mercer transportation

You're right about most of that, I have, however, been greeted at my truck several times and have had a few people offer me coffee. The plus side to the grocery thing, though, is sometimes you get to have some of the product. Then you have the downside of I prefer to run overnight, cant do that with the OD loads. Not that that is a big deal, I run when I have hours regardless if the sun is up or not so I CAN drive during the day, I just prefer not to. Waiting at customers does suck.....a lot. You both are evil for taunting the lowly reefer guys when you deliver a new cooling system or forklift or whatever.

 

you mention common sense, that's all it is. it seems it is in short supply,lol. that's basically it. some don't book loads ahead because they are afraid something better may come along I guess. I operate on the bird in hand is better than two in the bush method. you simply have to know your cost.

once I book a load, I move on to looking for the next one. I never look back at the board to see what I missed, its always forward. I saw today on another facebook thread where a guy blamed his troubles at mercer on the big sleeper clique on why he couldn't make it here. that's a frog. he hops from place to place and never finds a suitable lily pad. he never realizes the problem isn't the lily pad but the frog sitting on it.

 

Yes sir, Spydy and juggalo have it right.
I loaded out of cali, i had 2 picks schedule at 2000 and the other at 2100 on friday.
It is a tarpped load, least to say I was at my 2nd pick up at 1700 tarpped and ready to go. payload is 7k lbs and 25'x3'
flatbedding is awesome.

 

I've only done 2 OD loads in over 6 months..

 

I don't understand why you would care what someone else made for a load anyway. I doubt the CEO of Apple cares what Samsung is getting for their phone. How much money the next guy made or didnt make on his load doesnt affect my bottom line one bit, especially when you have a choice of loads make the decision yourself what to haul. Ive heard people complain left and right, in the industry in general, about how they didnt want little short runs and how they would sit until a long run came a long and they would be broke all the time and not making money. That mentallity is a problem throughout the industry not realizing the opportunities you have because you cant unwrap yourself from one aspect of it. Its a business, everything affects it, some things more than others, but everything affects it. Its not an extremely hard concept, but some people think they have to run 1500-3000 mile loads to make any money. I understand the i dont get paid if the wheels arent turning aspect, but common sense says 500 miles at 4.00 is better than 1700 at 1.50. Even if its a trap load, so what, know that ahead of time and figure on a long deadhead into the load to get out of there. Then that will tell you if it will be worth doing.

 

im new here but... You will do fine, I'm still learning the system after coming from a reefer company. I made the change to flatbed and have not looked back. I have to say the hardest thing is figuring out what to do with all this extra time off. I'm kind of still stuck on looking for the long loads that take me through the weekend but I'm breaking that habit as we speak. As mentioned by many others, you really do have to find a new way of looking at things. There is a learning curve. Booking ahead is a great thing. So far my biggest regret is not taking loads that would have made me money in hopes that something better would come along. It usually doesn't. But everyday is better then any day I had last year.

The booking ahead thing is kinda simple. Well from what I have found so far. Most guys in an area are looking for a load that loads today or tomorrow. So they don't care about a load that doesn't load till Wednesday. This allows you to snatch up that Wednesday load without stepping on any toes. I guess there is a little more to it and I'm sure one of the more experienced guys can elaberate. But that is basically how I look at it.

 

Imho (in my humble opinion)
from my short and risky experience, this : "common sense says 500 miles at 4.00 is better than 1700 at 1.50."
does not happen here.
If you are waiting for one to happen, or operate for the other, you will soon find your undies uncomfortable from the sitting.
I believe you are to set a minimum operating expense and a minimum miles to run to achieve that goal over a period of a month or year, however you'd like, then divide it and get your minimum required revenue to run for..
I sure as heck know personally 1.50 would drive me broke.

 

I was over exaggerating to make a point. I understand what youre saying though

 

Out of curiosity, someone was mentioning the discounts earlier for maintenance items....

Does Mercer have some sort of maintenance account you contribute to, or what? How does that work, because I was under the assumption that you pay out of your pocket.

 

No worries. You were spot on.

Still others come in here trying to over spec the same analogy, and are taken as load wizards while guys like me turn up looking like kids doing things not so bright.

Funny if you'd ask me how some others like to break the revenue for a load as in line, Fuel Surcharge, tarp, and stops. However they don't point out the fuel discount at Mercer adds up not to REVENUE, but it does to PROFIT.
and also load weight is left out of the equation, which alters your operation cost again, not adding to REVENUE but for sure to your PROFIT.
so in a scenario where some one loads 40k lbs @$3 for 800 miles considers the guy that took that 2K lbs @2.05 for 1300 dumb.

Do the math. Both take 2 days.