mercer transportation

Truck has 627xxx on it. It's a old heartland truck. I think once I get these bugs worked out it will be a good truck. So far I've had ac composer replaced. Oil cooler . New pipe for air intake then boots for the cac system. And tires on steers lol. Only put 26,000 miles on it so far. Oh new batteries too lol.

 

Sounds like how I started off with my truck.

 

. JFYI

 

I had lunch with a LS buddy of mine today. He drives a van there and we got into a talk about van rates and the like. So of course we had to break out the load boards and do some comparisons. For about 5 seconds I felt really bad for the van side then I remembered. We all see to the truck numbers and LS doesn't. So we had to break out the napkin and do some basic math. The results were a bit surprising to me.

First I had to make some assumptions as I have no idea what a van payment is so we used $650. We also decided that instead of trying to break out the cost of everything we just figured all other cost were the same (Qualcomm, Trippak, insurance, fuel discounts yada yada).

Next we did a quick search of the board for a load that appeared could be the same load posted on both boards. On our board it was posted at $1.50 and on his it was $2.00. Now that sounds like a huge difference but remember his loads are not TTT. If he owned his trailer (he does not) he would actually make $1.50 too at 75% but in reality he only gets $1.34.

Now we made a few other assumptions. This one being that one would average 2000 miles a week. For most van drivers this might be a low number but he stated that was a fair low average for what we were doing. Anyway, using the load above as a low average we determined that at 2k miles a week he almost loses 2 trailer payment per month by only getting 67% vrs 75%.

Now I'm sure that many of you can find a million holes in the above example. And I'm sure that there are. We were not trying to prove one company better then the other. And I only shared this to remind people that some of these rate differences are not nearly as big as they may seem.

 

But Landstar is better Van wise then Mercer hands down. That's not even a discussion.. They have DnH and they have alot more Van customers.. The way I see it give me the 1.34-1.40 rate with an abundance of loads to choose from then the 2.00 rate and its not that many customers... That's a no brainer.. Flat bed Mercer has alot of companies beat.. But on the Van side there isn't really a need for a Trailer payment.. Take that 600 a month out of the equation then now we might be on to something

 

I agree with that, there is absolutely no justification for "owning" a van at mercer. I mean my old company, i could make 1.06 plus FSC for all miles ld and empty with no trailer, mostly drop and hook, and only work when I want. They paid tags, fuel tax, tolls, Sounds same as mercer vans were with no expense of payment or repairs on a trailer.

 

Would you take only 67% knowing that $1.5 load would become $1.34? And that at that rate you would be loosing $650 ever 4069 miles? I'm not vans so I don't know, but that seems like a lot of money to leave on the table. Do the vans have the same warranty as my flat does? Bumper to bumper everything but tires and breaks for 5 years? Heck even my lights are covered.

And we did this on a napkin cause we both where a little curious. A lot of variable were left out. The biggest being the difference in our fuel discounts and where we are allowed to fuel at. I'm not trying to argue if one side is right or wrong, I'm really trying to get a better understanding of the van side. Those that I talk to that have been here awhile love it. Others are unhappy. I'm just trying to determine what to do with this truck if/when I buy a new one.

 

Our tires are covered? I didn't think tires n brakes are covered lol.

 

Everything "but" (except)

 

Haha missed that part.