Landstar Questions

Of all the orientations I have been to, Landstar is the best. I went thru in Grand Prairie and will be going thru one day again soon as I am coming back after four months medical hold. First off they treat you like the business person you are. We are in a business partnership with Landstar. We provide the capacity, they provide the freight and the support necessary to make us successful. The first day is a lot about the business side. Calculating cost per mile, policies, procedures and such are the main emphasis. The second day is primarily safety, hazmat, and defensive driving. And the lunch? I cannot speak for any other center as I have not been there for lunch but Grand Prairie is a catered buffet. That lunch is also available to drivers as "supplies last" who are at the center after the Orientation and CABS classes go thru. Where are you going to orientation and when?

 

Its really nice to be booked out for a week or two so you can run without worrying as much about that next load. I always keep the alerts coming in,I hate to miss good work?

 

What I have found is the best rates come the closer you get to the pick up date. I have scheduled some runs in advance only to find out I could have gotten twice as much if I had waited. And sometimes from the same place.

 

I hate when that happens...But i am like an ''Agent''.I have no Mercey..I will sometimes drop a load on the agents lap to get that MONSTER PAYING LOAD...Agents do this crap alot when they find a ''cheaper'' driver to do it..

 

Yeah but look at all the good fun you have chatting with happy people like us here at this site! BS ALEART!
nothing worse than preplanning a circuit and having the load cancel on you half way there been there a lot latley[/QUOTE]

One time that happened was that was real frustrating is I had a high paying load to get me home for an appointment. I had one load booked that would get me to there with good pay as well. The day before I was to pickup I was told that the load was not going to be there until the next day which would mess with my home load. Best I could come up with to get me to that load was one that would require close to 500 miles deadhead (after hours on the boards looking at all possibilities). Now the great paying home load was a good paying home load; still money to be made. So deadhead the 500 miles only to have that load get cancelled because an agent did not do their job right. Back to the load boars only to find the only way I was going to keep that home load (and my appointment) was to deadhead another 300 miles which now made the great home load an OK load. Fortunately Customer Service put money on my fuel card to pay for my fuel used on the 500 mile cancellation.

 

Off subject but did anyone listen to the SAFETY CALL yesterday? Im still confused about the new hours of service rules and they sure didn't explain it real well?
1. Are we only allowed to take one reset a week 70 hours or after 7 days? I usually take either Sat or Sun day off every week.
2. the half hour break, is that within the first 8 hours or at the 8 hour mark?

 

1. You are only allowed to take one 34 hour restart per 168 hour period. If you start a 34 hour at 5 PM today you cannot start the next one until at least 5 pm next Friday. If you are shut down in the middle of that period you just get to carry those zeroes on your recap. (Will suck in winter time or slow freight seasons) You must also have two "sleep" periods of 1 AM to 5 AM for it to constitute "34" hours. Could be much more than 34. They are trying to make this a 9-5 job and just imagine how early we will need to shut down in the afternoon now in order to find parking?

2. If you have reached the 8 hour point without having taken a 30 minute break, you cannot drive again until you take that break. I would like clarification on accumulative breaks. Due to a medical situation, I have to stop and walk every 1.5 to 2 hours. Since the idea behind this new provision is to stop guys who like to keep the left door shut and do their whole 11 hours nonstop, I hope that it can be accumulative of 30 minutes or more. I usually walk the dog for 15 - 20 minutes which means in that 8 hours I would have at least 45 minutes in breaks.

 

There was a litle bit about it over at landstaronline. These new rules are going to really screw the line haul guys but the OTR guys should only require minor adjustments to driving habits. For the line haul guys Its like taking away the huge raise we got when they rolled out the 34 reset. I remember I needed lots of biscuits to sop up all that gravy.

 

1. you are allowed 1 reset every 7 days. Say you take a reset today....you will have to wait 7 days before you can take another reset.

2. you must take a 30 minute break within the first 8 hours of working. This is simple really, stop for lunch or supper for 30 minutes and your covered.

 

The main thing is the 168 hours, not just days. you cannot star your 34 this week at 5 PM and start next weeks at 4 PM. There must be a full 168 hours from the beginning of the last reset.