mercer transportation

I had a customer where I had 20 stops for a typical load, and it was also tarped. I knew the customers and loaded accordingly. Tarp was held on by the straps no bungees. as I empties the tart just got rolled up a little more each time, only had to unstrap pull the tarp back to expose the crate to unload and put it back. Customers got a call when I was 15 minutes out and were waiting, never spent more than 30 minutes anywhere, usually around 15-20. So that $56 stop pay was like 150-175 per hour. Unfortunately we lost that customer so someone willing to do it cheaper.

I never understood the problem with multiple stops, you only load one time and deliver several times. That's several times I do not need to load. You are compensated roughly based on the total miles loaded, and the load keeps getting lighter as you go along. Now 20 stops of grocery warehouses would be a different story, but a good flatbed customer that is eagerly waiting your arrival is no problem at all.

Do you see these same customers you speak of running around telling their employees to hurry up like you think they will with us? Please make me understand why our time is not worth being paid for while we sit around and wait for others to load or unload us, all of them generally in no rush to do so, and being paid hourly wages?. Sounds like you could 'justify' a pay per mile that would apply to everyone equally, after all anything more than the minimum required amount would be stealing from the person footing the freight bill. Do you not want loads that pay well? Will you haul a load for just fuel money? Have you ever said no, this load pays more than I need, just give me 80% of that rate? What is you limit and why? Does you time not factor into this equation at all? You probably want the best rate you can get, so why give away life's most valuable commodity, time?

 

We have to keep track of all our time so we should be paid anytime we are legally supposed to be on lines 3 & 4.

Standard van King pin setting is 36".

 

One reason you don't see much hourly pay in trucking is the incentive of per mile/load versus by the hour. And the ability to ride the clock fairly easy in trucking means it would be ripe for abuse by the sweatpants and flip flops crowd.

I look at how much a load pays against how long it is going to tie my truck up for. I aim for $1000 per day gross as a rule of thumb. Of course, you'll have unexpected delays at a shipper or receiver and I try to be as accommodating as I can, especially if they're being friendly and are making an honest effort to get me on out as quick as possible. It's a bit of give and take in my experience. One day you might need to have some patience and give them some time, others will be the opposite. As long as we're all getting what we think is fair, then it's a-ok.

I don't blame guys for wanting to be paid for every minute of our time, having been to some awful timesinks myself. And especially when we are monitored to the minute as we are these days.

There are no right amswers.

 

Not to mention their not liable for the operating costs of their equipment.

 

To me the only right answer is to keep the compensation model we have except get paid after being at a customer for more than an hour. And the detention needs to be realistic.

 

It would be nice if Mercer would put the customers detention policy in the load description. One more bit of information to base your yes/no decision on.

 

Right!! No one should want to get paid by the hour or the mile. Under the hour or mile model all freight is average. Under the current compensation model there is poor paying freight and great paying freight, your choice.

Who wants to end up average?

If your sitting waiting several hours on a great paying load, it's no big deal
If your sitting waiting several hours on a POS load, it's a big deal

 

That's the key. A $50/hr fee isnt much of an incentive for a multi million dollar shipper to move any faster.

 

That is reasonable in the current system to see if a particular load meets your goals based on expected miles and time. What I don't understand is aiming for $1000 gross per day. Is that acceptable for 700 miles a day, being 1.43/mi? Wouldn't it be better to aim for a net amount? I would rather run a 50 mile load for $600 and do that every day vs. all day on the highway every day for $1000 a day. After fuel, my time, wear and tear on the truck, those short runs leave you way ahead financially. Remember there is a general rule with rates, that the greater the distance traveled the less the rate per mile will be.

Yes, I have clearly seen hourly drivers abuse the system, several in particular I can think of and, on top of that 90% of them at Union companies.
The mileage or percentage pay (essentially the same in reality) has to be high enough to cover the 'industry standard' two hours free time, or as brokers and dispatchers a prone to saying "it's included in the rate". The start to improving the system is mandatory detention pay after two hours for everyone, appointment or FCFS. After all we do not just randomly show up somewhere and put a load of freight on the truck, then randomly decide hey, I've had this load long enough, I'll pull into the next business and deliver it. No, in every case someone ordered a product which they need for their business, to make them money. You ordered it, and us delivering it is a cost of doing business. If we are spending time waiting then we are not (presently) making money but are giving up our valuable time, whether you are logging it or not and regardless of the 14hr clock. Our time is being wasted if we are not compensated.

The only reason companies quit charging detention was to encourage solicitation of new customers, or to keep existing ones in the face of the deregulated industry that started the internal battle of ever increasing rates, in a race to the bottom just so the other guy doesn't get the freight.

I remember Roadway going into towns and far underbidding all competitors, operating at a huge loss. They were big enough to absorb the losses, but the others weren't, and either went out of business (sounds like WalMart doesn't it?) or just shut down the terminals in the area. Once the competition was gone rates went back to normal and they had ALL the freight.

Even the best intentioned and well run companies have to reduce rates nowadays, and compete with bottom feeders with thousands and thousands of trucks. Drivers have been brainwashed into thinking they 'must' bend every rule and run ridiculous hours, and falsify logs to the max in order to make a living. For a group of people who so often seem to be busting with machismo and bravado and bragging how tough they are, they sure don't seem to be able to stand up to dispatchers or anyone else and 'just say NO' to unreasonable demands.

 

Well going to norman 2moro.. Hope they get me loaded at a decent time. Everytime i been there its seems to take 6 hours lmao