Landstar Questions

Houston to FT Woeth

 

Houston to Ft Worth

 

Houston to Dallas I wouldn't worry about it. Head out there the night before when the scale isn't open. Texas scales aren't open much any way. Also you probably bobtailing right? You'll be

 

You can sleep at the Ft Worth Landstar yard

 

Landstar really seems to be going down the tubes w/ the dryvan stuff... if you pull govt' stuff on flats you make beaucoup $$$ but the dryvan rates *really* took a hit this summer, and it seems they're lowering the standards to drive for them in order to get folks to pull their increasingly cheap dryfreight.... I got in w/ only a year exp, and believe me I'm not knocking it but I definitely started to see a trend and older drivers would talk about it during my 9 mo. pulling their system...

LS apparently used to take under 10% in the 90s, now they take well over 25% off the top...

any current LS BCOs or BCO fleet drivers have opinions on this? I'm working hourly now and can't say I miss it...

 

Ya only 1 yr otr experience required Funny I had freind who drives locally. 10 years perfect record He got denied

 

The dry van split is 65/35 if you pull their trailer. 72/28 if you pull your own. Reefer is 75/25. You have to own your reefer. There are no company reefer trailers. I ran reefer for them for over 2 years and did good. But I have heard rates have dropped across the board. Been retired now since March and loving every second of it. Still have my tractor though.

 

Landstar is bad. Go to Schneider.

 

Is that a serious or?

Starting to see threads of unhappy peeps from LS. Just wondering

 

Spot market rates are down for everyone. just so happens that that's where most of the land star drivers make their money. For 2019 the money is in the contract carriers not the spot market carriers.

I've read numerous articles where the primary brokers are not honoring their contracts and putting their freight on the spot market because the spot market is dirt cheap this year and they can move their freight dirt cheap.

Landstar owner operators (Landstar likes to call us BCOs) we can only use the Landstar load board. Most of the freight out there is not on the Landstar load board.

Landstar brokers (they like to call them agents) go on the other boards such as dat ,chrobinson, internet truckstop, to get the freight to put on the Landstar load board.

If you do a search on direct shippers the results are slim to none. Landstar folks know what I'm talking about.

Most of the Landstar freight is double brokered from other load boards.

what is made matters worse for us owner-operators is Landstar is signing on more and more units every week. I don't know what the number is now but last I checked I think in 2018 they signed on the additional 1,000 units. There's not enough freight to go around for the units we already have. shippers and brokers complain they can't move the freight. when we all know the problem is we won't move the freight for free or at a cost.

I had a discussion with one agent who was trying to move some freight and after about 2 or 3 minutes of negotiating I just said ...tell you what.... how about if I just haul it for nothing because after I pay you it's going to end up costing me money .....Seriously he wanted me to move it for next to nothing.

I see this is as a problem because we owners are contractually prohibited from using anyone elses load board.

If we are one big happy family then why can't the owner's go directly to the same load boards that our family brokers / agents are using.

if Landstar continues to use this business model I don't see how they're going to survive the next evolution of technology...when owner ops will have the ability to contact the shippers directly. They've been talking about this now for about four or five years and I've heard is pretty close to being released as a cloud-based logistics system.

So here is why I recommend Landstar two new owner operators. Landstar does seem to be pretty good at teaching you the ropes and helping you get started. For various fees Landstar will take care of your ifta filing and will get you your money. They will get you your licenses. They will get you your various permits for all 50 states and Canada. They will get you reasonable insurance rates. They will pay for a full vehicle. Inspection every 4 months. You get good discounts on fuel. You get good discounts on Bridgestone and Michelin tires. You'll get a discount on your preventive maintenance work at ta and Petro. you get an app for your phone to help you find you loads and help you find good fuel prices. You will have available to you classes that you can attend for free.

sign on with Landstar take a couple of years to make it work for you. Then after a couple years you can go on your own as a preferred carrier with your own trailer. and after a couple of years you should be able to decide if there's something you want to continue with or go back to work for somebody else.

 

Must be a van issue? Not saying no issues on rgn side but nothing like that... I’m having to call buddies of mine because agents are calling me looking to move stuff...