Mercer Transportation left hundreds of us drivers stranded.

Just curious. Not trying to get anyone in an uproar or anything here. Shouldn't as a competent L/O, O/O, or whatever owning your own truck, have proper amounts of funds stored in order to perform major repairs or "emergencies". Which this would have easily been a minor inconvenience.

As long as funds were put away for maintenance, emergencies, and income replacement of at least 3 months. This would have been a nice time for a vacation while looking for a new company to run with.

 

The link to the news story is saying the woman at mercer was indicted on 96 counts. 12 of the counts are for stealing $10,000 on each count. what a crook!! let her rot behind bars for that crap!!

 

In a perfect world, there would be a nice reserve fund for emergencies.
However, trucking is far from perfect. Most O/O's are lucky to eat regular.

 

In the case of O/O's being lucky to eat regularly, they need to get help with their finances. That might mean a tight budget to curtail spending on crap/bling/toys, slowing down and saving on fuel, changing companies for one that pays fairly, and to stop running cheap freight. I know loads of O/O's that are doing just fine, have been all through the recession and still are. Never have they gone hungry or have their families. They run SMARTER not HARDER. Several, myself included, take the entire Winter off with no issues. Heck, I am even looking into buying a newer truck and picking up a trailer rather than leasing one from my carrier.

Trucking is far from perfect. It is a game, you have to play by the rules and play smart. Anyone can succeed in it if they take the time to examine everything first, biggest thing is to run the numbers. Know what you NEED to be paid to run, if you cannot get it, don't move in order to just lose money. I thought of leasing on with Celadon Canada once. I ran all the numbers they could give me. It would not have made sense for me to do it and still keep the safety funds growing as they should have. Sure the nice, shiny brochure made everything look all wonderful. Real life showed different.

 

That's not exactly right.


Most competent O/O's are capable of doing what needs to be done. A competent O/O has a cash reserve that he can access to deal with such things as unforseen mechanical repairs and/or an unexpected lease termination or any number of other things that can happen.

If you don't have the money to do this then you need to restructure your business or sell your truck and go drive a company truck!

If you're one of those O/O's that is "lucky to eat regularly" then you are a failure at this and you need to do something that you might be better at!
If this hurts your feelings...Tough!

Mercer unloaded a bunch of contractors that were flagged for various reasons by more than one department in their system.
Freight volumes were flat and it was time to "clean house" so to speak.

If a contractor didn't have any issues such as logs, tickets, late with the freight, bad customer service, etc....They didn't get sent down the road.

 

Say it isn't so! I was thinking about applying there.

 

A lot of them look like they eat more than "regular"

 

Sir, as a life-long independent owner operator, I can assure you I am not a failure. I never said that I was having trouble eating regularly. Far from it. I am pleased with my situation, just wish economy would improve. A rising tide raises all ships.
I do stand my thought that MOST O/O's are in a bad situation. Maybe my statement " lucky to eat regular" is too strong, but when you look at the rates they are running for, how can they be doing well ? Less than a buck a mile base rate ? Come on, that is b.s. Many are running below that.
If you think MOST O/O's are in great financial shape, you have made a mistake.

 

So....If you're in good shape what I said doesn't apply to you!
So don't take it personally.

I've been an O/O since I was 19 years old and I'm 55 now...Does that qualify me as a lifelong O/O?
And if it does...Does that mean it's OK to run for crappy rates?

NO!

If they are stupid enough to run for those rates then they deserve what they get!
Maybe more of them ought to start saying no when they are offered crappy rates instead of just bending over and taking it!

I haven't hauled for a buck a mile in more than 20 years!
If anyone is running these days for a buck a mile then #### 'em! They deserve to go broke!
I haven't even been offered a load in the last 6 months at less than $1.60 and I refuse anything that's less than $1.80.

I said "competent" O/O's....There's a difference!