Picking my own freight baby! My journey to & of being on Schneider choice, the Adventure & Numbers!

You are right, and I honestly was considering not going to Choice for that very reason and started looking around for alternatives that would allow me to pick and schedule my own freight. Contacted Interstate about their Freedom Board...took two weeks to get a hold of them. After finally getting a hold of the recruiter, ran down a list of about 20-30 questions...while they are a little less heavy with micromanagement and truck requirements, their freight rates seemed to be about 15-20% less than Schneiders, with a couple more fees and no toll reimbursement.
Then there is Landstar....from what I've seen/heard about the Van board there the last few months, they are not even in contention with either.
Guys with years of experience and good contacts can most certainly do better, but I have yet to find anything yet that compared with Schneider as far as a new to lease op/owner op program.

 

In the long wrong I don't think you will go wrong with SNI. The writing is on the wall as far as equipment goes though. land star guys are crying the blues now but when the spot market picks up they will be tripping over great rates while we suffer for awhile with newly negotiated cheap contract rates.

 

I haven't...from reading through threads, it sounds like Mercer has a much larger pool of flatbed freight than van, and I have no interest in dealing with frozen tarps in the middle of January lol. I heard Landstar at one point had great van freight, but for whatever reason, their base rates before the 35% Landstar cut is pretty much where Choice freight is paying after the 35% cut.

 

I have a 2006 just counting my days. Soon, they will be wanting me too up grade.

 

Yeah, I figure the samething. Guess I'll be moving on. Not getting a newer truck with all that headache.

 

What are you going to do when you get the letter we both know is coming?

 

Landstar has very good van freight. It just doesn't hit their board very often. You got to make contacts and prove yourself to agents over there.

Also don't fear the dreaded tarps. It really isn't that bad. Even in January.

 

I know I'll sound like a p**sy, but I worked for the DoD before I started trucking for 7 1/2 years and spent 2 winters, 1 in MD, one in AK, putting up 60 foot parabolic antennas. After that, I'm done messing with steel for hours in the frigid cold lol.