Landstar?

From the rumors, landstar is a place to thrive if youre not scared to drive and bend the rules a little.

Not a place to play by the books.

I know 2 roehl lease ops who finished their roehl contracts and immediately signed to landstar, because theyre so used to the mega carrier hand holding, they got placed on TONU so much they nearly lost their truck. One went back to roehl, the other went to another mega as an O/O leased to.

 

There is a steep learning curve at first, especially if you have never self-dispatched or used the Landstar system. It took me about three months to adjust, stop hating it, and build relationships with a few agents for regular work. At Landstar, you control where you go and what you haul, but no one is going to hold your hand.

Do not expect other BCOs to share their best agents. Landstar is highly competitive, and most people protect their own opportunities. You will also see some terrible load-board rates, including the same load posted by different agents at sharply lower pay.

At first, you will get a lot of calls and texts about available loads, many of them low paying. You are never required to take a load just because an agent offers it. To land good loads just from the load board until you build agent relationships, etc., you need to watch Landstar One closely and respond fast, because the best loads can be gone in seconds. The load alerts will be your best friend, but still not fool proof. You will have a few aggravating days where you call on newly posted loads, within a second of it posting, to only find its already been covered just that quick.

I disliked Landstar at first, but two and a half years later I am still here and doing okay. My best advice is to build direct relationships with a few good agents who can offer you solid loads. I mostly use the load board only when I need backhaul freight after one of those agents sends me somewhere. The goal is to have trusted agents call you with good freight, not to rely on random low paying load offers from bottom feeding agents, which are common, especially right after orientation once you get a trailer.