mercer transportation

An observation here: I pull occasional loads for Mercer as an independent. Most freight is my own; but I do some brokered stuff, Sammons, LS, and Mercer etc. etc. Having said that: of all the "big" trucking outfits that have a brokerage side it has been my observation that Mercer has some of the cheapest freight. I do VERY well on the stuff I do for them; but my observation is that in the situation mentioned above is not a shortage of Mercer trucks but rather a surplus of cheap crappy mega-carrier freight!! NOONE wants 1.35 heavy lumber loads!! It is my opinion that SOME of the freight these agents are chasing does not work for an owner/op company where folks want premium rates. In that light......maybe it's time for Mercer to take some of these agents to the woodshed and get them steering the bus in the right direction again. Growth for the sake of growth is not always good.

 

there is a reason you see that , and there is a couple of reasons.

1) at mercer the loads all basically run thru main office at louisville, its not agent based like at some carriers, where you are basically dealing with agents to get loads. and example of that was mason dixon, before i came to mercer, i had to deal directly with the agents. i had one agent tell me to call back at 2 pm and if she hadnt brokered the load i could have it, because she made more commision when brokering a load than putting it on a lease truck

2) at mercer the lease trucks get first shot at the loads, what we dont take then goes the broker board, they do get cherry picked. as someone just posted thats what i do. whats left goes to the broker board or if no mercer truck wants it

3) brokers/ agents get sent cattle call loads all the time, xyz sends out loads and what they will pay, the agent simply lists it as he does all other loads and if some joker takes it fine he made a little percentage. some of our agents will tell ya that straight up, they will post things they know none of the lease trucks will take.

4) again its not that the agents are "chasing " this freight , it comes more and more in the form of cattle call business, which is why many times you call brokers or whoever they have to see if the load is still available. with the us the old call before dispatch routine.

5) since you do very well on the stuff you take from mercer, then there are good paying loads, you are just smart enough to only take what pays well. just because cheap stuff is there ya dont have to take it.

6) and you are indeed correct no one wants heavy lumber loads, i honestly cant remember last time i saw lumber on a mercer and mine for 2 years hasnt had any lumber on it.

7) there are premium rates to be had here, but then the list begins , i dont like to tarp, its to heavy, its hazmat, it going or coming to a port, its going to chicago, its going to jersey or the northeast, i aint staying out 2 or 3 weeks, i need a lot a load right to the house, i need to be home everyweek or i would take it, i aint gonna pay tolls, its snowing, its raining, its to hot, its to cold.

8) and the biggie , you got to know your costs of operation to the penny, you cant be to rigid, you have to know the freight lanes, what true rates are out of certain areas, sometimes the true fact of life is its better to take a load and get out of dodge rather than sit for week and come out for the smae rate you were offered at the first of the week.

clasix 1055 laid it all on in a wonderful post #2032

the problem with most of these guys bashing and griping is they refuse or just cant see that some of their decisions may have helped them not succeed, but sadly all you see is its the companys fault.

i do one thing, when i end up in a dead area, and dh out. i look at the guy in the mirror and say boy you screwed the pooch agreeing to this one. i and i alone make all the final decisions for every load i accept, its not up to mercer to save my bacon if i take load to bumluck, egypt. but some would disagree

 

I'm not bashing I gave skateboardman my number weeks back soon as I did the PM's stopped. I just can't get over these one trac mind guys mercer has big problems and can't even see it because nobody will say anything they just keep hoping for a change that will never come...repeating history never changes the future!!


Let me ask you this "WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF LEASING ON"......because from the outside looking in I don't see any?

 

bayou, if your drivers were making 52 to 74 driving your trucks , and grossed as much as 260k, and you only made 10 to 12 per truck. your problems lie elsewhere.

but then that raises a question what exactly did you expect or what was your goal for each truck to make? what was the breakdown on each individual truck you owned leased etc. and more specifically what were the individual numbers on the 260 k truck, total miles , avg per mile for all miles, mpg and fuel costs , idle time on truck and hours on engine, etc etc.

and you are exactly correct about me, only i dont dont term it cherry picking, i call it putting in effort to succeed. i dont just pull anyload and expect something on the other end, sometimes its better to take the 2.05 a mile load to one area than the 2.45 mile load to another area, you have to do a little homework to stay on top of it.

i have a load booked for monday out of texas, i was #40 on the list, i guess it was because i am agents pet, lol

no it was simply being able to haul 48,000 pounds and no one else would take it. the pay is so so even got it up from the original amt from the 3pl, but with the knowledge i had 40 other trucks ahead of me, i wasnt going to put up a mailbox in texas. so for 1.68 i will move myself to illinois.

on what a dummy some will say, but truth is there is no way in jesus to get 48,000 pounds of 32' x 6 " aluminum irrigation pipe on a trailer.
you can pick up a piece and carry it, apparently i am the only person that ever had to lay irrigation pipe down in a tobbacco field.

is the load cheap, you bet cha, but it meets my parameters, it is still profitable load for me with my costs, and being in indiana wed morn is a sight better than being in texas and maybe still down in the thirties on the load board.

i simply had watched the load board ( and my wife did also) and just saw nothing was really moving. so i decided then that with the rate i got down here, i would ride the first horse out of town to a decent area.

now i could have went to north dakota for 2.54 or to calif. for 1.89 but i didnt see a real future in that.

but guess what all those loads are gone, i can see the posts next week, i took a load to ND and blah blah blah.

bayou , i am gonna be straight with ya, you seem to argue the most with the folks that make the most sense, i raised have 5 kids, i am used to it. remember this, the older i get the smarter my parents have become, what they told me makes a whole lot more sense these days.

theres a reason old dogs havent all been run over by cars, not because they're lucky, but because they got better sense than to cross the street in front of a car.

ever notice how some dogs always chase cars and never catch them? a smart dog will go the stop sign and wait on em there

 

i must have missed the pm from you, bayou.

i will look back and see if i can find it, i may have deleted it when my box was full trying to send a pm.

look, i told a while back as did oscar it wouldnt be a fit for you here, at the point i posted some with you it was you moving your truck over here, frankly if i were a fleet owner i would have my own authority , it would give more access to loads from a greater source.

as i said i did that for many years, however i only two and leased on the other operators i had, more profitable with the lease ops. my trucks simply did what they didnt want to do.

as far as advantages its hard to pin down a list, it depends entirely on the individual and his wants and needs.

as a one truck operator now, i feel it has many for me. i have complete freedom to pick and choose my own loads, run when and how i want depending upon freight availibility and only have to woory about myself. i simply pay for and order my tag each year etc.

i used to love it, but as i grew older, i wanted to cut back on the trips to the irp office in atlanta, dealing with ifta, drug consortiums, dot audits, and my biggest gripe drivers daily logs, not the logs but drivers turning them in incomplete or goofed, i solved that though, no settlement til previous weeks logs were in hand. i dont miss hounding brokers for late payments, etc etc. , places going out of business when they owe a few thousand etc.

the advantages of having your authority are complete control of the ship front to back, if you thrive on the pressure , its what you should do.

the fact is everybody does what suits them, and straightforwardly, if ya had all that together , this conversation wouldnt be occuring.

youre having some problems in some form or fashion, wheres it keeping your driver costs down, guys taking advantage of you and you letting em by with it( and that very easy to happen, i know its hard to think like a business owner when you also are a driver at heart. if i had done that i could have retired when i shut down in 08)

you said in another that in 3 weeks running you could profit the 12,000 a year your trucks profited last year. you have to ask yourself this then, why couldnt all the trucks do that less driver pay? the answer is this, aint nobody else gonna run it like you do, thats the hardest thing to deal with, you yourself always seems to have less breakdowns, less costs, and make more money than any truck you have a driver in.

bayou, you dont need to talk to me or anyone else. i think you know in your heart the answers, you just got to talk to yourself about it.


i hope you understand .

 

I don't want anyone to think I am bashing Mercer; because that is not my intent. I know NOTHING of the nuances of actually being leased to them.........in a big year I have done 14 loads for them as an outside carrier; and those were plums........basically hurry up stuff that was buried and they couldn't get covered. I hauled, sent the bill, they paid. No problem.

I guess my observation with regard to corporate direction is still fuzzy. I think a premium carrier that uses premium owner/ops should just plain stay away from lowball freight period. Keep their name off it and not muddy things up by playing in that arena. It's a catch-22 because I am sure they can't 100% dictate what their agents do.

Anyhow.....I maybe shouldn't have said anything here because I really don't have a horse in this race.

 

Out of all 4 of my trucks not one truck gets or ever got more than 5.8 my 2000 volvo did get 7.2 but only lasted a few months of putting a driver in it. I've paid $1,800 wrecker bills for drivers getting stuck pulling off the hwy, paid $940 last year for a $25 air coverner that takes me five min to change. Driver knew it was acting up but never said anything about it until it was In the middle of the road cops gave him 15 min to get it moved well wrecker towed it down to the next truck stop six miles away tow bill was $475 than road side was called to fix it and paid to put the drive shaft back in the truck

I've had a truck totaled than last year that 53ft step trailer drivers have tickets and was paying $36,000 in insurance last year. My major reason for pulling the plug is my insurance renewal was $44,000.....I said f that not paying it! I pay $440 a month now that's with $25,k coverage on mine $20,k one the flatbed and $17,500 on my step so two trailers and my truck

My office no I don't need it anymore my wife niches everyday about it but I need a place to park my trucks/trailers so I'll keep paying rent $1,000 a month so that's more over head just like the broker bond I'm about to start paying that again do I use it much not anymore and I just going to get my $10,000 back nope....IF they ever pass that EOBR #### I'll have something to fall back on

 

why are you paying out cash for your drivers getting themselves stuck? Would pay their tickets for being overweight and logbook violations too?
You'vehired some really piss poor drivers. Heck, i wash, waxed, and put tire shine on my contractors truck. I don't drive no hoopty looking rig lol

 

That was my way of thinking I was making $300,000 a year with just one truck if I get a 2nd I can double that and so on.....,that didn't happen all it did was drive my numbers down in the end. What's bad is I even wanted more trucks but bank said no if they wouldn't had said that there is no telling how many I would have now!

I'm making money I'm not saying I'm not I'm paying two truck notes and one trailer note that's $3,600 a month alone, but all I can do is keep trying to sale them. Never ever crossed my mind about selling some of my toys but even my race truck is on racing junk

I just look at were I got and it's from making money one problem is I never say no. Motiva called a few years back I was at my wifes grandma's funeral walked outside to get the phone they had a major problem and needed a truck I left my wife there crying when she needed me the most but I left to go make money and make that customer happy

I'm in Houston now just dropped a load off for exxon mobil they have a big turn around going on and like always I'm the go to guy!!

 

You need a new job?.....never and I mean never has any of my drivers washed there truck with out me paying for it and when something needed done they wouldn't even think about fixing it and I'm talking even a light