I would like to know more about landstar

I've yet to meet an unhappy LS driver. When I ask "How long you been at LS?" the usual answer is "Not long enough, wished I'd come here years ago." Bear in mind I've been asking for two years.

 

Good start on looking for percentage over miles. It's all about percentage of gross and managing your costs at LS. I've had crap weeks and done 3K miles and had weeks where I only ran 1500 miles and made a killing. Couldn't begin to tell you about van stuff, I pull a step with ramps.

You should also consider that no two guys will operate the same. You can have two guys here doing the same thing and one will make it and one won't. There is a LOT of stuff that nobody will tell you, they sort of expect you to figure it out on your own.

 

It's slow everywhere right now, so keep that in mind.

 

And until we find out who the next president is it will remain so... I would go ahead and join LS take your lumps now understand the business the lanes and when things pick up you will be ahead of the game in a way. But nobody is gonna give away their secrets not for free anyway

 

If you do decide to come over to LS I suggest you start putting money aside ASAP to buy your own trailer. The extra revenue (7% or so for vans) will be needed, especially on the van side. There are Van trailers popping up all the time in our LS classifieds section from the 7k-15k range. I've seen some go for as little as 5k: and there are many sold that are decked out with all sorts of cool logistical gear like pads/blankets/ramps, toolboxes, some with lift gates etc.. When people get in a pinch they sell cheap or they have done so well that they are retiring from the industry. There seems to always be folks retiring from LS and selling their equipment. Congrats to them

 

My husband & I are also 1st time o/o's, leased on with Landstar this past October. We are pulling a company trailer. There is definitely money to be made here but it's important you are aware there is a big learning curve before you get up to speed. Do you have someone (wife, girlfriend, family member) who can help you with booking loads, doing your accounting & keeping track of your numbers? I'm not driving as much as I'm used to - we ran team as company drivers before buying our truck. It's been a huge benefit to have me available to look for loads & book them as well as keep up on our accounting. The first few months were pretty lean. Granted we started at a tough time in general for freight - rates & volume were low. But we had enough $$ saved up to weather through it. We're looking at our best month so far AND putting in less miles to do it. The biggest shift to make is changing the thinking from chasing miles to chasing revenue.

Being self-dispatched can be challenging and it will take a while to get comfortable. But the trade-off, which for us is 100% worth it, is that you are truly your own boss. Drive where you want, when you want. Go home for as long as you want (or finances allow). Ultimately your success or your failure are in your hands, not somebody else's

 

What do you mean self dispatched?

 

Means you don't have a dispatcher... You book your own loads, from there freight base.

 

The beauty and challenge at Landstar is you truly are your own boss. As rickybobby put it, you book your own loads. Run where and when you want, go home when you want for as long as you want. That's the beauty part. The challenge is learning how to work the loadboard, making the mental adjustment from mileage based pay to percentage based pay. We're really happy here even though the $$ has been slow going but we're still in the learning curve. Been here 6 months. You need to be good at building relationships and find a group of agents you enjoy working with.