mercer transportation

But you said people were being attacked, and I haven't seen that either....we get your gripe, but frankly it's the same gripe at every company, and trucking related Facebook group, and trucking radio show....rates sucks, there's no freight, brokers suck, rinse and repeat. You have repeated like 5 times.

 

When you keep lowering your hiring standards, you have to reach a point where your drivers are no better than the average driver, perhaps worse. At that point the agents have nothing to sell except price.

Can the agents tell a customer that Mercer drivers are the best in the industry, that they will show up when promised, that they know how to handle the freight that will be put on the truck, that they look and act professional.

Back in the day, Mercer was known as the premier flatbed company in the nation. That's what the agents sold and our rates reflected that.

When you have drivers coming here with one year experience with a bottom feeder company and no flatbed experience, then goes thru a few days of flatbed training ***What does the agent have to sell?***.

I know many of you guys came here with nothing and you made a success of yourself but for every one that made it work, the agents have been dealing with dozens perhaps hundreds of drivers giving Mercer a bad name at the shipper/ rec .

Back in the day, other companies weeded out these bad drivers, the good drivers became successful somewhere else, then we came to Mercer (the premier flatbed). The agents had something special to sell and they did a good job selling it.

This started years before I retired, I will never forget the conversation I had with one of our agents that just got back from an agents meeting in Louisville. He told me he was walking around the lot looking at the trucks and the drivers going thru orientation. He asked management, what the heck they were doing putting trucks and drivers like this on. He was told to go back to ****** and run his business and they will run Mercer.

Mercer still has a lot going for it, for example,they are honest and they are not going to "play" with your money. But if your going to make money here, you have to be smarter than average.

Develop a great relationship with several agents, when they know you are among the best in the fleet, then they have something to sell. They will welcome the phone call from you, when you say, I'm headed your way.

 

It should be easy to shine in a box of rocks if your gold.

 

It is.

 

Nailed it!!

 

He did nail it. The funny thing is the changes he is talking about happened YEARS before you came here. The mercer mtoo signed on with hasn't existed in over ten years, before many of you guys were even in the trucking industry.

The mercer of today is the exact same as the mercer of your hire date.

 

I thanked your post but the drivers I see confirm what mtoo said in his post.

 

And that will never go back to the way it was, and long before my time. I think it's just too easy, in this era of information and technology, for the guys that are good/ professional at what they do to not go and get their own authority. Obviously, this isn't the case for everyone but for many it is. And Mercer, being a large company, has no choice but to keep bringing trucks on to be able to advertise that have x capacity. Could they have stayed small, sure but we are way beyond that point.... JMO

 

A lot of guys run out and get their authority only to net less money.

 

Oh i agree completely with what mtoo said. That wasn't my point.

But to that point: the first time i was at mercers offices in Louisville was the late 80s. They truly were the best of the best. You knew that beyond any doubt just by walking through the parking lot. There is simply no comparison between mercer then and mercer of the last several years. Its like trying to compare a top of the line private fleet such as a nascar transport to western express or some fly by night on their 4th mc # Chicago outfit.