Landstar

I love these threads.

 

My husband is a LS BCO. We do this on a regular basis. What are you on about? Did they cancel the load? If so, file it under truck not used.

 

I have brokers and agencies on my #### list. I just made a call this morning to verify additional agencies on my bad list. I remember names and who they worked for. My "never call, under any circumstance" list has expanded.

Be very careful with 713 and 830 area codes, when dealing with brokers.

 

Some brokers are horrible! I've called LS and complained, myself. They just go on my #### list and I update it.

People forget that they make money from us. Roughly 7-8%. The more money we make, the better!

If you try to screw us, you'll never make a dime!

 

Landstarve?

 

You have to remember that with Landstar you are basically on your own. I don't make this comment as a complaint, just an observation. You run under their authority, pay to use their trailer unless you have your own and are limited to their agents, but they aren't really there to hold your hand. They really aren't a trucking company in the true sense of the word. In fact as far as I know they don't even have their own customers. If you want to be successful you have to figure out what loads will work for you and what agents you can trust. I'm coming up on my first year and while we aren't getting rich, we are doing better than when I was with my last company and much better than when I first started out with Landstar.

 

How come you can't trust those area codes?

 

For some reason the agents you don't want to work with seem concentrated in certain area codes. 830 is one of those area codes. In this case they just don't seem to be on top of things like they should be.

 

I'm am o/o for Landstar, if you were at the shipper and the load canceled at the shipper I GAURANTEE they would have paid truck order not used to the truck, 250 bucks, I've never ever had a problem getting detention from them or tonu pay, something isn't right here, your driver might of made a scene enough to have the customer decide to use some one else, I don't know but I've neem with Landstar a year and never had a problem getting paid for detention or tuno..

 

This is just my 2 cents worth, however in my mind it is worth a mint$$$$.
I started out with LS back in 1993, and I have the same thoughts now that I did back then (even when all the changes and transitions). Leasing onto Landstar is the next best thing to having your own authority, but without the the receivables risk!! In short, you make money if you are a good business operator- period.
Now for more info, I went from a single truck operator to a multi-truck owner with LS, made great money for the most part, however had bad weeks and even months also (thats the black cloud of transportation). Several factors come involved with ANY trucking company, one of the MAJOR ones in my eyes having trucks leased to any company is the owners ability to hire good drivers, the best (however, there are drivers who lie AND cause owners problems= losing money and contracts).
Also, I have been an agent for LS also , only AFTER learning their system. To keep it short and simple: #1- its transportation, anything can happen, and most of the time it is out of the agent,brokers,drivers, and owners hands!!! If you get to the nitty-gritty it goes beyond even the customer the truck/carrier may be loading or delivering to!!! Why????? purchasers cancel, buyers cancel, product does not become ready as planned (yes, plants break down, people get hurt, and ships sink with production material needed).
Bottom line is this, I have worked in every phase of transportation, it is ALL bad, however as everyone knows , without trucks america stops!!! ALL AGREE????
In my mind, (again, my educated "thoughts"),, way too many "know it alls" rant on these forums about things they actually know very little about!! and that needs a big (.) PERIOD!
Every situation is different, every single one. I have never had the exact same problem happen twice and I have been in transportation since the late 70s.
So shoving the any blame on one side or another can not be tolerated
A few examples then I will be done as I am currently working on yet another problem, and you bet ya, another 1st!!!
#1 TONU/Detention/Layover- promised a lot by whomever, (customers, brokers, carriers, shippers)- bottom line, unless SOME one agrees to pay, it will not happen. (btw, the majority of GOOD brokers will pay out of their pocket to keep face, along with keeping carriers from filing on their bond!! Reason = without carriers and a good rap, they are out of business) . FYI- customers/shippers, they simply do not care and WILL lie, why (?) because they have 100s of carriers/brokers beating on their doors daily, they will NEVER lose business lieing, never!!!
#2 Reasons for TONU/Detention/Layover- OMG, where do I start?? There are so many reasons/situations that it is impossible to cover them all. However, I have carriers call me all the time, they want TONU for various reasons, the best ones are --- Rain, immature product when the "fresh" produce just is not ready to be harvested as planned, FIRE- (yep, lets hit the customer/shipper/grower for something that is out of their hands right????)------- And let me include the Detention, layover , ect in this same area.
Lets talk about all the accessorials that drivers/carriers/ owner ops want to charge for just for a minute. By God, they want "their" money they deserve NOW or risk your bond!!!! However, what about the brokers, shippers, agents, dispatchers and etc that have (or mostly NOT have) a carrier/driver CANCEL on them??? But that is ok, I hear all the time "sorry, driver out of hours, just found out",,, "truck is broke down, I am sure you know trucks break down",,,,, "we had to take another load to get the driver home"....... so on and so forth, everyone knows where I am going with this. Guess what, that load still has to be recovered, and many times at a great expense (who "pays" any of the above affected THEIR inconvenience pay ????) NOT the carrier unless they are under contract.

I hope I started some of you thinking about what you complain about, along with what you "think/know" you deserve when things happen. Granted no one wants to work for free, no one, however there are times where it is needed for a professional reasoning to follow many situations!!!

Last comment, there are both good and bad when it comes to anyone in the transportation industry- from the Customers all the way down to the mechanic that works on the trucks we all drive and count on.!!!!