mercer transportation

Hey now...... LOL

Sad but true for most guys. I just keep my rate at a set $$$ amount and I know I'm fine. Most guys (especially the van side) are just clueless on what's going on and how to run their business. They gobble up anything and are the ones you see 3 months later pulling for a different company.

Granted, it's not rocket science to figure out how to take 73% of gross, but some drivers just can't figure it out for some god forsaken reason.

 

and I do the complete opposite, I try to book loads at least 3-4 days in advance. But I also make sure it's paying very well before I do. After I book the load, I make sure I turn off my load alerts because I don't want to be kicking myself later for taking a load. I have found tho, that if I wait till I'm empty, and ready to roll, I sometimes get better rates the day of, because they want the load moved and I'm ready to roll, so I can haggle the $$ amount a bit.

The more I learn here about Mercer I realize that LS and Mercer are nothing alike. LS is a bit more like being independent and Mercer kind of guides you a bit.

 

That's what I do at times, book 2 or 3 days out. Like for instance right now I have some sweet daily round trip loads out of a certain location. I also have a short 65 mile general freight load that rolls right by my house and gets me within 20 miles of this expedite round trip stuff. I'll do one or two of those round trips in a day and pick off 3-5 of those 65 mile loads every day of the week. The round trips pay $800 on 251 hub miles the 65 mile load is general freight off the boards that pays $400 same day pick and drop. Potential to do $800-$2000 on any given 24 hour window on anywhere from 250-600 miles. The cool thing about the 65 mile load is that it is sort of a crappy load that no-one who didn;t live on top of it would mess with but it works great for me. It gets passed around from several different brokers from the reciever customer who gives it to them. I know who gets it when. One will have it a few weeks then another and so on. They do that to mix things up and keep the rate depressed if it starts getting jacked. I've found out who gets it and they have me at the top of their call list on it before they even post it. I've held steady at $400 on it since Feb. That freight is steady year round stuff and I normally use it to cap off or start a week but now I use it multiple times during a week to pad my earnings. the round trip stuff could disappear in Jan.. But I have other local options if it does, many of them and when the round trip disapears I will start planning 4 and 5 loads out on the other local stuff and wait for some more expedite to get hot in several other locations.. The thing that would suck about being leased to Mercer or Landstar for me is I could get that load from LS, who has it some months of the year, but when it went out to the other agents on loadboard land I would not be able to haul it and make any money off of it. As it is I get it regardless who has it and can use it every week of the year as a starter load or cap... Or some weeks I dont even mess with it at all.. I'd actually love to do it direct all the time along with the same stuff out of other locations then I'd never sleep in a truck again. But as it is works ok... This is what I was mentioning in another post about knowing the freight in your lanes. That guy MB_Guru forever running 800-1000 mile cheap loads back and forth from Jersey... If I lived in Jersey I could find so much work that was 50 and 100 miles same day pick and drop I'd make a killing and never leave Jersey, waaay too much freight up there for him to be running cheap all over creation on big miles out and back.... One has to be patient with it and learn even if that means a bum "so-so" week or two here and there.

 

i dont sit and wait unless i loose the gamble. the whole time i am on a load i am getting calls about whats available on the other end. if there is a good paying one i will take it but i dont jump on anything. what i meant by gambling and loosing is occasionally i end up not booking one ahead of time. i am finding out that here you are best off to have a load before you are empty. since loads are offered on the first in you are more likely to get a lpad 3-4 days out because the guys ahead of you are looking for.something today so they will refuse a good load farther out. as to how much "guidance" you have its really up to you. i have gotten to where my last three loads i have booked myself off the load board without talking to my girl.

if i had to make a comparison i would say mercer is a bit more organized as to load distribution and the star is more like the wild west free for all for whoever is the fastest telephone dialer. i liked my time at landstar, there was a few things i didnt like. it was 08 if i remember which was about the worst time for freight rates. thats why i didnt stay. and i wasnt doing flats then. landstar forbflats is a whole different company then landstar for vans. i still have reservations about how this whole first in first out thing works but i dont have any better.idea and it seems to get the job done.

in the end i came here because i am buying a trailer and not renting one like i would be at landstar. thats about it

 

well i'm on my way to mercer at first of the year look foward to meeting ya'll great thread lots of info just hope i havent forgotten as much about flatbed as i think i have hopping it'll come back

 

not quite the way it is, you arent guided . you simply have a load coordinator call you about loads instead of getting load alerts. see you set up parameters in the computer such as min .rate per mile, distance you will dh , tarp or no tarp, areas you will go , etc etc. . you set those and the coordinator calls only about loads that meet that criteria, you can set up a completely different set of parameters on your laptop to look at yourself. i let mine do loads within 150 miles and i do the searches further out, and i make the final decision on which load to accept. or you can if you wish allow the coordinator to accept loads for you if your prefer.

you have a variety of ways to operate here, not just one. we just have a little bit of organization with the firstin, first out deal. as wideload said the wild wild west doesnt appeal to me.

 

i got her about 2 weeks before you got her, i had my other one right at a year. we got along great. its takes a while to get the relationship working. it was for me like being the old dog in the house and they bring in a new puppy to the house.

i was so used to calling and my old gal knew it was me and we immediately dealt with business. it was a ##### always having to give my name and truck number when i called, we about got it kicked though. i have never met her, i havent been to louisville since i got her in september. my first one i met when i started, a year later when i got another one, i met her the next day.

i swear at times it was like i got divorced and got a new girlfriend, i have been traumitized. old dogs dont like new tricks, lol

 

shadowed, when the coordiantor pulls up my truck screen down at the bottom in the comments section mine says "wife finds loads" if i moved to louisville, my wife could be a coordinator and not even need training. it helps a great deal.

 

Just curious......What's the Agent turnover at Mercer? The Agents from approx ND to West Texas and West gotta be some of the toughest, most patient, good at dealing with stress etc people out there. Sadly I see more empty Mercer trucks sitting out west then any other company. I realize each operator has different criteria as to where they want, need, are willing to go etc. Seriously though the miracles those Agents must perform daily amazes me. However, every Mercer contractor I've visited with always seems content. Do they send you guys through a patience class? LOL!!

 

I know what you mean.. If i am not on it my wife is.. She knows what I like to haul, where to go and runs the actual miles for me and fills me in on the overall rate with DH.. Plus she will do a quick look ahead to that area to see if it is even worth going there..