mercer transportation

I think with enough time and effort even a van hauler could average 2 bucks a mile, assuming this economy keeps up. Its all about how well you can ##### your service out.

I got a text from a customer early this week asking if there was anyway i could be at sometown usa friday morning. Didnt care where i was at, would pay the deadhead, or if i was close, pay me to sit and wait. This was before he even contacted the agent looking for a truck. Unfortunately i am under a load so that didn't work out but quirks well as an example of how a guy can really make a killing in this industry. One day i hope to have enough of those types of customers that i never look asy the board again.

As far as 4k miles a week on elogs. That's just not happening unless you are on a perfect dedicated run. Maybe fargo to Montana and back twice a week. But east of 35 and running irregular route? No chance. Just too much traffic.

 

@mtoo thats a heck of a deal. I'm all set for chains or I'd be getting them.

 

Only if I didn't have my snow socks lol.

 

Better buy them. Just ask cj about how well those snow socks hold up.

 

Like here in this thread?

 

It's taken less time for me, far easier to get a stack of loads

 

I don't even run the speed limit most of the time and have very consistently ran 650+ on blogs for the last 5 years, the first 3 were in a 66 mph truck (mostly night running though). It's not hard at all to avg 62 mph when you're an o/o if you don't care about mpg. That being said, I would still find it hard to believe those claims all put together. I'm not saying it's impossible because I don't run vans and don't typically look at the van freight, but I would assume the rates, plus deadhead miles would drag that avg down per mile. I'd also assume that in order to get 4000 miles consistently, someone was running extremely hard, taking only required amount of time on breaks, doing all loading and unloading during split sleepers, etc. Then loss of time there would make me think you'd have to go 75 to make the 4000 miles. That typically means loss of fuel mileage, which would kill that claim. Now, if somehow, the stars and moon aligned, all loads were 25k or less, you ran almost exclusively at night and did some kind of super sneaky squirrel freight that paid top dollar for cross country runs....it COULD happen

 

@CJndaTruck how well have they held up? I keep saying I'm gonna get some, and definitely planned on it before this winter rolls in, but not if they tear up really easy. That's too much money for an item I MIGHT use one week out of the year if I'm replacing it every year

 

Generally speaking how often do these hood shocks get changed? My truck has 420k miles... Seems like it's getting harder to open?

 

Eh miles really wouldn't matter. But if it's hard to open I would replace. I broke a spring on mine and that same thing here is shot on mine. But idk if I can replace it without having hood held up so it don't fall