Why do some Fail @ Mercer

In a hot area? A day. At most. In a bad area? Pfft, I'm already headed back to the good markets. I get goood fuel mileage running empty

Edit to add: real world example I'm currently on. Booked a great paying load (for the market) out of Savannah for ohio last Friday, it loaded Monday delivered today. watched the board for ohio from the moment I was dispatched on the Savannah load. Watched lots of fairly good loads get grabbed up and by Tuesday morning I was high on the board, passed on a few more good loads till I saw an excellent one loading almost two hundred miles away and snatched it. After fuel, I'll be putting two grand in my pocket on two days of work in that 2nd load.
It's going to a crap area, Texas. But it pays good enough I can bounce all the way to Birmingham if needed.

 

Well said. The other thing I want to add is that some people don't understand freight lanes or the trucking business. This is specific to the drivers that do a lease purchase through Quality. Maybe these drivers were good company drivers. However....it takes a lot more than being a good driver to sit at the big table with the owner operators. With Mercer it's about learning the lanes, the freight and how to plan your reloads. Mercer won't hold your hand. They have the logistics......the rest it totally on you.

 

Well said. Knowing the lanes is key.......and knowing the market rates in the area your running in. I am picky to a point on the loads I pull. Going to the east coast for 1.60 per miles is out lol. PA NY and other areas with tolls and higher fuel etc. Like you said.....beware of the trap loads and leave am alone lol.

 

That's not specific to quality guys, anyone can not know what they are doing

 

I'm reading this one so far .

 

I do stand behind my previous post. I am not going to waste my energy anymore railing against the fleece purchase system. Its kind of like trying to talk to a teenager. Let em learn the hard way.

Now far as why people dont make it at Mercer specifically....I have a few solid thoughts on that. Please keep in mind I wont get into the whole "knowing the trucking business" aspect of this. If one does not understand the trucking business......they will fail no matter what carrier they go to.

This portion is regarding the flatbed/open deck operation at Mercer

#1 The sucess of the drivers at Mercer really hinge on the broker. The O/O does not have an option to look at load boards etc etc to try and find a load. Understand I am not talking about the driver that gets stranded out west or get into a bad frieght area. However, for the sake of this conversation it can apply. The O/O is at the mercy of the broker...pure and simple. There is no recourse for the O/O to try and find any freight. Brokers have lives like everyone else and might not be able to put in a full day etc etc. On the other hand some of the brokers really dont care and will do the absolute minimum. Some brokers will bust their humps to get loads. No matter what the issue (good or bad) the Mercer driver is at the mercy of the broker. (wonder if that is where they got mercer from lol).

#2 The load board is nothing more that a digital version of musical chairs and wack-a mole. The load board is clunky and extreamly dated. For the driver that is not in the cool kids club its usually blind luck, or the coordinator happens to see it, that a driver can get the load.

#3 The cool kids club does exist at Mercer. It is alive and well. In one form or another Mercer admits that it does exisit. i have actually seen it and been affected by it. However, this practice can be found at every other carrier including Landstar and many others. All the cloak and dagger type brokering to the "chosen ones" would not be that bad if the drivers were permitted to look for loads. Sometimes watching Mercer drivers trying to get loads is like watching a scene out of Oliver Twist where Oliver is begging. That should not happen. Personally all the "secret handshake society" brokering to the chosen drivers makes me sick.

#4 Freight goes up and down. This effects every carrier including Mercer. There will be times of plenty and lean times. This is where knowing how freight moves helps out. Unforunatly the O/O only can turn to one source for their loads....the Mercer Brokers.

#5 Being picky. Well there is a difference between being picky and being taken advantage of. Some rates really do not make any sense. Other loads have been rebrokered so many times that the rate gets watered down. Its not really about getting the huge long distance money loads.....its about getting loads that make sense. Does going to Minot North Dakota for $1.50 per mile make sense? Does going to Philidelphia Pa for $1.40 per mile make sense? Unless you live there the answer is No it makes no sense.

While some of the drivers must bear some of the brunt of their failures.....the brokers must also take a slurp of fail sauce also.

PS. Before making this post I did my due diligence and looked at load availability in areas etc etc. Even found good loads where Mercer brokers whined that the well was dry. Now I fully understand that there are legit reasons Mercer will turn down a load. However.....in an area where Mercer has NO Loads and there are 200 loads posted on DAT with half of them being viable loads.........it makes me wonder. I even called some broker friends of mine. Makes me wonder.

 

That post is so full of inaccurate info its almost funny.

1: some agents are go getters and try to get as much freight at the best rate as possible. And some agents are content with the customers they have. That's the same as any agent based carrier. That does not determine if I'm successful or not. For every agent that doesn't have a lot of good freight there are five more go getters. Pull loads for the go getters.

2: the load board is just fine. Every load except for dedicated accounts gets posted to it. And every load runs the board. Your board position determine if you get the load or not, it's not random and not who clicks first.

3:The cool kids club? Wtf is up with that? The closest thing to that is our pss trucks. Some loads can only go on them because they can offer 24 hour surveillance and have passed the back ground checks. And then ya got our rgns. Ya not every rgn load runs the board, since there is only about a dozen of em here the agents can look where they are and call the 1 guy that's actually able to cover the load. Crying about this makes about add much sense as a solo truck crying a team got a team load instead of him.

4: yes mercer expects you to pull mercer freight instead of landstar and bennett freight. What else could you expect?

5: yes we have some cheap freight along with good freight. It doesn't mean you have to pull the cheap loads. What isn't covered by a mercer truck will be put out on public load boards or given back to the shipper. That's the same as any agent based carrier. An agent will attempt to cover every load they can, i don't blame them for having cheap cuisines along with good customers. And at no time had anyone been forced or even pressured to take a cheap load. They are contractually obligated to run the in house board before trying to broker it out. Even when they know none of us is going to take it. Instead of focusing on the cheap loads, focus on the good ones. In fact set your preferences so you never even see the cheap stuff. Takes all of 2 seconds.

 

You were here what? 23 years right? Did you ever lose a load to a guy in the cool kids club? I haven't in the time I've been here.