Landstar Questions

Is anyone getting anything decent from Landstar? Are the rates still horrible?

 

Whats the cpm these days on landstar's boards?

 

CPM? I'm running dry van, have been with them for 3 months. I spotted a load the other day paying $1.95, called them before the "follow me call" came and it was gone already. I think I had a load once paying 1.80, a few around 1.50, and mostly 1.28. And sometimes less. There are many on the board under a dollar. That includes fuel surcharge. I've tried to work with agents but they are apparently all filled up. I've encountered drivers hanging out waiting for loads. They might get better money per load, but I'm not inclined to hang out. The dead-heads are long. Right now I'm dd-hding 350 miles for a 500 mile ld, just to get out of Jacksonville. Seems LS gets the freight that goes no where, (where there's no freight coming out, which is... almost anywhere I guess.) Seems to me it's lower every week. Someone earlier ridiculed the .90 plus surcharge companies, but that's for all dispatched miles. I'm thinken that's a lot better than I'm making. I stopped tracking a while back because of the stress. Thought I'd just figure out how to make this work and get the best I could get along the way. Sucks. I don't think I'm stupid, but this has been a demeaning experience.

 

Good Guess grizzly, but it is the other blue trucks (Savage) The mines we have been running out of have become hit and miss lately. One day to much coal and another sending you home because their is not any coal. I am eventually interested in getting my own truck maybe within the next year or so. Landstar seems to look the best.

 

are those numbers before or after landstars share? if it's before! yuk!yuk! and super yuk! but if there after! thats another story. i wish i could get 1.28 a mile. when i get a 1.05 to 1.15 i think i've hit the mother load!

 

Irregular freight is what Landstar pushes on their main board and broker board. The agents have repeat freight but only care to get the loads covered.
Landstar and the agents don't pay all of what the loads linehaul pay. They cut it and keep the rest. When times are good to be competitive they raise the rates to get the loads covered.
When times are tight they both try to keep as much to make up for the lack of revenue.

Landstar requires you to have one year of OTR.

But times are so tough right now switching over to Landstar in my opinion will make you frustrated.
If I can make more money locally pulling a rock bucket, that doesn't say much for committing to an over the road load that pays less.

Doesn't make sense to me to make cents, when I know that these loads are paying more than what the agents are offering.

I've negotiated my last loads and accessorial as well as my FSC. It's all negotiable. But if your not versed in game stay out for now. It'll end up costing you more than you make.

If freight picks up that's the only time to be driving OTR in my opinion.

 

Quadbob; that's the gross. They figure the fuel surcharge and subtract that and give you 100%. Then you get 65% of the "line haul".
Example; 1000 miles at $1 a mile= $1000 gross revenue.
1000 miles x fuel surcharge of .20 = 200. You get 100%.
Line haul then is $800 X .65= 520. You get $520 + 200, $720.
If you had no dead head you might come out OK. But the deadheads are long, at no money.

The design of it is OK. It's just not working at the moment.

Chiricahua; I don't thing Landstar is the guilty party changing the rates. Rates are set by that ol law of supply n demand. The agents get 7%. What I've discovered is that most if not all of the time the agent's "customer" is not the shipper or receiver as one would hope, but another broker all together. So, there are at least 2, maybe more layers of brokers making money off the load that we spend the money to transport. This is true not only with the little agents getting a load or 2 a day off the broker boards, but even with the agents that have lots of loads coming out of the same shipper everyday. Sucks.

 

The old law of supply and demand has little to do with it.

Government military loads require for the Linehaul to be posted on the BOL. I've picked up with other Landstar BCO's to find out that I'm making more than they are on the same load from the same agent. Now because I require a load sheet they cannot change the rate. For the drivers that don't require a load sheet the rate can be changed very easily.

You see if I was an agent and I had a load paying say $1000.00 and I knew that I could find a BCO or better yet a broker truck to haul it for less than $1000.00. All I have to do is double broker it to myself by way of lets say my brother or my wife who also happen to be agents. Then by the time the BCO gets the load he's lost revenue from what the shipper had originally been quoted for.

Example; 1000 miles at $1 a mile= $1000 gross revenue.
1000 miles x fuel surcharge of .20 = 200. You get 100%.
Then brokered for the second time =-100
Line haul then is $700 X .65= 455. You get $455 + 200, $655.

But remember you can negotiate the rates. And you would get an additional 8% for your own trailer and accessorial fees have 100% to the driver.

This happens all the time everyday in the Landstar system. Landstar allows it because they still get there cut from the agents. As a matter of fact they promote it in the system. Because they are getting extra revenue from the drivers line haul that legally the couldn't do other wise.

That is the genius in the Landstar system they have BCO's pay for the trucks and trailers. They have agents do the legwork for the loads. And then they allow for corruption between the agents towards the BCO's and then they collect the revenue.
It's good business. Might not be morally correct but up until Feb of 09 Landstar allowed the drivers to keep more money.

The cost of plates, insurance, permits didn't change. It's the bottom line that changed. And that bottom line is the line haul. So if you think for one moment that Landstar doesn't control the rates of their freight, well then you need to experience their system and ask questions and see the documentation of the loads that you are hauling.

When the line haul is up then an O/O (BCO) can make and keep some good money with Landstar. But the line haul rates and the weight of loads have gone up considerably.

In 2007 I averaged 23.000 pounds at $2.49 per mile with and 80 mile deadhead average.
In 2008 freight went up and I made more per mile with the same amount of weight but the deadhead increased dramatically.

Landstar also controls the amount of freight they make visible to the BCO's in a given area at any certain time. It keeps the BCO's hungry when they see only 12 loads posted in their area. But as soon as you leave that area you'll see 120 loads to lure you back in. The old law of supply and demand is manipulated every minute of every hour of everyday at Landstar.

If you think any different I'd like to by some Real Estate in the land of LaLa that you're living in.

Linehaul up=Happy BCO at Landstar
Linehaul down=struggling BCO at Landstar.

There is rarely a happy medium in-between.

Again, just my opinion. $.02

 

Area X is a slow freight area with 12 loads outbound. Area Y is a high volume freight area with 120 loads that goes back to area X. This IS a SUPPLY and DEMAND issue. BCOs need to understand the freight markets and negogiate their rates accordinglly.

BUSINESS 101 at no charge.

 

yea! i understand all that. the basic question was is 1.28 gross or ttt. if it's gross then you might as well stay home, because that equals 81 cents ttt. and thats a waste of time!