Attention All Brokers Landstar,TQL,Crowley,Fox,Sentry,Global,C H Robinson,KLX,Epes,

Join the club, I lease to Landstar and while freight pays OK to Texas the loads out don't. It comes with the territory of too many trucks not enough loads. You might find freight trends on DAT web site of interest. They only use data off their own load board but give a good picture of truck to load ratio's in states. I have dead headed out of Texas myself because I refuse to haul a heavy load of van freight for maybe fuel costs. Trouble is Landstar only pays 65% of gross so I pretty much need $2.00 a mile gross to survive. I think though their is a misconception between a big company that pulls cheap freight out of a area and a owner operator who has one truck who takes cheap freight. Big companies take the freight to move back into another good freight area with little regard as to the loss. A single truck owner has to weigh paying dead head 100% loss to pulling a break even cheap load. As many owner operators have stated, DON"T Haul cheap freight! But that's sometimes tough to do when your deadhead could be hundreds of miles back to good freight. Your always at a disadvantage in a weak out bound freight state. Brokers have the upper hand and many times they suffer too with cheap freight. You can't negotiate when some other broker will cut your rate to make a few bucks. Of course this is the biggest drawback to percentage based pay. You take the bad with the good and hope your average is positive income. This is also the result of de regulation of rates back in the 80's. Even so, back then diesel was cheaper and rates were relatively better then today and you could absorb a dead head. Today, especially in van freight we have loads of competition to also negatively affects rates. If you won't haul it for $1.50 a mile someone will. My advice if you run Texas is try and haul regional Texas loads which pay better. The in State loads pay good and after hauling a couple of them you can dead head with money in pocket. I know with Landstar finding lanes to run with good freight at both ends is tough to do. Its the essence of working with irregular freight and expect to dead head doing it. Big companies like a Swift or Schneider do contracts that cut rates but they work customers at both ends of a lane to reduce dead head. Both mileage pay and percentage have their advantages and disadvantages. Obviously mileage pay is better for those who want to just run miles and make money and not worry about where they should go to make the best profit. Percentage pay requires more skill and thought about where you go and how to average out your income per load. Do it right, you make money. Do it wrong you will go broke.

 

Excellent post jes!!

Many many many times I get a good rate into a bad area. Sometimes the rate is so good like hauling pipe to Williston, ND I go back empty and get another one. The problem is in those bad areas I'll have to wait until the next day to load and probably drive another 100 miles to get it. Run the risk of waiting to get loaded then going in the wrong direction of better freight and having to drive 200 miles to get there. And getting unloaded. All this time adds up. Unless the cheap load is going to a hot area I'll beat feet out of there empty.

Jes is right. A large company will gladly take $1.00 a mile on a 600 mile run to get their trucks back into the lane.

 

Thanks Skate-Board! Yes, I have changed my tune on dead heading vs hauling cheap freight. Let the Swift's of the world haul crap for next to nothing. I too haul good paying freight into areas of weak and cheap outbound freight and simply deadhead back to the better freight. The ideal of wasting time getting a cheap load that's generally unfriendly freight to begin with is just wasting time and money to help some cheap shipper taking advantage of truckers. Yea, a company driver could care less because they get paid the same no matter what. But us working percentage should stop justifying cheap freight. Yes, I lose a bit on the deadhead, but I forgo feeling cheated by hauling cheap freight.
Every load you should be able to say it's worth hauling. If not, don't haul it!

 

Rates into Texas are usually very good. Lots of freight heading into Texas and not as much coming out. Supply and demand. It's as simple as that.

 

Here's how it goes.

A shipper asks for bids from brokers and tells them they have to move loads from Texas to Ohio and there will be 12 loads a week. The shipper wants the brokers to give them a rate for each load. The lowest bidder gets the contract.

Depending on the broker they have to list the load and how much they are willing to pay and the rest is theirs. If the rate is too low the trucks won't take the loads and the freight does not get picked up. Shipper gets pizzed and dumps the broker so it's a fine line.

There are plenty of good brokers that deal with large companies moving many loads a day and they may only make $100 on the load but their doing 5 a day and are snapped up right away. Everyone is happy and broker does a good business on volume. Many of those loads are picked up by repeat truckers and only requires a quick email and the load is covered.

Then you have another broker come in and underbids the current broker so the shipper gives them the contract when it's up. The loads don't move or move slow and once again, the shipper is pizzed and usually switches back to the other broker.

Also, most brokers are independent agents for the company and work on a percentage so you may get a rogue agent who is greedy and they end up loosing the contract. Usually they don't last long.

 

You need to take some online economics courses. You'll become a better businessman when you understand things like markets and supply and demand. Everybody that even thinks they want their own authority should have some sales training and business education. The schmucks at CHRW & TQL have it and most likely have periodic training sessions to hone their skills. Your at a disadvantage before you pick up the phone if you don't.

 

I've noticed PLS has always given the best rates to me. I call up Landstar just to hear them say the customer only has $2,700 into the load and PLS is listing it as $3,500. I'll say, no problem, I'll take the load from PLS. They usually hang up on me.

 

Yea, a lot of Landstar agents are wimps at pushing for better rates. I told one agent who would listen why a lot of loads sit on the load board. For one, they go to dead holes as I call them and second they may look like they pay well but take away that FSC that bumps up the rate which makes it look good but its really not. I typically look at the rate and FSC separate. The FSC should NOT enhance a lousy rate. I too wish more new owner operators were given more help on how to judge a good load from a bad one. We all get burned once in a while. I used to think all Landstar agents were working for me, but now I know its pretty much every one looks out for themselves and nobody else. Its pretty clear these days that a load is floated around a lot of boards at different rates. How many times I have seen on the Landstar board multiple agents posting the same load. Don't be the one who calls up the agent with the lower rate on that load. I've had agents who fish rates higher then the customer will pay hoping to get calls on the load. When I call, I either want the rate posted or I won't take the load. Surprised this bait and switch on rates don't end up in courts. Don't tell me its one rate then say the customer won't pay it?

 

are you a broker with landstar??? i start next week