Landstar Questions

I picked up roller trailer and the rollers seem to be in the down position. There are 6 red twist valves near front of trailer that all seem to be in off position so I will not mess with those. Thanks for the information!

 

I left Landcrap (landstar) in 2009,THANK YOU GOD,never ever again,worst experience ever.

 

What was so bad about them

 

If you somehow get lucky and get a roller load, you'll want to test the rollers to make sure they'll raise up before committing. I was pulling some Xtra lease rollers during the war going to Charleston and Dover and sometimes you were unlucky, as they were preloaded. If they worked you were unloaded in 5 minutes. If they didn't, it was more like hours.

 

Some people have a great time here, some people have a lousy time here. It all depends on your mindset, and if you're an independent business person. The driver that comes here from a dispatched situation has a rude awakening as you are on your own here. The ones that have had to find their own loads previously usually do pretty well. Don't get me wrong, LS has some quirks and no company is going to be 100% what you want, even if you start your own. Most folks, myself included, say to give it 6 months. These days it might even take a year, to find the right agents and become a go-to BCO. Simple things like email updates or just basic communication, helping solve problems instead of being one, networking and cold calling, can make your experience here far better than the typical driver who just searches the load board and cries about freight rates. 80% of my freight never sees the load board. I get an email asking if I can do the load and how much it will cost. I have one customer that will only use me if they have a flat/step load and I usually know about the loads before the agent does. I've lost a customer recently, as well, that was setup the same way due to my pricing. I'm on the expensive side for my specialty work, but I provide excellent customer service. If you're moving million dollar loads, they come with million dollar problems. I believe cpape said that. They may be back, they may not, but my price is my price.

However, the driver that was glad to leave in 2009 , endured the worst time in trucking, EVER. 2007-2008 was terrible industry wide. Capacity shrank, trucks were sold/repossessed and exported for pennies on the dollar, freight rates were extremely low, as was load volume. Anybody that weathered the recession/depression and is still trucking should pat themselves on the back.

 

I do not see anything on the load board leaving the bay area today. How do I find out who the bay area agents are? I would call my advisor but I have not been assigned one yet. Looks like I will need to start cold calling agents that work this area if I want to get out of here before the weekend starts.

There is a lot of freight exiting out of southern California. I may have to deadhead down there and find a good paying load out. Atleast I could see my family for a day or two.

 

Did they not teach you about lane match? That will show you who has the best freight. You would benefit greatly from the webex today. It's not on the home page, but I'll pm you an email address. You need to be able to be online and on the phone at the same time. if you get a load, obviously go do that instead.

 

I have a friend that recently went to LS (6months ago) from Crete. We were both O/Os at Crete, & during '11 we conversed about moving out trucks from Crete to other companies.

Due to my location, South Texas, I decided to sell my truck & go back to being a company driver. He decided to go to LS. We are both happy with our decision.

He adapted very quickly (he's a businessman not a truck driver). He did the cold calling & almost immediately found a niche be likes (he lives in North Georgia) & makes good money. Over the last six months he has averaged $1.84 p/m to the truck. He says he is still booking about 75% of his loads from the board.

My point in writing this? I don't know. Just thought I'd add to my post total.

 

And getting worse...

 

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