Mercer O/O | Stripping 600 LBS of Gear & The Ugly Truth About Flatbed Burnout

#flatbedtrucking #americantrucker #owneroperator #mercertransportation Owner operator at Mercer transportation. Music source: https://suno.com/@musicwithbigbilly My Spreadsheet: This is a view/comment only. You can open it up in Google spreadsheets. From there you can view, comment, or make a copy to be able to edit for yourself. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/... Buy me a coffee: https://cash.app/$88Billy85 This is it—the final flatbed load of the year! We are pulling 18 pallets of freight (weighing in at a heavy 47,970 lbs) from Michigan City, Indiana, down to Lexington, Kentucky. I break down the exact numbers at the end of the video, including our loaded rate, all-miles rate, and our 19% deadhead percentage for this $1,032 run. But before we even hook up, I have a special request for this video: Please hit that thumbs down/dislike button, share the video, and drop a comment below with the one thing I do that drives you absolutely nuts the most! Whether it's constructive criticism or just calling me out, let me know in the comments—and don't forget to subscribe if you want to see what happens next! During this trip, it completely dawns on me why I've been sweating the weigh stations with such a heavy load. By stripping all my chains, binders, and coil racks out of the headache rack to prepare for the trailer drop, I actually took about 600 lbs of material off the truck without realizing it! We also handle a quick nighttime brake chamber repair at the Mercer yard in Louisville using a brand new line and some thread pipe dope, which goes a whole lot smoother in the warm weather than my last winter nightmare. Finally, I get real about why I'm making this transition. I've been driving for 19 years this July, and Mercer is officially the longest I've ever stayed at any single carrier. While switching early to Mercer's Dry Van division hits my open-deck ego a bit—and feels a little bit more "lazy" than proactive—it's the right move to ease the burden of clearing off this truck before winter. Trip Revenue Breakdown: Gross Revenue: $1,032.25 Deadhead Miles: 87 miles Loaded Miles: 371 miles Total Trip Miles: 458 miles Loaded Rate: $2.78 per mile All-Miles Average Rate: $2.25 per mile Deadhead Percentage: 19% Monthly Flatbed Totals: Loaded Average: $3.62 per mile All-Miles Average: $2.65 per mile Total Deadhead Percentage: 26.8% We have one more van load left to sneak into this month's revenue log. Thanks for watching, stay safe, and I'll see you in the next one as a van driver!