Casual O/O gigs

True enough. But for comparison purposes, here are my weekly insurance costs through Landstar as of 2 months ago: $72 per week which includes the Bobtail/physical damage that I get on my own. Of course its cheaper through Landstar because they are a huge company. But at Landstar I also have to find my own loads, and the good paying ones don't just fall into your lap, you have to work at finding them... not to much different then if you were independent. The difference I see here is the percentage of gross you get paid: a difference of about 18% more on every load at this other company. Even if you only gross $100,000 per year thats an $18,000 difference! I guess you just need to figure how much you are going to run and then figure what works best.

 

You can get cheaper insurance outside of LS. I went with True North,they beat LS by 25%.

 

Yep, I did the same thing using a company called First Guard. I just included what I pay for Bobtail/physical damage at First Guard, in with the Insurance I pay directly to Landstar so it would be a fair comparison for total cost of insurance.

 

How much direct freight do they have???? On their meet us us page all of their people deal with load confirmations and not one salesperson. I'll take 72% of 100% over 90% of 50-80% all day long AND pay the liability and cargo portion of the insurance.
Adding in your physical damage to your weekly cost from Landstar is silly since you will still have to pay that wherever you go. Landstar's Physical Damage is far more expensive than most other providers, so you might want to check that out. I use OOIDA for mine.

 

Why would you have bobtail insurance? That I what Unladen that LS requires you to buy is?

 

The company I'm referring to is MAG Carriers and they are a completely different animal then Landstar. THey have NO freight... you are basically paying 10% to use their authority and let them handle your paperwork, drug testing, CSA stuff, etc. Check out their website to see the description of exactly what they provide http://www.magcarriers.com/common/content.asp?PAGE=395. Again, comparing them to Landstar is an apples to oranges comparison. At MAG carriers you are almost 100% independent, e.g. you go find your own loads ANYWHERE: brokers, loadboards, shippers, contract carriers like Landstar, JB Hunt, etc, CH Robinson, whoever, AND you negotiate whatever rate you can. At Landstar you are restricted to THEIR loads/loadboard only. I used to think that Landstar was as close to being independent as you could get and still be under the umbrella of someone else's authority, but I was wrong. Is it better? It depends on what you make of it. If you go out and find your own shippers to haul for I'm guessing you would do MUCH better then Landstar. But the next question is, "why not just go totally independent and keep ALL the money yourself? It all depends on how independent you want to be and what type of work you are willing to do besides just sitting in the drivers seat all day.

 

You are right, It is just Unladen Liability. I just was responding to an earlier poster who was adding up the cost of all the insurance to run for MAG carriers and I was trying to give him a comparison of what my actual costs had been at landstar. My physical damage insurance does not have to be through Landstar, and so I was able to get a much better deal going elsewhere (First Guard) like you said.

 

I am from the order of the check. Make that clear, when you lease to anyone. You make a days pay or you don't. I'm loyal don't make it out here. I haul freight, that's what I do. Your a Driver, not a Social Worker.

 

I was going broke sitting at home with Landstarve. Every week you get hit with more deductions that other carriers don't force on you.

 

and what deductions would those be?