mercer transportation

If a company lowers it’s standards, it’s intentional. It’s irrelevant what the current pool of drivers is. If a hospital had a opening for a surgeon & a person with a terrible history applied, would you give the hospital a pass if that surgeon killed people? A company has a choice as to who they hire, if their choices are limited then they face more choices; they can lower their standards, or they can incentivize & keep their standards. That company can also focus on retention, that way they don’t need to shop in that pool of unqualified people.

 

In another ten years you'll be doing it again.

 

If I remember right, when I signed on, there was just over 500 trucks. Three of us in orientation. They only had the one lot where the main office is and orientation was in a trailer in the corner of the lot. Uncle Lenny had a great job.

One time I was in the yard getting an inspection, the inspector (a very young man) found a brake can with a small leak. The inspector gave me his personal pickup to go get the parts. (they just assumed that the drivers had the tools and could do minor repairs them self)

When I retired, that hand was still at Mercer, he no longer crawled under trucks doing inspections, but he was still in safety/inspections.

That's the kind of people that were in the Mercer organization. I have lots of stories of some of the old hands that made Mercer the once, "premier flatbed company in the U.S."

That's just a look into the past, kind of cool being an old man.

 

Would've been cool to be trucking back in those days. But I was a wee bit too young.

 

Industry wide id say it hasnt changed as much as people think. Been hearing about steering wheel holders, lousy companies, detention and low rates since the stories my granddad would tell before i had my license.

 

That could be true but trucking as a whole has changed drastically in the 22 years I've been out here.

I used to love to run into a guy like @mtoo when I was getting started. They were fun to run down the road with chatting on the radio. Not many left like him out here.

 

I agree the social side of things has changed. Hardly anyone talks and helps anymore. When i offer to help someone roll their tarps or anything they look at me like im up to something now.

 

Had a great day yesterday loading up in Ayer, MA with Brian. He has a YouTube channel called "Driven Trucking"....got some fun vids on there if you got time to kill.
Booked into next week on 3 loads so i cant complain. Hope everyone is killin it, and have a great week!

 

Are you van or flat? I have been kind of lingering on here trying to make a decision about coming over but I’m from MA so I’m kind of curious how much freight they have up here since I know a lot of guys flat out refuse to go up here.

 

On the flat side there is always a ton of good paying freight going that way.