"Stress" the silent killer. Glad you are doing well Pete. I always prided myself on how well I handled stress. It wasn't until after I sold out and retired, that I learned the toll it was taking on my body. I miss all the traffic Mercers threads used to generate, Ya all stay safe.
The one thing she mentioned that worries me about heading to Mercer, and I was planning on applying there soon, is the comment about freight that "never hits the board." That really rubs me the wrong way, the favoritism and potential for kickbacks to get the good loads. Even more so when you're trying to get back east out of a dead area like west coast. Anyone have more examples of this sort of thing from Mercer?
I think most of the people that say that assumes it never hit the board when it actually did but it was taken before they saw it. the loads run fast, when it gets to you, I think you have 8 minutes to accept before it goes to the next in line. so if your not watching when it hits you will miss it. if it's not within the parameters you set then you won't see it. when I was there, several times an agent called me about a load. usually because I had hauled for them before and they appreciated my efforts to satisfy the customer and my pleasant manner when dealing with all involved. when that happened they always said they would let it run the board and call me if I got it. if you have a good relationship with your coordinator and they have good relationships with agents , its a plus. but the load still has to run the board. as for the west coast, mercer does not have much freight out there. if you go then make sure it pays well enough to dead head out. out of 2 yrs I went there 4 times with forklifts and 1 with shopping carts. my coordinator made sure to book me a load out before I emptied so no sitting or deadheading. BTW my coordinator knew I didn't want to leave my east coast to south to midwest triangle so every west coast load she negotiated a very good rate for vans, the cheapest was 2.83 a mile from east coast to west. good luck
Yes, make sure you put the word system in quotes. They're plenty of loads at Mercer that never hit the board. I know this to be fact because I hauled quite a few of them. I'm sure I sat a time or two because a load in my area didn't hit the board. Mercer says every load runs the board but that's just not true. Almost all loads do but it's not 100%.
