mercer transportation

Any of you guys follow Mercer on Facebook?

 

Oh yea, I learn more about what's going on in the company there than anywhere else.

 

What is your take on their question the other day about buying land in Arizona and having trucks to rent to take loads in and out of California?

 

I don't think that idea will ever play out. As I posted on their FB, if I go into Cali, I want a load coming out. I won't drive a smelly truck so I won't bother with it. My '07 truck is at the cutoff. I can't go in after Jan 1, 2014. A '07 engine can go in until 2023 according to Mercer.

Let California starve.

 

California is a big state so they would have to have multiple yards where ever the interstates enter. The rates would have to increase substantially to cover the cost of the rental truck and you would have to be guaranteed a reload immediately as no one will want to sleep in a rental truck or pay for motel rooms. I can understand their concern about losing customers because they want us to haul all of their freight and not just the east of the Mississippi stuff though. The only real solution is to raise the rates so high that it entices us to upgrade our equipment to cash in on those loads.
I tried getting a quote for a DPF on my Cat C15 from that Ironman outfit in California that Mercer recommended but @ $18,250.00 there is no way the numbers would justify the expense..

 

I really don't think a state can stop interstate commerce and that's what there trying to do its not over yet!

 

Seems that way and also seems they are getting away with it. Has anyone ever seen a real ticket to an out of state truck that has been ticketed for being too old?

 

No one with any clout has seriously threatened to challenge it.
I'm sure the ATA is all for it as it will weed out a lot of their competition from owner operators.
Just like they are all for EOBR's and Speed Limiters to "level the playing field".
Most companies with their own trucks already have Carb compliant trucks or will have drop yards where their California fleet will just switch with the other trucks using company trailers.

 

My truck isn't too old('07), but the engine is('06). I get calls from agents asking me to take a load to SoCal, but with anti-idling laws in effect, I turn them down. Sometimes they even get a little pushy. They always promise they can get me reloaded right away.....and the check is in the mail.

I have better paying freight to haul.

 

"I really don't think a state can stop interstate commerce, but that's what their trying to do. It's not over yet!"

Just thought I would clean that up a little bit