Landstar

Dude Landstar sucks! I never call on their loads anymore, and I liked them a lot before. I don't know how their owners are making it now a days, but as far as being an outside carrier I won't touch a landstar load.

 

Landstar will stand up for a shipper first, then an agent, then a BCO and usually never side with an outside carrier.

I was delivering a Landstar load to a customer. I had an appointment for 10am. I was there before the sun came up. I'm talking the country. Deer, rabits and falling leaves. Gate was closed. 7am a car pulls up and the guy says come on in. Tells me to unstrap and he'll unload me. I'm gone by 8am.

Landstar agent calls me a little before 10am to see if I'm there. I tell him I unloaded already around 8am. He gets pissed and says my appointment was 10am. I tell him they told me to come in and I was the only person there.

I get a new rate agreement in about 1/2 an hour knocking $100 off my rate for being late. Nothing in my original rate agreement about any penalties for ANYTHING. I call him up and he stands by it. I call up corporate and they do nothing.

Another time after that I'm in Denver and booked a load. I get the rate agreement and go to bed ready to load the next day. During the night I get a new rate agreement via email for $100 less with no reason why. I'm pissed. My appointment was for 10am. I was lucky to book another load before 10 and was gone. 10:30 rolls around and agent calls me saying customer is pissed and where are you. I tell her you knocked $100 off my rate and gave me no reason at all. She said customer changed the price. I told her I was already loaded with another load and you can't do that crap. She said they will probably lose the customer because of me. I said, was it really worth $100 and hung up on her.

 

I don't get it with LANDSTAR. The guy that mentored me had me ambitious to work for them but I never could. I have one good Landstar agent that always pulls me out of CO with amazing money but he is different because he actually owns trucks too so he understands.

Now I know Landstar gives tires/blah blah benefits. I had a American some crap broker call me for hazmat out of PA to MN when MN was hot. This guy paid me 4.50/mile including dead head. It was a heavy load tho! At one of the pick ups I met a Landstar guy. He asked for some help, and we talked, and he told me he likes Landstar. He got 1.80 to go to Florida..Hazmat... Florida was fully dead. I think we were in Topon,PA getting battieries.

I did the math at 1.80 going to dead florida with the high ### % landstar takes...then going back up..I don't know. I can't do the math but Landstar was a company I always wanted to work for, and from seeing things, and working with them, I can't understand why they do somethings.

 

It's not Landstar. It's the agents. They don't really work FOR Landstar. They are independent agents.Almost all of them have their own trucking companies. That's were they make the real money.

 

That's how my guy is from Landstar. I also know a Russian lady that was a worker for an agent. She quickly bought trucks and made a fleet but used Landstar for customers cause she became an agent herself. Landstar has amazing customers. I think Landstar has an amazing system that they indended but due to agents they failed. I also see that most Landstar owner operators are great people with great equipment and they deserve more.

 

I'm not sure what Landstar did last year or the year before but they lost a lot of military contracts.

 

Military accounts went egh. I had a Marimar,AZ military airplane hazmat parts dry van, going to Canada. Together about 1800 miles, that paid $8000. Typically weighed at 16k AVG. One day I got a notice that thanked me for my services, and they will no longer be required, but if they need me again they will call. I made phone calls worried about being paid, and they said everything will be paid, but no more runs. I still see those runs, just not for me. Also I had that me and 6 of my guys ran together as a convoy from Utah to Tennessee, paid amazing money, and gone! I'm not sure what they're doing with those runs. I still have one run that I got a guy on that is from North Dakota to Granite City, IL taking military empty shells, for recycling, that pays a lot, but that's the only military run I could keep. Tin foil hat or w.e tells me they don't want guys getting to know too much about these runs.

 

If you want to haul for the military you have to have what is called a Performance Bond and you are only allowed to pick 3 bases and that's it. That was one reason Landstar has different divisions like Inway, Ranger and others so they can have more bases.

I was hauling a lot for the National Guard here in NH through Landstar. The Captain there got to know me and liked that I was flexible. Many times something changed but I went along with it. He wanted me to get approved with the Government to haul loads directly. Took me in his office and showed me their load board. All paid very well. He said you just click on one and pick it up once your approved.

The performance bond for $10,000 was going to cost me big bucks and that was even if my insurance would do it. Didn't sound like they would from my phone call. Second thing is you need an International Bank Account. That's how your paid. That was pretty much impossible.

 

That's crazy! I lived in Vermont. I worked for American Red Cross, and we went to New Hampshire a lot, and there is a military place where we went to get blood, but I think it was only the Armory.

 

Where in Vermont? I went to school in Northfield.