STEALING DRIVERS FUEL SURCHARGE,THEY DID IT FOR 11 YEARS,THAT I KNOW OF..IT WAS CALLED DETENTION,AND LAYOVER MONEY,THE DRIVER NEVER KNEW HE WAS BEING PAID,BECAUSE THEY NEVER PASSED IT ON TO THE TRUCK,I THINK THATS KINDA LOW,FOR A BIG COMPANY TO STEAL FROM A POOR MAN..I WAS LEASED TO THEM FOR 11 YEARS,ALWAYS THOUGHT THEY WERE nice,sorry for all the capitals.they are slick.i would have never known about what they were doing,but a landstar agent showed me on the computer how they swindled drivers,its even built in there software on there computer..they would make the loads per mile sound big,even the drivers would do it,saying im getting 1.30 a mile,but what you really get is 67 percent of that,which is 87 cents as the crow flies miles..then they take 2 percent out of every load ,for so called paperwork..so you are really getting 65 percent,then they deduct 137.50 per week for trailer rental,doesnt matter if you work are not,then you never know when,they will take 4 to 600 dollars out for road use tax,you have no way of knowing if its right or not.they charge you 12.75 cents to pay you..they have a tire program,they say they save you money,but i dont see how,any body can get the same price they give you..if you been there awhile,you can buy a couple of tires on there credit,then they deduct 200 a week plus interest.the reason i stayed there so long is ,i didnt want to believe they actually cheat us,and the other reason they dont care what you do.i mean you can dead head anywhere and pick up a load or go home and no one will call you..the agent was good to me for showing me how they scammed off every load,and i thank him for that..you start looking at there ads,they never show you exactly what the loads pay,just a bunch of people standing around smiling..i hope ooida wins there lawsuit,and repays some of us our money,god bless ooida for being for drivers

That sounds like a racket to me.

Maybe I could now lease onto Landstar knowing all this.

I would go about it this way, to make sure I did it "right":

1. I'd buy worn-out rig with 600K on the odometer. But this odometer would be one that has been turned back, of course. The ECM would tell me the truck has like 1.1 million miles, but I won't bother to check that before signing the finance agreement.

2. I WOULD of course, get the $25,000 truck over time. I'd screw myself to the max on a finance rate to make sure I'd pay over $100,000 for this piece of crap.

3. I'd go to work for Landstar to complete the "screw job", or maybe I'd go to work for the ultimate O/O company instead--C.R. England. I'd go in naively thinking the company would be looking after my own interest over their own. I'd also blindly think that my new company would NEVER screw me over.

I'm not pointing fingers at anybody, but from what I've read here to past few days makes me believe that at LOT of O/Os out there don't have much business sense. Maybe they should sell their rigs (over time to make sure they can get some kind of return) and go back to being company drivers.

medium load member,i agree friend you should stay right where you are,driving for someone.

THEY SAY THERE 100 PERCENT OWNER OPERATORS,THATS A BIG LIE.EVER NOTICE ALL THOSE VOLVO TRUCKS PULLING LANDSTAR TRAILERS?THE WAY THEY DO IT IS GIVE THE AGENTS 30 TO 40 TRUCKS,MOSTLY CHEAP VOLVOS TO RUN FOR THEM.THE AGENT TELLS EVERYONE THERE HIS.BUT IF YOU LOOK AT THE REGISTRATION IT SAYS OWNER LANDSTAR...WHATS WRONG WITH THEM OWNING TRUCKS,IS guess who gets the good freight?guess who has a load waiting on them?while real owner operators set in the truck stop,and keep calling and asking for freight,many drivers fiquire it out,and just quit..i mean its so easy to see,owner operators all driving volvos,that look the same..also if you want one of those eggs setting on the top of your truck,that hooks you in to dispatch,well you have to give them 2,000 dollars plus interest.when you break it down,you get 55 cents a mile,no deadhead pay,then you have to deduct fuel,laredo to cleveland oh,you will clear 195.00 dollars as a owner operator..ooida is sueing them for stealing drivers fuel surcharge.that should tell you what kind of people they are...

I thought Landstar drivers are supposed to find their own hauls. This is one thing that made that company sort of attractive to me, in a "cowboy" kind of way.

I was once told that Landstar was one of the better outfits to lease on with.

__________________
Z-Lady's devoted hubby.

Mack, I've heard that as well. I think I recently read on this site a posting by a Landstar driver or someone who worked there once. The post was positive.

I wondered about some of those claims myself. Landstar is in effect a load board with a limit on the trucks that can work the board. When you work for Landstar, you are on your own to find freight off of the boards and negotiate with the specific agent that is handling that freight. Landstar just functions as a large shell over the system, and owns trailers as well.

As for waiting for loads, most of the effective Landstar guys that I know of work the boards and find a load of freight that fits their needs within an hour or so of being empty, or get called by agents as soon as they are unloaded.

It's not as easy a system as other companies, and if you aren't on the ball and willing to do the research for yourself and be agressive about finding loads, then you won't be happy with Landstar's system. But for the people that have learned how to work it, they do really well there.

As for the price of the Quallcomm, in the overall scheme of things that's cheap, and I don't see why anyone would quibble over paying even 2000 dollars to have one on the truck. That's less than 5 dollars a day for one, and if you get your load info in on it, it's worth every bit of that. By the way that number sounds a bit high. I know that the Qualcomm fee where I work runs right at 60 per month, which in basic math is about 2 dollars a day.

As for the initial claim that Landstar is running their own trucks and skimming off the good stuff, that's a completely new claim to me. I have never heard anyone claim that before, whether they liked Landstar or hated it. Maybe it's true and somehow one person found out about it. I suspect that the similar trucks theory comes from their group purchasing program, vice any conspiracy theory.

Burky medium loads ,Burky knows everything about every company,just ask him,he told me he owns lots of trucks,and there leased on with every company,i think thats great Burky,as for as landstar you 2 talked about you thought it was a great company,you never talked about all the deductions,and you didnt talk about how much they pay why not?if you research them why wouldnt you know?also those agents are working for landstar only.when an outside truck gets a load from them,its because its leftover from landstar,and they cant get rid of it,other words your getting what nobody wants,keep up the great post Burky,i like getting advise from someone who owns a lot of trucks,and knows all the ends and outs!have you past the 2 million miles of logging Burky?i bet you have,God bless you Burky for being here with all your knowledge again thanks so much,Burky

OOIDA IS SUING LANDSTAR FOR STEALING FUEL SURCHARGE FROM THE OWNER OPERATORS,FOR 10 YEARS..THAT SHOWS YOU HOW MUCH THOSE 2 RESEARCH!i guess its ok with them 2 for landstar 2 steal from the drivers,i mean after all they said they thought lanstar was a better company,even if they stole the fuel surcharge,that shows how bright they are!OOIDA RIGHT NOW AT THIS PRESENT TIME IS SUING LANDSTAR for stealing but thats ok,according to Burky