mercer transportation

hi guys Im about to start the whole hiring process to become a company driver for Mercer or# driving for an owner operator that leases his# trucks# to Mercer so before I make any mistakes my first question would be which 1 would be better for me? driving for him or driving directly for Mercer. How much, money wise# would be the difference?
I'm in New Jersey but I'm willing to relocate if moving any particular state would allow me to stay closer to my family I would like to get some advice from you I have a 3 year old and wife and I would like to be home at least once a week my trucking experience has been on lowboys and driving through the tri state area and some Florida and North Carolina here and there however at this point I'm tired of getting laid off every winter
Any heads up or information on how to be able to stay around the tri state area or at least the East Coast anyway
Any information would be greatly appreciated#

 

You don't have a choice. There is no company driver for Mercer. If you do not own your own truck, you can only driver for a fleet owner leased to Mercer.
Mercer has no company drivers.

 

I'm currently working for one of their contractors.

I think it's possible to pull Mercer loads and be home once a week. I see loads going into NJ all the time. It's going to be easier to use your own truck so you can decide when you want to be home. some contractors may want you to stay out and some may have trouble getting you a paycheck. Just because Mercer pays the contractor, doesn't mean you will get paid on time.

 

H

Dont do it! your gonna be sorry theres not enough money on these loads to pay a driver.loaded in pa came to oregon paid 4800 to me. took 3000 advance which all but 100 left. so wer lookin at 1800 comin wrong! mercer takes this and that and when all is said and done deposits 560 dollars in my checking! so you tell me would i be able to afford to pay a driver? now granted im paying on thier trailer they sold me and a couple bucks on some equipment but big whoop so add the hundred back on the 560 that still aint crapp. put it to ya this way since jan 1 did 20 grand here sounds good right? well eft transfers to my checkbook total 2700 and ill show anybody that on paper. that comes out to like 300 a week since the begging of the year so tell me could i afford to pay a driver? other guys on here will blow smoke up your ### but im being honest with you and forget being home every week maybe in the busy time but once it slows down forget it nice people here but no money and nice dont pay the bills! give me a call il sell you an international cheap i could do these numbers at a 10dollar an hour job and be home in my bed at night

 

And if ya buy the truck maybe they will let me give ya the trailer that will save me a trip to louisville to turn it back in

 

KMX - how did you manage to spend $2900 on that load, does your truck only get 4mpg? I know you have never been happy here, but Mercer only takes out what you owe them. You make it sound like they have all kind of chargebacks or they randomly take deductions from your check. In my experience they have the most accurate payroll for any company I have been leased to in 30 years. And your gross vs what you've had deposited doesn't seem to make sense. When you take an advance it's your money, it's not like they only "gave" you 2700 for the year so far. What you do with it is your business. Add all your advances to that 2700 and that's what they have put in your pocket. Somehow your cost of operation seems extraordinarily high.

As I've stated before, I've been "home", at my PA house (not NC) EVERY weekend since last March. I may be out this weekend, I don't really care, but it's just worked out that way.

DonDamian - there are a lot more loads heading into NJ than going out of the area. If you want to have a better assurance of being around for the family there are quite a few flatbed companies in the state. I'm not familiar with how they treat drivers so I can't personally recommend any one in particular. PM me if you want to discuss it. What part of NJ are you in?

 

Truck gets 5 and ya i know what advances are but when fuels 4 dollars a gallon how much do you think is left? here comes the smoke i was talkin about and if he drives for a contracter he isnt gonna be paid out of the trucks advance theres simply not going to be enough left

 

Blind drivers post should tell you all you want to know and i quote just because the contractors truck gets paid doesnt mean you will get paid on time. why do you think that is? you do what you want but remember my post when your kickin yourself in the butt. if you have experience with a rgn you can do better than this place. you think hes gonna be paid to deadhead allover the place like so many of you guys think is normal thers simply not enough revenue here to pay a guy like that. come on man the guys got a kid and a wife drop the go mercer crap and be honest with him. i made less coming out here than a company driver would. talked to a guy next to me today showed him that settelment and he tells me thats about what hes ben doin. his truck is 11 somethin and has ben here for 4.5 years this is my point too many of yas think this is normal! i could just imagine if some of yas took home like 3 grand for the week yas would probably fall over

 

I know roshea your truck gets like 9 miles to the gallon and you have your operation running oh so efficiently and you gotta get to learn this ever so complicated system and........ did i miss something? come on you can start bashin me im just tryn to be honest with the guy. im still starvin here and havent had a problem staying loaded . and i own the truck. what do you think hes gonna do as a driver?