Mercer vs Landstar

I'm new at Mercer flat side.
I see quite a bit of van freight on the board. Maybe a wrong person to answer but I was surprised to say the least.

 

No idea about Landstar but FedEx Custom Critical is great for teams especially if you have haz/tanker and dod clearance. Great company to lease. Pm me i can try to answer any questions you may have.

 

Can you get clearance without a company sponsor?
I might be biased but LS does a lot more for the DOD than Mercer, plus there are other team opportunities.

 

They will not issue permanent clearances and it is only a company sponsored thing.

Your business plan specifies the type of freight? At this stage?

LS may be a better fit for you, it offers a lot more flexibility than others. But don't forget there are other companies that may help out the net revenue.

 

I'll simply 'times 2' on that post - and there's plenty of power only opportunities that may suit you too.

 

I've worked at both and they both have their ups and downs.

Mercer has more friendlier atmosphere (as a trucking company - treats you more as an owner operator) but they have their 1st unload (in a region) and then that truck would be offered the 1st reload out of that region policy. That has its draw backs as well. Even if you're sitting on top of that load, anyone who unloaded in that region before you (even if they're hundreds of miles away) would be offered 1st and they all have to pass up that load before it makes it down to you. A lot of the older drivers are retirees with other sources of income or doesn't need that much of a income and knows certain freights comes out of certain areas in particular time of the year will "milk" that system. They'll set up camp (sometimes for weeks at a time) and cherry pick those loads because they could wait on them. If you happens to live near either end of a freight lane, then you don't have to worry about missing out on a load while enjoying your home time (you can understand how that could go both ways). Mercer has only handful of agents and those agent are in charge of certain region. You piss any of them off then see where you stand on the totem pole for loads out because another agent can not book you out of a region that he/she is not in charged with. Approx 6 yrs ago there was an agent in Larado, TX - that had pretty bad rep. and I was one of many who DH out than book any of his loads. I've heard he was eventually kick out due to so many complaints. What ever rate they quote you is to the truck and you don't need to do any fancy math to see what your cut is. They pay the state fuel tax (Landstar deducts out of your settlement but Mercer does not) so shopping for fuel gets simpler. They even have a web site to go see where and exactly what you're charged at fuel stops on a single web page - at LS you look up the truck stop on their web site then call 1 800 number / input location code to see what kind of discount you'll get (Mercer beats that hands down).

Landstar as an asset base corporation treats you as a number (more than twice larger than Mercer) and if or when they think that you made a mistake, you'll see exactly how that difference comes through in the phone call. They are quick to come down and ##### slap you with their stinging remarks/tones. You prove them wrong and the error was on their side - no apology, no back tracking but they'll try get you off the phone in a heart beat. No one department has any authority over the other and no one other than you are accountable. They have over 2k agents but most freights are from brokers / freight forwarders and they under cut each others. Some agents have their own fleet - some they own, some leased onto them. Not uncommon to see multiple postings from various agents with various $$ for a single load. Some agents will quite often try to cut rates with multiple drivers if they have lots of bites. What ever rate that's posted are not to the truck - so keep your calculator handy. Few yrs ago Landstar pressured their agents from paying too much on accessorials (tarping, padding, driver assist, fuel surcharge, etc.. - part that's not shared with Landstar) and some agents are reluctant to break out any extra $$.

I pulled flatbed at Mercer. I pulled flatbed and stepdeck at Landstar. While open platform makes more $$ per miles (definitely run less miles), dry vans are more consistent and generally does well. Some Landstar drivers parked their stepdeck trailers to do dedicated Walmart runs - in between times when those runs stop - they go back to pulling their steps. One driver has been doing that over 2 yrs. Most military loads aren't worth touching - rate sucks, fuel surcharge is too embarrassing / down right insulting and some check points are too invassive. Don't know how the A&E are doing now but at one time they were almost too ideal for husband/wife team. Good luck.

 

Mercer over Failstar hands down. Failstar plays way to many games. No wonder they are on a recruiting binge. Brokers exploit their relationship with Failstar to create there own kingdoms. It's just one game after another with them.