mercer transportation

I try to look at everything. The weight is going to affect the fuel mileage, which affects expenses, and thus profit. The bottomline profit is all that matters in the end. The same goes not just for weight, but even with the reefer I pull now I move my 5th wheel on every load trying to put it as close as possible to the back of my truck to reduce the drag. With a skateboard, you don't have a set height, but each load is going to be a varying height which will affect the drag as well, thus fuel mileage, etc. The same goes if you don't have it balanced, the terrain you will be driving on, etc. If you have the choice to load out of Cheyenne for 2.30 going to SLC or the same weight going to Lincoln, Ne at 2.20 the odds are the profit will be greater going to Lincoln because less hills, all downhill, and typically you will have a tail wind, all things equating to much less fuel consumption and an overall better profit. Now not having pulled a FB before, I can only assume in that particular scenario the setup for your next load would also be better in Nebraska than Utah with all the tractors that come out of there as well as hay and everything else.

 

I'm heart broken peeps are upset at my comments when I've never attacked publicly nor privately anybody.
I've spoken of my position and debated on different ways of doing business under different ideals, ages, and likings.
my apologies to you if I ever pinched a nerve, for I am here as one more forum user and not another avatar bashing at others great knowledge and advice.

Now I'm not really concerned about friends, if someone does not want me as their friend then it is their loss, i am still living and past the point of making people happy or giving them what they want to hear.

 

its good to know at least we know your true colors. no one here has attacked you either. you are the fellow who makes all the remarks and took offense at someone differing from your point of view.

frankly, if this is your true attitude you have it wrong. not having you as a friend is not a loss, its a gain. you got a bad attitude, a chip on your shoulder , or whatever else one wants to call it.

heres the good part , this thread is 637 pages long, don't recall this happening before on this thread.

you have apparently reinvented the wheel.


""""""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."""""" this quote by you , that's not a veiled attack at some folks???? you know dang well it is.

 

I have met several of the mercer guys on this thread. flightline we conversed for quite a while here before we met in Louisville. he was exactly as expected when we met in Louisville.

spyder was the same way, in fact we went out to eat in a group and I had no idea who he was. it was after we figured that out. several others are in the same boat with those fine fellows. they were exactly as they came across on this thread.


I would hope that the way you come across on this forum isn't your true self in person.

 

That was a great time. Sorry about the sudden hug. When I realized who you were it was like I ran into a brother I hadn't seen in ten years.

 

hope we can get together in Louisville, I got to be there by march 31st for an inspection. I am at home in ga , got to fix a radiator hose in the am. then back to work.

I was out checking and looking everything out today, had engine running and hood up checking everything over, when fluid started hitting my face , looked up and the top radiator hose had a pinhole in it. I mean it literally just started as I had already looked over the top hoses and just starting to look at stuff lower down. better here than rolling down the road. maybe stopping and helping out the 4 wheeler who needed water for radiator Friday on I-95 was the karma I needed for this

 

Same with me my inspection is due March 31st going to be up there some time around then to get my super singles put on probably around the 20th

 

I have to agree that to advise someone new to truck ownership to go out and buy a brand new truck is likely not in that persons best interest. I base my opinion on my own personal experiences, and those of others that I have observed. The vast majority of people that decide to take the plunge and buy a truck are by far and large not wealthy people, meaning, that after the purchase they don't have the financial means to weather one or more storms.

Buying new versus old, either way is a gamble. With new you have a warranty, and that's great, but that warranty doesn't pay for down time while the truck is in the shop. This is where the learning curve gets expensive, that high truck payment and any other financial obligations are still expected by the lenders to be paid on time, and there is no excuse for not paying them. With an older truck, that is paid for in cash or has a very small payment, there is no warranty and you will foot the bill for any repairs that arise, no pay for down time either, and your other financial obligations remain the same. Now, if you do your due diligence and take the proper precautions when looking at that older truck, you can stack the deck in your favor.

When leasing onto a company like Mercer, you need to look at everything with the business side of your brain, not the truck driver side. You can throw a business savvy person into either of those two trucks, and they are likely to succeed, throw your run of the mill truck driver in there with the miles, miles, miles attitude, and the chances of failure are extremely high with a new truck payment, with the old truck there is a better chance that they will make it more than a year.

Bottom line is there is no one size fits all answer, but statistics tell us that the probability of success will start with the older truck, then as time and money warrants, buy that new truck if its what you want to do. Personally, I would be scared to hell to have started with a new truck, and I bought my first truck before EGR, DPF, and DEF where a twinkle in the governments eye.

 

Oscar, you are right on. It's just attacking the deck in your favor to give the greatest chance to make it through the boneheaded stupid mistakes we all made starting out.

Something my father once said to me "when I give you advice it's not because I'm smarter, it's because I already made those same screw ups" or something to that effect.

And my personal favorite "any screw up you do, I've already done twice with a couple extra zeros on the end of the check"

 

yep, that's all any of us old jokers are trying to say, we have already screwed this up several times over.

I tell my kids that all the time, but here I sit at home with a 18 year old daughter who just had her heart broken by a boy. its killing me to see her in the midst of this. I told her there aint but one man in this world you can count on and that's me.