Driver Had a Stroke, Need to get Truck Home
- Thread starter Injun
- Start date
Oh well, I thought you might be passing thru on my side of the mountains, maybe next time.
That's ok, Google search engines look for keywords like Mercer and Facebook.
This thread will get stumbled upon........
Sure! Just unloaded and heading closer to Huger now. Hopefully get a load quick heading back up north again.
skateboardman
Member
rebel, in the mentioned facebook post on the mercer page there was not much mention of what had transpired as is on this thread. my reply to that thread was based upon the info available on that thread, it was only after following a link to this thread was I able to get anymore info. so I really think your dingbat comment was unfounded. the info on thread was basically reaction to this thread. and in case you wonder yes I am leased to mercer and have been for several years. and the reason for my comment was that in the past such important info as a drivers medical status has not been relayed .
when a driver goes missing mercer normally puts out a bulletin on the load asking for everyone to be on the lookout for the truck by number and last known location and expected route. mercer doesn't have qualcomms or eobrs, they rely on the time tested once daily check call. other than that they can locate by last fuel card transaction at best.
as for myself I never take loads to north Dakota and I don't run canada either, in fact not many of the mercer fleet does as our freight out of the Dakotas is almost non-existent.
after the spate of driver deaths in 2012 5 or 6 I think and the one ran over at the t/a in ohioin 2011, I have set up a contingency plan. I always text or call my wife with where I am stopping for the night with name of stop exit and interstate, I also have app with my Verizon account where I can be located, always did that also with my kids phones ( although they never knew that.
I also have a power of attorney signed giving my wife the ability to make some decisions about the truck if I become incapacitated or die while on the road. its a simple one, sort of like the one you may be given in order to lease a truck on for someone else.
another thing to consider is once someone dies, who is the legal owner of the equipment and thus the proper place t to return it, in Georgia for example if a man dies without a will , his property becomes equally owned by his wife and all his children in equal shares, thus causing a problem if its a stepmom and previous children who don't get along. further complication is any outstanding liens, in cases such as this it may not be as simple as just going to get the truck and taking it "home" the person at home may well no longer be the legal owner.
what we all need to do is have a will stating our wishes, and especially in our cases a plan on what to do if this happens while on the road, perhaps have funds available for such a case, the power of attorney for ability to legally do things, etc.
I do know the letter sent out was a generic letter generated by a lease cancellation, and not out of ill will. and I don't delieve the letter states the truck will be reported as stolen. this is also done when someone is going to be off for some time and doesn't want some expenses to accrue. also some said, he got ripped off on the last settlement, when the load is repowered , the repowering driver may or may not agree to deliver for the remaing amount left on the load, if he had a long deadhead and requested some for that it would come off the load. I have had that happen with a breakdown and I also had someone deliver a load and wouldn't take a dime in another case. it also seems the load must have been transferred from one traile to the other
all of us that are at mercer know how they operate, we have complete freedom to make our own choices, turn down load after load with no repercussions, take off for as long and whenever we want, this is the price we may pay for having that freedom. I feel that as long as Julian was leased here, he must have been satisfied or he would have left.
he would probably be the first one to tell you guys not to be coming down so heavy on mercer over this.
but again rebel, I asked what I did because it has happened before where no one was notified the driver had a problem. hard to believe but it has happened and also because prior to a link being posted to this thread I knew no details. might have helped greatly if posted on the mercer fb page in the very beginning. the other day in Wisconsin my phone went out, mercer had called the customer looking for me. my internet card still worked so I got on facebook, sent a message to my wife and she called and relayed what they needed to know via facebook til I got a new phone at the petro in racine.
again , I take offense at your dingbat remark. it was uncalled for. and from a moderator of this site, go figure
when a driver goes missing mercer normally puts out a bulletin on the load asking for everyone to be on the lookout for the truck by number and last known location and expected route. mercer doesn't have qualcomms or eobrs, they rely on the time tested once daily check call. other than that they can locate by last fuel card transaction at best.
as for myself I never take loads to north Dakota and I don't run canada either, in fact not many of the mercer fleet does as our freight out of the Dakotas is almost non-existent.
after the spate of driver deaths in 2012 5 or 6 I think and the one ran over at the t/a in ohioin 2011, I have set up a contingency plan. I always text or call my wife with where I am stopping for the night with name of stop exit and interstate, I also have app with my Verizon account where I can be located, always did that also with my kids phones ( although they never knew that.
I also have a power of attorney signed giving my wife the ability to make some decisions about the truck if I become incapacitated or die while on the road. its a simple one, sort of like the one you may be given in order to lease a truck on for someone else.
another thing to consider is once someone dies, who is the legal owner of the equipment and thus the proper place t to return it, in Georgia for example if a man dies without a will , his property becomes equally owned by his wife and all his children in equal shares, thus causing a problem if its a stepmom and previous children who don't get along. further complication is any outstanding liens, in cases such as this it may not be as simple as just going to get the truck and taking it "home" the person at home may well no longer be the legal owner.
what we all need to do is have a will stating our wishes, and especially in our cases a plan on what to do if this happens while on the road, perhaps have funds available for such a case, the power of attorney for ability to legally do things, etc.
I do know the letter sent out was a generic letter generated by a lease cancellation, and not out of ill will. and I don't delieve the letter states the truck will be reported as stolen. this is also done when someone is going to be off for some time and doesn't want some expenses to accrue. also some said, he got ripped off on the last settlement, when the load is repowered , the repowering driver may or may not agree to deliver for the remaing amount left on the load, if he had a long deadhead and requested some for that it would come off the load. I have had that happen with a breakdown and I also had someone deliver a load and wouldn't take a dime in another case. it also seems the load must have been transferred from one traile to the other
all of us that are at mercer know how they operate, we have complete freedom to make our own choices, turn down load after load with no repercussions, take off for as long and whenever we want, this is the price we may pay for having that freedom. I feel that as long as Julian was leased here, he must have been satisfied or he would have left.
he would probably be the first one to tell you guys not to be coming down so heavy on mercer over this.
but again rebel, I asked what I did because it has happened before where no one was notified the driver had a problem. hard to believe but it has happened and also because prior to a link being posted to this thread I knew no details. might have helped greatly if posted on the mercer fb page in the very beginning. the other day in Wisconsin my phone went out, mercer had called the customer looking for me. my internet card still worked so I got on facebook, sent a message to my wife and she called and relayed what they needed to know via facebook til I got a new phone at the petro in racine.
again , I take offense at your dingbat remark. it was uncalled for. and from a moderator of this site, go figure
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@skateboardman, if Mercer didn't know what was going on, how did that load get repowered so quickly? The load was not transloaded onto a different trailer.
I personally talked to Mr. Comstock about this situation on two separate occasions. He was cordial and polite, but offered NO assistance. Even you have to admit it does not help Mercer's image when a smallish company like Magnum and a huge megacorporation that supposedly treats drivers like shit (Swift) help out in the movement of a truck neither of them have or had ANY stake in...not to mention the drivers and private citizens who banded together to make this happen. Most of the drivers had never met Julian. They got involved on MY word.
I spent MY money to make this happen, as did Julian's brother. Where the hell was Mercer? Would it really have killed them to donate $500 for fuel?
This was NOT one of their shining moments.
I personally talked to Mr. Comstock about this situation on two separate occasions. He was cordial and polite, but offered NO assistance. Even you have to admit it does not help Mercer's image when a smallish company like Magnum and a huge megacorporation that supposedly treats drivers like shit (Swift) help out in the movement of a truck neither of them have or had ANY stake in...not to mention the drivers and private citizens who banded together to make this happen. Most of the drivers had never met Julian. They got involved on MY word.
I spent MY money to make this happen, as did Julian's brother. Where the hell was Mercer? Would it really have killed them to donate $500 for fuel?
This was NOT one of their shining moments.
Duck
Sarcastic remark goes here
Mercer had somebody pull Julian's trailer up into Canada to deliver that load. Surely Mercer must've known WHY the loaded needed repowered.
Given the circumstances, the emotions, the expenses incurred by Julian's good friend @Injun, two others who volunteered to be a long distance cab driver for me, and the damn near two freakin' weeks of my own time I sacrificed, not to mention all of those involved in the planning, to get that truck relocated to a safe location for this man & his family where it won't be towed & held hostage by some crooked towing company, we can expect a few insults like that to be tossed in the direction of anyone claiming to be a representative of Mercer at a time like this.
At this point I think it's only appropriate that I mention that Julian's family received a card full of hand-written condolences by 7 women working at "Mercer TruckPay" after his passing. It appears to be a group of individual employees acting on their own, not any "official" Mercer executives or their agents. To those 7 individual employees who signed the card, at least one family member told me he appreciated the kind words.
Hey, @SkateBoardman, the "dingbat" was meant for for Gene What's-his-name, not you.
I was writing in a hurry early before work, and thought maybe someone would think I was singing off as "dingbat", or misinterpreted another way, but I've been a little busy and just left it as is.
But to clarify, it's been my experience that if companies were half as concerned about their people, half as much as their public image, the latter would automatically take care of itself.
Admittedly, I don't go post on Facebook, and only rarely read something my wife points out to me.
But ya gotta admit, it's pretty hard to say that lack of info was their defense when the comments and links kept being deleted.
That was likely the main reason for me saying that. I apologize if this Gene McCook guy was just another driver reading and posting, I thought at the time I made the comment that "Gene'" was one of their corporate people.
Edited to correct the confusion I had between "skateboards"
I was writing in a hurry early before work, and thought maybe someone would think I was singing off as "dingbat", or misinterpreted another way, but I've been a little busy and just left it as is.
But to clarify, it's been my experience that if companies were half as concerned about their people, half as much as their public image, the latter would automatically take care of itself.
Admittedly, I don't go post on Facebook, and only rarely read something my wife points out to me.
But ya gotta admit, it's pretty hard to say that lack of info was their defense when the comments and links kept being deleted.
That was likely the main reason for me saying that. I apologize if this Gene McCook guy was just another driver reading and posting, I thought at the time I made the comment that "Gene'" was one of their corporate people.
Edited to correct the confusion I had between "skateboards"
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skateboardman
Member
injun, I am only speaking of the comment I posted, I knew nothing of what mercer knew or didn't know, I am speaking of the comment I made. I commented based on what was on the facebook page, I knew only what was on the thread there, and as I said it has happened where no one in other cases was notified, after following the link to this thread I knew the rest, but that was after I made my comment on the mercer page.
i also am in no way posting any comment as a representative of mercer, i also have after reading this thread have talked to someone about future instances such as this to be handled differently. i will be going thru Louisville Wednesday of next week if all goes well, i have plans to ask if something can be setup that us drivers can contribute to that can take care of things like this in the future. i have had a phone conversation concerning this. this is my idea after reading this thread, as a mercer o/o, not as a representative. again, i say you must understand the context of my original post, when posted i had no idea of the circumstances concerning Julian. when you guys posted there, you knew. I didn't, do you understand in that context?
and by the way, i think what you guys did was great and is appreciated. but i will do all i can to insure this doesn't happen again, perhaps if a fund can be organized for such a purpose , it would be called the Julian fund as a memorial to him, would his family allow that?
i am leased to mercer, i am not their representative, i agree not a shining moment, but lets not fight among us drivers, as a driver i will see if i can make this happen, as i said last year alone we had 5 or 6 die on the road. and honestly i don't know if i ever ran into Julian, i know most of the guys by their truck number and i save phone numbers that way, by truck number. i will ask about it cause after seeing the pictures of his truck, i think he may be the guy who gave me a radiator hose one sunday morning when mine broke.
Duck
Sarcastic remark goes here
*please note.... There's a fundamental difference between @SkateBoard and @skateboardman
He's probably not used to seeing the truck home without Julian with it......and knows something's wrong.
skateboardman
Member
that s what i am saying , i am Gene McCook , o/o leased to mercer. and was just that a driver reading and posting. but as i said to injun, I am gonna see if i can make something happen differently in the future. lets all shake hands and work together , let yall know what happens after i meet with some folks in Louisville next week.
Well, that makes things a lot clearer now!
lol
If you'd stop being a dingbat, sneaking around on Facebook under unknown aliases, instead of @SkateBoardman, I wouldn't have this awful taste of foot in my mouth!
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Duck
Sarcastic remark goes here
I just talked to Julian's brother. He's all for it and wants to be the first to donate. I suggest retire Julian's truck number and call it "10208 Fund" with a background blurb about what the number means and who Julian was.
Gave you a radiator hose, eh?
That sounds just like my friend.
skateboardman
Member
duck I honestly couldn't say, I know the truck number, it was sunday morning at the j south of indy. I came out from breakfast , antifreeze everywhere, found the split hose, removed it , jumped down and mercer stops and asks if I need help , I show him the hose and he says I may have a piece in the side box, he did, I thanked him , it was a 15 minute convo. I rember he had picked up inn key west,fl and was delivering to military base in Canada , little over a year ago. first two numbers were 10Is this the guy?
Duck
Sarcastic remark goes here
skateboardman
Member
holy crap , injun are you serious, is that his number ???? I made a post seconds ago giving first 2 numbers , I hadn't seen your post, as I stated I had the truck number but I couldn't place a face after all this time from a 15 minute meeting, I will for sure try as you have suggested , whats the odds??? yep, he saved my bacon that sunday with no shop anywhere close .
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