mercer transportation

from what i am told they have to offer all loads even if they are bad. hopefully no fool books it and the shipper comes up on the rate. rates are only cheap because some dummy is hauling it

 

i dont know rgn loads but that should've been a 7k-8k load right?

 

Yes, you're right. If they asked me for a rate I would have started right where you said - in the low 8s and maybe went down to mid 7s. Permits would run about a quarter a mile. I rarely book a load for what the broker offers unless we're stuck like Chuck. Often negotiate a thousand or more rate increase. But, sometimes they get you. Just delivered a load for $4550 and the receiver told us he paid $7,000 to LS for the shipping. And that load started out at $3800 before negotiation.

 

landstar is REALL beginning to get me p.o.'d over a week and they still havent responded to requests for my work history

 

We tried Mercer for 5 months and slowly were bled dry. They simply DO NOT enough freight for the drivers and they are still offering a $2500 sign on bonus. A large portion of the loads they offer are just loads posted are on the other load boards.. and for this they charge 24 % and very little support. Yes, many loads are close to 2.00 a mile, but when you sit for days and dead head HUNDREDS of miles, that 2.00 a mile dwindles to less than cost.And so many loads offered are far LESS. I'm talking about Memphis, Chicago,Little Rock, Columbus, Detroit.. Where is it good? No where with Mercer! Do the MATH. If you drive a truck that is paid for and does not need tires, maintenance , oil changes and you can live on $ 600. week to LIVE out of your truck, then go for it.

 

brodgers, were you running flat or step??

and why would you deadhead hundreds of miles? and i have to beg to differ about it being no good, i did over 200,000 to the truck last year, and will surpass that this year, my second year with them.

loads out of chicago pay well for flats and steps 2.40 a mile and up, heck shingles pay over 2.50 a mile out of alsip.

and i have done the math, and like the end result. i very seldom bring in less than 2000 a week after expenses, and i very seldom run over 2100 miles a week. this week ended up from saturday to today, with a gross to the truck of 5520 dollars on driver killer 2600 miles , spent 1450 on fuel , my fixed expense of 100 dollars a day(truck payment, trl payment , apu , insurance, and maint fund of 30 a day) came to 700 dollars, spent 30 dollars on eats, leavin 3300 bucks rounded off, i unloaded in springfield ,ill and deadheaded 105 miles to load to orlando to deliver sunday night at disney world, load weighs 19,300 pounds no tarp and pays 2.10 a mile. actually not what i would have liked but the closest load to my home. my house was broken into monday night and my stepdad died about 1 hour ago and i need to get home, but in doing so will clear about 1200 even after the 350 mile deadhead home.

you need to look into your own business plan, the money is there ya got to know to make it. i would almost bet though you were with a van trailer, which isnt great here. so what do you pull brodger flat , step or van??

 

I can hardly beleive Brodgers is telling the whole story. I know I got to be one of the lazy, picky drivers here at Mercer and I also do well. Not quite as well as Skateboardman. But that is partically do to my light payload of 42,800 and staying away from the east coast. Yet I still make a good living.

 

I am surprised that you all are not doing better with Mercer. If you own a flat bed and want to change, you should be able to do well with CRST Malone. I think that their owner operators are averaging around $2/mile to the truck. After 5 months with Mercer you should have been able to make some contacts with good agents and been able to do well. Have you discussed the situation with your dispatcher at Mercer? If it were me and I was not doing well, I would sit down and have a frank discussion with my dispatcher. Explain your situation and ask him if he has any suggestions as to what you could do to turn your situation around. He might come up with some good options. You lose money and time when you switch carriers. If possible, it would be to your advantage to work things out at Mercer. If not, then you may consider CRST Malone or Landstar. Both have a decent amount of flat and step deck freight.

 

$200,000 a year gross should be easy to hit if your not making that something is wrong the way I look at it the truck needs to make $1,000 everyday I'm out. My all miles last year were $2.18 a mile and had 8,200 dead head miles this year I'm doing way better on D/H miles I look for loads that are closest to me and go out. I also include my D/H miles into my rate just last week I only had 42 miles of D/H I did five runs at a total of 2,870 miles my first few loads paid good first load was oversize paid $5.20 a mile to the truck on 360 miles next paid $3 a mile on 420 miles 3rd paid $2 a mile on 680 miles next was a 815 mile run for LS paid $2.48 a mile and I'm loaded with a 595 mile drop first thing Monday pays $2.32 a mile I'm at the truck stop for the weekend but I had a good week best one in a few months so I didn't do bad at all as a O/O almost $8,000 to the truck in 7 days

 

Every time I see a post like this, I think someone doesn't know how to operate his truck.