Landstar Questions

It isn't up to any carrier to keep their owner operators legal. They may get involved after the fact, should a violation occur. Landstar does require frequent inspections for any equipment that is leased to them. They also regularly check driver logs for any violations. If there are continued issues your contract will be canceled. They have too much to lose to allow unsafe drivers to be leased to them.

It isn't up to any carrier to keep their owner operators legal. Only the owner operator or driver can decide how they will run.

 

Are you leased to LS? Do you have first hand knowledge this is how they operate? Aren't BCO's independent business men/women? As such are they not solely responsible for the decisions & negotiations of any load they accept? If LS could force a BCO to be compliant at the moment a BCO makes a business decision on every load would the BCO then be a glorified company driver & not an independent business owner?

My point is that LS has a regulatory obligation to enact safety guidelines, but they cannot enforce said guidelines until after an infraction has occurred. So it is therefore ultimately the BCO's responsibility to ensure the infraction does not happen in the first place.

 

Looks like I started typing my thoughts about the same time as you, but I'm multi-tasking & it took me almost 30 mins. to complete. You know what is said about great minds......

 

Both good posts! +1 to each of you.

 

Landstar is picky about who they hire. They are not a babysitting service. They hire the best assuming that you have the good judgment to operate safely. Landstar is not the place for drivers who can't think independently. If you ever talk to drivers who didn't make it at Landstar and listen to their assessment of what is wrong at Landstar, it doesn't take long to figure out they just weren't good enough. Landstar is not for everyone.

 

It seems to me that those who have the most difficulty are the ones who have either never owned a truck or have been used to having forced dispatch. Back when I was leased to them, I didn't even know that I had an assigned agent for months. In fact, I don't believe that I ever hauled a load for him. One other thing that I have observed is that those who seem to not do well will go to bad freight areas. I recall a couple of individuals who would take loads to poor areas without really thinking about getting something out on the other end. I remember one in particular who would go to the left coast and then have difficulty getting out. He didn't get a good enough rate going out where he could afford to deadhead to a better freight area. He only lasted a few months with Landstar. I think he found a carrier that had dispatchers and paid mileage rather than percentage.

It should be much easier to find loads and contacts today than when I was with them. We didn't have cell phones or access to the internet like we do today. We did have 800 pagers, but you then had to find a pay phone. Many owner operators now have the ability to get on the internet, fax, copy and phone from their truck. In many ways, it is much easier to conduct this business today than even a few years ago. Some carriers, such as Landstar will allow owner operators and drivers to scan and send bills and paperwork directly to their website or transflow from their truck. We used to have to send everything by mail or through TripPak. Every now and then a load would get misplaced or lost. If there is a glitch in the system, the driver or owner operator can simply rescan his bills and he will be paid in a day or so.

 

I wish I could find out who was domiciled with us so I could call them and see what they like to do to see if we could help them out.

A big thing the successful guys do is make sure they can find something good coming out before committing to a load.

 

I never said differently, but if the carrier knows that you are doing something that could end them up in federal court and they look the other way, there is something wrong with that. Or is that the way a successful business is run? Most people who have been in this business for more than a year have been asked to do illegal things for their carrier, be they Owner Operators or company drivers. Log violations, speeding, running overweight, running non-compliant equipment, etc, etc.

LS has never been such a carrier to me and I am surprised that they would allow or condone such behavior. Perhaps because the freight is slow lately.

 

Yeah LOL they are independent business people, except when you are leased to a carrier, your door has their name on it. I wouldn't want someone with my name on their door driving around breaking the law and I would help them stay compliant, not blindly look the other way and just tell them that they are the responsible party.

The point here isn't to trash Landstar, it is to say that there are problems internally at Landstar right now and that the BCO's should be extra careful. I am sure after a few BCO's get caught and Landstar drops a few pegs on the safety scale, they will get the message. Things will right themselves and the stockholders will see a few heads roll. Business as usual.

In the meantime a few BCO's will find themselves out of a job for awhile. Yeah this is happening right now. Yeah I have already addressed this with high up heads of several departments at Landstar. They claim to care, but they still have very little control over the agents and BCO's because as has been said here, BCO's are independent business owners who are ulimately responsible for their actions. In the end, Landstar has the right to claim they were none the wiser and they have cancelled the lease of the offending BCO, so all is well again. As one conscientiousness BCO to others, watch your back.

P.S. There is no such thing as the perfect carrier and they all go through transitions from time to time to stay afloat. I like Landstar and I wouldn't lease on anywhere else despite what someone might infer from reading this, I recommend them to everyone I meet, although I don't have to because the star sells itself. At any rate, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me". When you run a business this is something you should live by. Good Luck!

 

It is still a personal decision that every driver or owner operator must make for themselves. If any carrier constantly tries to get their drivers or owner operators to run illegally, then it is a time to leave and find another company. I did have one Landstar agent to try to get me to run a load after I was out of hours. This was some years ago when I was leased to them. It wasn't the company, but agent. It was my decision as to whether I would bow to pressure from the agent who had the load to deliver it or wait until I had the hours to do it legally. Most carriers will not tolerate that behavior if it is brought to their attention. Unless the driver reports it to the carrier they may not be aware that there is problem. No carrier can legally force a driver to run illegally.