Landstar questions

Yup, good truck and engine choice. They are money makers. You will blend right in

 

If I got paid well to go to a dead area I stick around for the rest of the day looking for a load. I also stick around the next day till around noon and if nothing I get out. 600 miles is not unheard of.

 

It makes sense for a large carrier to take bailed trash cardboard from Mass to OH for $1.00 per mile. They want that truck moving non stop at any cost to get them back to their regular customers who are paying maybe $4.00 a mile. It doesn't bother them, their not the ones hauling it. They would rather make $600 on a 600 mile run then nothing at all.

You can do the same but it will just make you bitter.

Lets say your in Washington State and you take a load going to upstate NY for $1.00 a mile to get out of a cheap area and it's heavy and needs to be tarped. Your going to spend some time getting loaded and unloaded.

So now your going to pass through a whole bunch of states like IL, IN and OH which pays great but now your stuck in yet another crap hole.

Your best bet is to either dead head to a better place or take a crap paying load to IL, IN, OH or MO. After you deliver you drive to a truck stop, eat, shower and whatever. Then you go back to the truck and start looking for a load. Chances are you won't find anything worth anything. If you do it will probably load the next day and possibly in the afternoon and going right past great paying areas.

When I would take a load to Denver I got paid well. I would unload in the morning and get out of Dodge right away and head for Kansas City. I would stop that first day after doing maybe 200 miles and book a load for the next day. I would get up real early and drive the other 400 miles to the pickup point.

Sitting around waiting for another $.50 cents per mile doesn't do it. You can look at it as missing out on $400 to $600 a day in revenue as opposed to heading out right away or take it up the ### to a better place.

You can sit all week and take loads going 100 miles for $5.00 a mile and make $500 a week. That's not going to pay the bills. I know many people that run non stop for as little as $1.35 and are doing very well. I know these people personally. Not a story from my fathers brothers roommate from college who knew a guy.

You will hear many stories on here of people who make $2.50 to $4.00 mile all day long. That's BS. They will tell half truths or leave a whole bunch of info out like their actually getting 67% or 87% or that's what their company is getting and not them or it's just a load of crap. You will find out. There are MANY people on here that have their own authority. I know a few personally but they sit back and keep their mouths shut.

 

Hope you have money lined up when buying a used truck out of warranty

 

I had a used truck working for LS. The first one was good back when trucks were simple no emission. You get a used emissions truck you better be ready to spend big Money in repairs. So much money a new truck could be cheaper. I had the DD15 and the emissions box went bad. $12,000 to fix. My old truck with S60 had the engine rebuild for $11,000. I had 8 Months warranty parts and labor on engine on the used truck. They did so much warranty work it was crazy. They tore the engine down to the block. First they found head gasket was leaking. Wondering why with only 495,000 miles the looked more and found the pistons were set in the block wrong when manufactureed. Then a piston was bad because of that. So they put in one new piston kit reset all the other and put the engine back together. All under warranty. I'll give Detroit Diesel credit for honoring their warranty. Every time I had warranty work they Alway found more stuff to fix. But the emission box did not fail under see warranty. The amount of labor to fix any is pretty crazy

 

Look to see if LS pays enough to operate a $150,000 truck or if you can makes enough to pay for $150,000 truck. You can buy a Glider kit truck, a new 2016 truck with a new 2000 pre emissions truck for like $115,000 or even a used Glider kit truck. You just can't go into California.