mercer transportation

Landstar used to make it much more complicated to calculate what the truck actually made. Perhaps that is one reason most of them only give the gross that the load pays rather than what the truck makes. Back when I leased to them they paid 67% of 98% for power only. It was easier to just figure that the truck made 65%, even though the actual truck pay was a little over 65% with the way they calculated the truck money. They have since simplified their program where the truck receives 65% of 100%. I have found that most owner operators who lease to a carrier that pays percentage will usually quote the gross pay rather than the truck pay. I think that Mercer pays on 99% of the line-haul, or did. Unless you know the actual amount the truck makes, it is difficult to make an educated decision on whether to take a load or not. I believe that Mercer only gives the rate that the truck makes when they quote what a load pays. In that respect, it makes it easier for the owner operator.

If a driver has always been used to having a dispatcher, he may find it difficult to make it under the Landstar system. He may do well with Mercer since they do have dispatchers. Too many owner operators can't seem to grasp that they are no longer truck drivers, but businessmen who happen to drive a truck. They don't get the business side of this industry. Most won't know what it costs to operate their truck or how much revenue they need in order to break even.

 

lol, glad you liked that.

 

g/man that is correct . whenever we are quoted loads , its the "to the truck" pay , its that way with every load on the board.

as you may can tell, thats all i am concerned with. i could care less and never have what anyone else makes off a load, if it meets a number i can live with, i ride with it and get the next one.

i think far to many are concerned with what the broker or company or whoever gets, rather than what they are getting.

and at mercer even with what they call coordinators you still have to make final decisions on loads, they basically and say i got this and this which one you want.

you can however allow the coordinator to actually dispatch the truck and basically run it, quite a few do this surprisingly.

 

Apologies for veering offtopic here.. It makes it much easier where a company like Mercer or SNI choice gives you the gross rate and that is to the truck... ...makes it much quicker to make a snap decision on the spot whether or not to book the load. I actually prefer to know what the gross to the company I'm leased to is though, a quick math problem 100% of gross x the company's percentage at .xx % tells what the "to the truck number is. Really though even if a person doesn;t keep up with that or know the number it doesn;t matter, all that really matters is the rate to the truck is profitable.. An unfortunate thing about having to always figure your cut from the gross figure is it adds time to decision making process if you're in areas you unfamiliar with and that can make you miss out on loads. I tend to always run the same lanes in about 4 or 5 states and can pretty much tell from when the broker tells me pickup location, delivery, and that gross rate to F2F - whether or not the rate is good. In most cases working with the same people all the time I know in an insatnt and either take it or not, and haggle, or whatever.


Calling on other loads in the area with brokers I havn't worked with I already have an idea of what I need on any given load. Back when I first started I really had to crunch a lot of numbers if someone called or I was looking at the boards. Annother thing back when I first started I didn;t really have any good prefered lanes where I KNEW I could get good rates and I was running all over everywhere. I think this is what kills a lot of guys. they just book loads from here to there and everywhere and never really focus in on any given specific areas, you will have a hard time figuring out solid lanes doing things that way. You get lucky once in a while but a person really needs to home in on where the good stuff is and build off of that... Once you do that you get faster and faster at knowing the good from the bad and the quicker a person can make decisions in this business the better. On any given load I get offered if I'm not willing to do it they have others who will be glad to take it the second I hang up. Hemming and hawing trying to figure if a rate is good or not can cost a person a load.... You have to KNOW if it is or not and the only way to know is to work an area a lot.... Takes time to learn any given area and I feel blessed and lucky in that I have found steady things that work very well for me.

 

i dont really consider my cordinator a dispatcher. i dont play well with others and.have never lasted at a job witj a dispatcher for more then a few months. a dispatcher calls and tells you where you are going. my cordinator calls and says i have yhis, this and this. do you want one? i can pick or say no. if i say no she says "okay, i will call when i have more". i say no probably 20 times a day. in fact i say no so much i feel bad so i watch the board almost all the time and if a load matches to me that i dont like i will refuse it there so she doesnt have to csll me.

 

btw i very often gamble and wait for the right load. sometimes i win, sometimes i loose. i am not one to jump at the first load offered. in fact one of my biggest problems here and also when i was with landstar is i just dont make fast decisions. i am calculated and i want to run miles, or look up the location or check freight in that area etc and you just dont have that kind of time. i am getting better though in part because i am always watching the board. i like the see the xetails in print not be told them on the phone. that just works better for me

 

If I tell my coordinator no to many times in a day he gets pissed and quits calling me. Which is fine, I would rather take care of it myself anyway.

 

i wouldnt have that. i would switch. my main thing i told them when they were matching me to a cordinator is that i didnt ever want to hear "why not" when i said no. or to be pushed into a load. i think i have my girl broke in. skateboard man and i have the same girl and he isnt as happy as i am. she never pushes me but she isnt afraid to tell me if she thinks i am making a mistake if she has a reason. i told her to do that.

then again we are both fairly new so we are kinda learning together i gues. lol

 

what is this coordinator you guys speak of?????... ahh just kidding.. i very rarely hear from mine.. the minute you tell them your a board hawk the forget about you..

 

mine figures if something pops up matched to me then its probably only there cause i want her to call me about it so she does. i have talked to a few there that there is no way i would deal with