Mercer Trailer Lease – What Happened After They Took My Trailer Back

In general it’s pretty foolish to sign up and agree to make payments on an asset that isn’t in your name and you don’t have control over.

When I hauled cattle I couldn’t afford a trailer of my own so I rented one from a friend. He didn’t dispatch me or control the freight in any way, I just paid him every month for the use of his trailer. I paid for all the washouts and he paid for maintenance and everything else. No “path to ownership”, simply a trailer rental.

What was the reason Mercer terminated your truck lease which led to the trailer fiasco? Was it a legitimate reason? Did they have grounds to terminate your truck lease based on the contract you signed with them?

Do they have trailer options for guys who can’t finance their own or do they push you into a lease purchase on one of their trailers? In this or one of your other threads you mention impossible to meet maintenance standards. What do they require when the trailer gets turned back in?

At the end of the day you signed a contract, well two contracts, with Mercer that likely spelled everything out in regards to running in their authority and leasing a trailer. Did you have anyone look over either contract before you signed to make sure there wasn’t anything that would get you in the end? A lot of times it’s worth a couple hundred bucks to have someone read through the contract before you sign it.

 

Mercer is the Prime Inc of the O/O world. A few guys get treated really well and go to YouTube or other social media singing the companies praises. The vast majority though start off ok then start noticing things that make them realize they are actually getting screwed in a lot of small ways that added together become not what they thought they signed up for.

A guilty pleasure of mine is watching or mostly listening to YouTube trucking channels. I remember when this one guy Ryan who owns a shop now "Idle and Emissions Solutions" is his channel name. Anyways, he had quit Landstar and wanted to give Mercer a try. It was a pretty bad experience and he outlined some of the ways Mercer was really was trying go throw its drivers under the bus.

Im glad I didnt go with them when I decided to buy a truck. They seem like an O/O that wants to treat the people who lease on like company drivers but with all the liability and expenses. Maybe im wrong, just my opinion from what Ive heard by paying attention to people who have worked for them over the last seven or so years.

 

I'll never forget sitting in missoula at the dsv office, signing my contract for a lease purchase deal, after having read thru it the night before. Asked a couple questions to the ladies there... whom were very helpful to answer.. they then told me that nobody had ever asked any questions before nor did they read thru any of the contract ... lol