Rates are crashing and fuel to the moon!

I remember back in 2012, 2013 and 2014 we were running lots of Landstar freight daily. As an outside carrier of course on the lousy outside Landstar board that Landstar drivers didn't want. We would sometimes see Landstar trucks running it. It wasn't junk freight not by a long shot. That was some of the best spot freight I've ever run and there was lots of it all around where I live. I discovered it by setting up alerts.

It was time critical automotive expedited. Nissan, Toyota, Ford, GM. We did a lot of the same kind of freight for CH Robinson and Universal too. Mostly light weight loads. Sometimes 1 pallet going 400 miles paying $3,000 or something crazy like that. Very rare to wait for loading and unloading. Seemed like for most of those years for whatever reasons trucks were scarce and we got a lot of name price what you need stuff.

We were in really tight with 3 good agencies. Whether you're outside or inside Landstar that's what you do. Learn the good and bad agency codes. I forgot all of the bad ones. There were a bunch of those. I will never forget the good ones though. The Augusta, GA office agency code AUG was really good but we mostly worked with their sub-branch office based out of Nashville agency BNA. JC and Jessica in that office were the best! Then there was RYX. They had the deepest pockets of any broker out here I've ever seen. RYX doesn't play around. They have the high dolla stuff and you definitely wanted to be a dependable Johnny on the spot truck for them.

There was a time when that was top secret info I would never share. But when freight crashed in early 2015 it seemed like all of my good expedite contacts just sort of lost their freight or whatever. So I moved on and ended up pulling a reefer.

I used to laugh at guys on here saying "Cheap and Heavy Robingsome". Never hauled anything cheap from them back then. If you can get a good contact and build up a good relationship with someome in the Flint, MI branch there was a LOT of good expedited freight to snatch up for great money.

Birmingham was where the Universal bunch was out of. Lots of PO drop and hook easy money into and out of GM from them.

Those were the days.. I never book with any of these 3 brokerages pulling a reefer. It's a totally different world. I miss that dry van freight. The other dry van garbage, not so much so...

 

Please do your own research. What you get here are comments from people who have never been to Landstar, but have a million facebook friends that were but all busted out so Landstar is no good. Landstar is like any other company in that it has its good and its bad. I was with Landstar 10 or 12 years ago, and I had an issue or two with some agents, but overall, at that point in time, they had rates that independents couldn't come close to touching. There is a mind set here that is focused on what Landstar takes but no idea what they could gain. I'm not plugging for Landstar nor do I have any interest in going back. The agent base has changed and corporate is still full of pricks.

 

I like the thought of posting truck to get the loads that need to be moved but better yet the loads that haven’t hit the board yet. I just have only done it once. Even though I normally don’t book loads until I deliver the one I’m on I tend to already have an idea of what I am taking back out of where I am.
I will definitely give it another shot.

 

As always, I should have read down a little further. You said exactly what I was trying to say only better. Must be that cool Idaho breeze.

 

How does booking loads until your empty even work in this market? I'm not judging, I'm asking.

I'm petrified of "missing the boat" and having to sit so I usually book ahead. The times I haven't seems like when I have to take the crappy paying loads.

When I do book ahead I end up having to be super conservative on my time frame and end up having excessive down time between loads.

It's a ###### if you do, ###### if you don't situation.

 

Same as when you're loaded.

If you book ahead, that means the load doesn't need to move right then. Makes it more difficult to negotiate for more money, when the broker knows he's got a couple days before he actually needs to book it. No way he's going to come off an extra grand when he's got two more days to find a cheap truck. But you need to have it in your head that if you do indeed "miss the boat" that morning, you're fine sitting until the next day. In the last two years, I've only sat a couple times because freight wasn't where I wanted it to be, and those times was when I was looking after noon.

 

I think @God prefers Diesels covered it for the most part. I will say I will sometimes have a load booked but that is pretty rare. I will always check loads on the way when I stop for a break or to use the restroom etc. I’ll take a peek and see what is there. Not always the easiest way to do things I’m sure but I am also a man of my word and I just don’t ever want to not make a pickup so I tend to not book until I know I can make it. So I try to be at delivery early. Then quick check the board before I even leave delivery if possible or I boogie closest truck stop ( I almost always have that decided the day before) then hit the boards.
I just feel like I get better paying loads that way.

As you said with the current market it isn’t as easy now but it has still worked out. I would rather sit there overnight than take a crappy load coming back. Currently my wife is going through some medical stuff so I tend to head out and book a load coming straight back. Sometimes I already had a great idea where and who I’ll book the load through depending on where I am going. But, It is much easier to do if you don’t care which direction the new load takes you. I’m doing open deck stuff so maybe it is diff in other platforms. But I don’t like the stress of having to unload and be somewhere else until I’m unloaded.

 

Me either. It’s not that special. I get just as much of a discount

 

Everyone seems to brag about fuel discounts and revenue and all sorts of crazy shat…

Some of these millionaires $2k a day truckers who been bragging for the last year are silent as a mouse right now or #####ing about the fuel prices are putting them out of business. I’m like dude, if you been making $2k a day for the last year and a half and run like you say you do y’all should have so much cash stacked Wells Fargo buys you steak dinners every time you make a deposit.

 

There's times with a reefer when you can book very good rates up to a week ahead of time. In fact, in a slow market if you can't do that what you'll end up doing many times is ending up with nothing the day of because anything available is gone so fast.

I mean I've done the game both ways. I'll say pre-booking a dry van, when I tried that several years ago it always sucked. Made my best money day of. But missed a lot of days by doing that. It's inconsistent.

I'll say another thing about Landstar. And of course I never worked there but I never #####ed about them either. I thought back then they were great and they were.

Some of you guys complaining about "being in the favorite group" there otherwise you don't get good loads need to take a look in the mirror. It really isn't that hard to set yourself apart from everyone else. Just show up on time every time and always do what you said you would and agreed to without fussing and you've done what apparently most can't do. I was never late for pickups and deliveries. I never am. I always emailed scans of POD's within a half hour of delivery to everyone that needed it. Nobody called asking where I was because I kept them updated but if they did I was where I said I'd be. My truck could get booked and forgotten. If you can do that people that have deep pockets and want #### delivered without fuss will gladly pay you. It's the same with any brokerage out here.