mercer transportation

It's going well cant complain making more money than I did at crst with alot less work.

 

My contractor always wanted to keep the deadhead miles down. Like around a hundred or so. This is impossible if I am going to make money.

For now on, I'll deadhead 500+ miles to get the money loads as long at all miles to the truck are $1.80 or more. If he doesn't like it, then he can fire me, but I might return with a new contractor and a beast of a Western Star.

Coordinators don't have a clue. They never drove a truck, never worked on a truck, and they don't know how to get a truck to make money.

 

that's explains your problem, the coordinator has instructions for 100 mile deadhead or less, that's why you don't get matched on loads.

 

you have to do the math, it often pays to deadhead. I figure expenses deadheading @ 0.90/mile and loaded miles @ $1.25/mile. these numbers aren't for everybody and doesn't include paying me as the driver. just saying I think it's a good idea to have a different rate for deadheading than loaded when making those decisions. If you're the type of person who cares to figure out what makes sense. Or else you can just guess ?

 

How crowed is the yard this weekend?
I'll be coming in Sunday.

 

I set my deadhead miles in my parameters at 150. But look out at 250. I rarely deadhead that far.
I try to keep deadhead miles around 20% of loaded miles but tend to go higher on short runs.
Lately been doing a lot of really short runs around 100 mile runs.

 

You start bouncing 400+ miles in between loads and I don't think you will be close to $1.80 for all miles, more like $1.50-$1.55. With careful planning upto 250 miles you should be fine and beable to stay very busy. Are you allowed to commit yourself to loads or does the contractor you run for demand the coordinator runs the ship?

 

I can commit myself and I run the truck. I have turned down poor paying loads.

My coordinator has me set up for 200 mile radius and $1.70 a mile. This isn't accurate as a $3.00 a mile load might be waiting for me 250 miles away.

I took a 4 stop load 500 miles that paid $1400 dollars from Wooster, OH to SE Indiana. I should have looked at the order of the stops. First was just south of I70, the second was an hour the the SW, then due South into Henderson, Ky, the back NW just 50 miles West of the second stop, then back to Louisville. That wasted over 100 miles and 2 hours of my time. The last stop should have been in Henderson. I didn't have any way to change it when I realized what was going on.

Then my coordinator asked me if I wanted to pick up some coils from Granite City, IL (St. Louis) going directly back to the house. I would have had to DH more then 120 miles and would have killed the rate plus I would have gone gone for another evening. That wasn't happening.

So I DH'd to the house 170 miles away.

I will never accept a load over the phone again.

 

If I had trucks leased on here I would be picking the loads for them, not a coordinator or driver. It just doesn't make financial sense to me to let others decide wether or not I make money.

 

My contractor has 40 trucks, but Mercer won't let him have his own coordinator. Each coordinator has several of his trucks. It's pretty insane. He should have his own person right there in his office hooked up to Mercer's system.