Mercer Transportation Co., Inc. - Louisville, Ky.?

I would rethink what you just said Spyder. The legions of people that bail from Mercer did not fail. Only you think they fail because they refuse to gulp down gallons of Mercer Kool Aid. Many owner operators want to work and haul freight and not be lied to. In addition O/O that I know have a very low tolerance for liars and game players. Mercer brokers play way to many games with the drivers. To much at risk as an O/O to play romper room games with hiding freight for their buddies, canceling loads on drivers and giving it to their friends and showing favoritism. I find Mercer to be operationally Bipolar.

Many O/O will put up with Mercers baby games for a bit because they don't want to show a pattern/history of leaving a carrier too soon. But in the end they do leave. Obviously the "good ole boys" will stay and point the dirty end of the stick accusing the O/O (that leave or complain) of "know knowing the system" or other veiled reasons that only the Mercer anointed drivers will know.

The vast majority saw through the veil of BS Mercer used to recruit them in the first place. Its not about failing....its about changing the way O/O do business.


Mercer no longer the flatbed juggernaut they claimed to be. They thrive on O/O turnover. This is why you see Mercer advertisements flooding every truckstop magazine and everything else. The real premier O/O carriers don't have to do this.

When I do leave (very very soon) I am going to do it like a grown man and go to Louisville, cancel my contract and tell them why. I will leave in a polite mature manner. Will Mercer care....probably not.

Its Mercers business how they want to run their operation. No need for me to get upset with them (even though they lied through their teeth). The only thing I can do is forewarn O/O about what they are going to face if they sign on with Mercer. Does Mercer really care about loosing drivers....no. More where they came from. But the one man O/O can suffer really based on getting fed a heap full of lies. This is who is my concern is for.

I am saying have an exit strategy in place. Don't let your business suffer. And above all else don't listen to the Mercer KoolAid slurpers who want to paint a picture of some trucking utopia. Its not.

 

I had about 3 paragraphs written decided to edit it to this.

I think @MOGLAR should get his own numbers.

 

I stopped reading at exit strategy. Find the carrier you want to go to, or get your own numbers. It's that simple. A few bucks set aside to pay expenses for the week to two weeks while you make the transition over. If you need a planned out strategy to get together the cash for a couple weeks of expenses then you have failed miserably at running a truck and are much better suited to driving someone else's truck.

 

I know my numbers.....very well. But there is a big thing that is important. Showing the O/O the freight....and not hiding it.

Its bout the broker actually looking for loads and not cut and pasteing them off load boards.....and causing the rate to crash even more for the OO.

Reaaly doesn't matter....Mercer isn't a flatbed outfit anymore. They have more van freight than anything else. But that doesn't matter.

Numbers say "get away for Mercer ASAP!"
1 Bad freight
2 A lot is lazy brokers .....not all of them.
3 Bad rates
4 Favoritism
5 Manipulation
6 This place is an owner operator mill.

The numbers have spoken.

PS. Looking at getting my own authority before spring. Problem solved.

 

@MOGLAR numbers I speak of are your own authority

1. Bad freight..............agents have bad freight and good freight. pay attention to that contractor web find out when and where that better freight is. (those trucks that you accuse of favoritism do this all the time)

2. A lot of lazy agents............ This is true, but it's just loads thrown out there. I had a discussion with one of our agents about a stupid low rate load he had. His response; "I don't expect any Mercer truck to take it"

3. Bad rates....... repeat of #1

4.Favoritism....... This is nothing more than being a pleasant human, How you interact with Louisville, with your coordinator, being pleasant with the agent, same at the shipper and receiver. These people talk with each each other your name and truck # comes up. be it good or bad.

4. Manipulation........There are rules on how freight is run, it can appear that these rules are broken and manipulated. There are a lot of variables taken into account.

5.Owner Operator Mill..........In recent years it would appear that Mercer has hired 1. a lot of drivers that are not smart enough to be owner operators. 2. drivers that need to be baby sat. 3. Just the wrong fit.

I leased on to Mercer when it was hands down the best, premier flatbed owner operator company in the country. They only had about 550 trucks back then. I've seen them go thru economic booms and bust, go thru 911 and the gulf wars. low fuel prices and when it was pushing $1000.00 to fill up.The constant thru all these years; Louisville never lied to us, money
was always fast and to the penny.

Back when Mercer ran almost 100% their own freight like @MOGLAR likes to complain about.
It was great. But when a recession hit, it went from great to really really bad.

As an old hand I #####ed about almost every change that Mercer imposed. To this day about the only change I like is the contractor web. But I understand why the changes were made.

This is what Mercer still offers
1. They will not tell where to go. if you don't want to go to locations XY and Z don't go. If you don't like dealing with agents XY and Z don't haul for them.

2. If you want to bounce 50 miles or 2500 miles go for it, Louisville does not care

3. If you want to stay home 3 days great 3 months thats fine too

4. If you want to work 9 months straight go for it.

5. At the end of the day Louisville will not lie to you and they will pay you every penny within hours.

6. So learn the system that is spoken of and be part of the the system, or be part of the OO turn over mill. because Mercer will not hold your hand!

In my many years as an owner operator I've only been leased to 3 companies. Company A was very good at lying and stealing my money, company B very good at lying, company C, my 27 years at Mercer, now retired sold out last May (to old to adapt to ELD)

 

Well Mercer has changed a ton. They separated their brokerage away from the trucking portion. Now more van freight rules the day instead of flatbed. Yes times are a changing.

Mercer did do some minor house cleaning over some shenanigans with the brokers. Hopefully they will get back to what made them the premier flatbed carrier.

Coordinators......basically most of them now are screen watchers that dont know anything about trucking. This would be on par with someone with palsy trying to do brain surgery with a monkey wrench lol.

There is no system. The system is buddy hustling and getting brokers to hide loads for you. I have already saw this first hand and can prove it. When confronted about it (with evidence) Mercer claimed the customer wanted them specifically...(which was also a lie and proven to be a lie). Had loads I was pre selected on taken away and given to a favorite (broker claimed the shipper canceled the load). I can go on and on.

I get along fabulously with the coordinators and the vast majority of the staff at Mercer. Its the underbelly of this organization that I cannot tolerate. The thing is I don't have to stay....and I wont. That is why I am going to leave and warn others when need be.

I already have the wheels turning on getting my own authority. Have some customers. I spoke to. Even spoken with some other hard corp owner operators who are advising me closely. Many formerly pulled for Mercer and saw the same game playing as I did. They are doing extremely well now.

Loads cut and pasted of DAT load boards while the Mercer broker boasts that its his customer/shipper. REALLY! LOL .

They can have it.

 

The thing about coordinators mostly being screen watchers is quite true. It was put in place to level the the playing field. Back in the day, I had one the best coordinators that Mercer had. He was on top of everything, he would fight tooth and nail for "his" trucks. He was so smart and quick he would just out wit others.

This screen watching system that you speak of, was to level the playing field between those like my coordinator and newer coordinators. Naturally this was a change I did not like, but it was fair.

Mercer does churn a lot of trucks. But it does work out very well, for many of the newer hands. Just look at the big truck numbers that have made it into the "top 10 categories"

Most of us old successful Mercer hands were very set in our ways. There is not much about the trucking industry of today that we like, it's not just Mercer. We don't even like new equipment. It's not that we like old stuff, it's that we dislike almost everything about the new equipment and regulations.

Some people can read this Mercer thread and think Mercer is this great company and they they are going make a bunch of money. (even in Mercers glory days trucking was a tough business and many went broke)

Some people can read this thread and think that Mercer is just a low life owner operator churning mill.

It's been said, read these threads from the beginning to the end, then make up your mind.
Mercer Transportation Co. Inc Louisville....
mercer transportation
Why do some Fail @ Mercer

Many hands on this board know that @MOGLAR is wrong. @MOGLAR knows that he is right
So the perception of reality, is reality!

So the newer hands thinking of coming to Mercer,Have to figure out, who's camp do they fit into. If you fit the profile of MOGLAR then don't come here. Go elsewhere and be successful, and best of luck.
If you you fit the profile of some of the successful ones on the board then welcome.

 

Well I can give you credit for one thing. You are correct in that Mercer was the place to be back in the day. Not any more. Mercer is now basically a van company with flatbeds.

My camp is the camp of reality as it exists today at Mercer. I am not talking about 25 years ago. That was then....this is NOW! I stand by what I said. Hopefully I can save some O/O from wasting their time and probably going broke with Mercer.

Funny when I pull into the Mercer yard half the people are pulling their stickers off their trucks while the other half are marching into orientation to get brainwashed. Ya....I want to go there LOL.

Funny how the best flatbed carriers don't have to flood the truck stops and Truckstop papers with advertisements and picture of the Mercer Favorites (with the big house custom trucks) singing praises how happy they are. Give me a break.

I should cut and paste a shot of their load board on here so people will see for themselves. One screen shot will say it all. (yes I will omit any identifying marks in relationship to my truck or me). Ya....if you can run a big house custom truck on this trash freight you got something else going on lol.

 

I wouldn't let the threads on here, or any forum, be the make or break point in the decision process though! The best way IMO is to get out and talk to the drivers!

 

I agree...talk to a lot of drivers. Odds are you will into the Mercer fanbois....but you will probably run into more of the O/O that could not wait to yank the Mercer stickers off their trucks.

 

I have talked with several Mercer drivers at shippers or receivers over the past months. They all took the time to answer my questions. The most common response from them was ...1 you will like it here. 2 welcome. None of the drivers that I talked to had anything bad to say about Mercer.