You're in the driver's seat.

We appreciate all you do.
When we say we're the owner/operator company, we talk the talk and walk the walk. Owner/operators are the backbone of this company. On behalf of Mercer Transportation and all the customers who depend on us, we thank you for your hard work.

Safety Message - Logs
Logs should be kept current to the last change of duty status at all times. This is very important to all Mercer contractors. Your actions on the road have an effect on us all. Let me explain why this is so important to each contractor and Mercer. Every time a truck goes through an inspection at the scales, the information is passed on to the Federal D.O.T. in Washington D.C. They accumulate the information from each state and form a "profile" that becomes public information. This includes out of service percentages for drivers and vehicles. Our out of service percentage for drivers is 5%. The national average is 7%. Our out of service for vehicles is 17.7%. The national average is 25%. The closer a carrier's numbers are to the national average, the more likely they are to be audited. If our out of service percentages were to approach the national average, you would likely see new, stricter company policies to help get these numbers back down.

Thanks to our contractors, our numbers are so good now that this seems unlikely. This information is also available to shippers. They can access the Internet and pull up a profile on any carrier. If they have a bad safety record, some carriers are not contracted by the shipper. They know that carriers with high out of service percentages spend more time at the scales shut down, and are involved in more accidents than carriers with lower out of service percentages. This effects the shipper's customer and they try to avoid upsetting them so they select the safest carriers they can afford.

The next time you think that one bad inspection can't hurt a carrier, you must remember, that there are a lot of contractors out there. If we all have the same attitude, then one inspection at a time can have a large negative impact on everyone involved with Mercer.

Thank you for your cooperation. As always, have a safe trip.