Rate comparison between own authority and Landstar

Discussion in 'Ask An Owner Operator' started by Preacher Man, Aug 8, 2015.

  1. Preacher Man

    Preacher Man Road Train Member

    2,930
    2,771
    May 31, 2008
    Mason City, IL
    0
    I am looking to get my own authority within the next year and to that end I am trying to research what rates I can look for on the type of loads we have found to be profitable. We run loads less than 350 loaded and in June the average gross booked was $3.00 per mile on dry van runs. Of course Landstar took their cut which means the truck received considerably less. In fact we booked over $11,000 and received less than $8,500. Starting with our own trailer and then taking complete control of our business makes a lot of sense on many levels, I just need to start putting together our budget.

    I've already talked to Progressive about insurance and have a general idea of everything else I'll be dealing with. So I have a handle on the cost part of the business, now I need to get an idea of the revenue side. By the way, I intend this as a discussion so if you don't have all the information you need to help, just ask. I didn't want to turn the first post into a book.
     
  2. Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.

  3. Bakerman

    Bakerman Road Train Member

    4,663
    8,806
    Jan 27, 2013
    Phoenix, AZ
    0
    If you are working off the load boards you might see a little bump in revenue, but.........if you get you own customers(shippers & receivers)you could easily double your income.
    Increase your income even more by doing LTL mixed in with truckload stuff.
     
  4. Preacher Man

    Preacher Man Road Train Member

    2,930
    2,771
    May 31, 2008
    Mason City, IL
    0
    When we talk about bump in revenue are we talking about the rate off the board, or what we are receiving to the truck? Even after we have our own trailer that will be a difference of 28%. As far as getting our own customers, there are some around my area that I will be contacting. I'm really curious what Menards loads pay. I live equal distance from about 4 of their stores and the DC in Plano isn't very far to the north. I have Peoria to the north and Decatur southeast.
     
    Dominick253 Thanks this.
  5. 77fib77

    77fib77 Road Train Member

    8,547
    48,615
    Jul 7, 2010
    St Louis
    0
    Try OOida for rates too?
     
  6. Bakerman

    Bakerman Road Train Member

    4,663
    8,806
    Jan 27, 2013
    Phoenix, AZ
    0
    My neighbor works off the load boards and seems to be hit or miss. Get a really good paying load going somewhere, then have to deadhead a ways to find something decent going back or wherever.
     
    truckfam Thanks this.
  7. Preacher Man

    Preacher Man Road Train Member

    2,930
    2,771
    May 31, 2008
    Mason City, IL
    0
    This board has been a big help through the years, but not my only source of information, Monday I will be making some phone calls to brokers. I'm not trying to hurt Landstar, besides I couldn't if I tried since I'm only 1 truck. I'm just wanting to find out what the rates are on some of the loads we see on the various boards that we would be interested in. We have found we can cut out a nice income booking small loads that nobody else wants. We just stack them up so that we are working 1 or 2 loads ahead. We think in terms of revenue per day. If we make our average over a 5 day week then we don't even worry about the weekend, I just take it off and usually at home.
     
  8. Bakerman

    Bakerman Road Train Member

    4,663
    8,806
    Jan 27, 2013
    Phoenix, AZ
    0
    There you go. Short runs usually pay better than long runs.
     
    thejackal and Dominick253 Thank this.
  9. Preacher Man

    Preacher Man Road Train Member

    2,930
    2,771
    May 31, 2008
    Mason City, IL
    0
    We had the same problem with Landstar until we changed our lanes. Rates are great on longer runs into places like Florida, Texas, and Colorado, but getting back out is a nightmare. Now we do little one day loads within 350 miles of our home. Nobody wants these little $500-$700 short hauls, but we found if you put them back to back you can carve out a nice income even with Landstar taking their 35%.
     
  10. rollin coal

    rollin coal Road Train Member

    12,466
    23,622
    Mar 29, 2008
    TN
    0
    My bread and butter off open load boards is 350 mile runs pulling a 53 van trailer. I need to tally up my year to date numbers again but I'm normally on average right at 350 miles per run including deadhead with around 25% deadhead. The longer runs are only worth it to me when they can pay the same rate per mile i'm getting on my short runs so that's the only time I ever book them.

    My system is out and back or to triangulate back normally home weekends and sometimes during the week. You should be able to beat gross 100% Landstar BCO rate of $3pm by at least 10%. I'm averaging about 15% better than what you were getting there. Works out to roughly 10% better by the time a cut comes off the top but i'm leased on somewhere. I have almost 4 years worth of numbers in a book to back this up it's not a guestimate coming out of my ###.

    We finally got an excellent fuel discount earlier this year comparable to what a BCO gets. We don't do any contract though. But with vans I'm not 100% certain we're really missing much there, could be wrong though. The (my personal) model is also (like yours) to take full advantage of market conditions and loads others don't want.
     
    freightwipper and razor1983 Thank this.
  11. Old Man

    Old Man Road Train Member

    4,597
    13,466
    Apr 3, 2009
    Oklahoma City, OK
    0
    My opinions and you can take or leave them. I do know a little about LS.
    Why wait to get a trailer? It will more than pay for itself, and when it is paid off you keep more.

    Now to get harsh, $8500 in June, that is only $102000 a year, if that is all you can manage out of the LS system how do you expect more on your own? You should be making 150 -250k your cut. You need to dig more to find better loads, they are there.

    Consider open deck, you live in a prime area, It is quite easy to load a truck load and several partials out of the Chicago area going to good freight areas. look at all the flat and step ltl loads in the midwest, some pay $3.00 a mile. But they require work, no door slamming.

    Finding you own customer can be done but it is not easy, your competing with all the big brokers and carriers, and you will be extending credit to them or your broker.
     
    Dominick253 and truckfam Thank this.
  • Truckers Report Jobs

    Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds

    Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.