Do's and Don'ts at Landstar?

Just a trailer number.

 

The only reason I see for a short term lease of a month would be to keep rolling while your equipment is out of service for some reason. Other than that you should be looking at ways to own equipment free and clear. It is real nice to not have truck payments, I can put that money towards repairs if necessary. An illustration is that as I was doing my pretrip I saw that the tread was pealing off a set of caps I bought in January. I was on my way to pick up a load, so no time to mess around with LCAPP. Pulled into Love's and bought 2 new virgin Firestone drives. Am I pleased? No way and before I put Goodyear caps on my truck again a certain place will have to freeze over and I don't mean the one in Michigan. Still, I had plenty left on my card to buy fuel and operate for at least another week already set aside. I also can't remember the last time I had to use an advance.

As far as avoiding drop & hooks. I do so because I loose way too much money with them. Between my last company and Landstar I have not picked up a trailer that didn't have and issue that required a stop at a shop. The second issue is that you don't know if a trailer is waiting for you at the consignee. If you aren't booking at least one load ahead you are losing money. I run Midwest regional and book only short hauls. That means I am always 1 to 2 loads ahead. I plan 2 hours for loading, 2 hours for unloading and 50 miles an hour for travel. Then I often throw in an extra hour just for good measure. Since my wife and I made this switch we have watched our income jump and we're still learning. Very seldom do I run into customers that take longer than 2 hours to load, or unload, of course I also stay away from grocery warehouses such as MacLain and Performance Food.

 

i usually try to avoid dropping and hooking, only once have i ever had an issue that needed attention right away. i usually can go 2 to 3 weeks with out dropping and hooking, but i have found a few agents that have some good paying drop and hooks, and every now and again drop n hook to get to a good load. i was wanting to buy a good used dry van, and maybe a step or flat next year, but as i was getting close i had a change of heart. two of the three agents can live load me, but the most important agent cant load a o/o's trailer, so for no ill hold off.

 

So you mean the most important agent only has drop and hook freight?

 

One thing I am still trying to wrap my head around is Landstar's attitude toward family. My wife handles my dispatching and is doing a much better job of establishing relationships with agents than I ever could. She concentrates on working with agents, while I concentrate on driving.

 

the agent that i use the most has drop n hook freight, but i dont use them all the time.

 

Flood,
What is the name of that trucking company that you worked for?
Thanks

 

SO your doing a fleece purchase through a company correct?

 

Wrong. Try reading the thread first if you’re going to troll old posts (the one you quoted was from February) to find ammunition to start up with your anti-lease rants.

He says in post 1 that finished a Swift lease and is signing on with Landstar with a “"new to me" truck”. Landstar does not lease trucks so this is obviously not lease through the company he is leasing on to and he says later in post 53 of this thread that he is leasing his new to him truck from Loan Mountain.

 

This thread quieted down . Anything new to report? The countdown begins next month as my friend accumulates his experience to 1 year so we can team at LS. I still need my hazmat though, and I'm wondering if anyone out there has an insight on LS team freight and if it is worthwhile