and fire/release all the cut and paste lazy pajama brokers.

I hope Mercer does it. They have some hungry brokers that just can't wait to be let off the leash

 

Thanks @MOGLAR ... good to know

 

They just redid their load board at Mercer. Its worse now than it was before. Wish they had a board like Landstar. There is no load notification on the Mercer board. NONE. Its either you spend your time banging on your smart phone or tablet it hopeing your load coordinator isn't busy and sees the load. Most Mercer load coordinators have 40 trucks.....sometimes more if they are covering for someone.

Many of the brokers subscribe to the " needy O/O syndrome."

The broker will post a load at a rate way way below what it should be if you are in an area where the broker knows he can milk you. You will see the load post at 1.45 per mile to see if a needy owner operator will bite just to get out of the area. If not the broker will add nearly another .50 per mile to the rate.

Why not post the load as intended instead of playing with the drivers. This is what some of the brokers do. Not all of them.....but enough do it. The brokers want to see how much they can screw the driver out of first before raising the price.

To many baby games at Mercer.

 

You've moved on from them by now haven't you? I would hope so, for months you've been complaining...

 

You would think so considering how bad he says it is. But he is still here. That should tell ya something.

 

reverse phyce

reverse physce.....

 

To the fan boys it's complaining. This is the hard truth about Mercer. Guess what.....there is no flatbed load shortage or slow down. The problem lies with Mercers lazy brokers.

Funny how some of the biggest flatbed companies are out of the midwest region....even some small and very successful ones thrive.....yet Mercer Brokers continue to whine about it being slow.

Mercer brokers wont make sales calls (actually going to a shipper) and instead rely on other brokers call them if they need a cheap truck.

I hate to see and OO loose their butt due to fake Mercer propaganda.

If you wanna roll the dice at Mercer be my guest......just have a back up plan and know
when to cut bait and get the heck out before you go broke.

 

Winter was slow. February was real slow. March has been on fire. No one is complaining about it being slow.