Landstar questions

Ah yes! I knew there had to be a catch to some of those loads. Thank you, @Brandt!

 

Buy your own trailer, problem solved. You can get a good used van for 10 to 15k and it will more than pay for itself.
You would be surprised how little it cost maintain a trailer

 

I tried pulling the same company trailer for couple months to see what it would be like giving up the drop and hook loads. I was not impressed limiting my loads to even less options for 7% more. Plus you have to spend 10-15k that's like 2-3 years just to get your money back. You could even buy a new trailer thru Landstar and get a pretty good deal because they would buy a bunch in a big order and get a cheaper price. I think they were 22K-25k. All the good paying load out of Los Angeles were preloaded.

I was only making 135k a year with LS. If I was doing 180k a year then I would have gotten my own trailer but with the low numbers I did not see it.

 

If you won't specialize and only pull those general freight loads your won't ever get anything but general freight rates. A buddy of mine at landstar running his van is doing every bit as good as i am running a flat. But he ain't pulling cherries and paper towels. Hazmat, lift gate service, heated, logistics posts, etrack, blanket wrapping. Whatever the job calls for he can do it.

 

Yup and that's no 10k trailer I bet also. I had a friend he got his own used trailer paid like 18k for something a little newer and would not rust out on the back. Then the lift gate was about 13k new and aluminum. Since ha had blankets he need some place to store them or move them and he said that was a lot of work to move like 75 pads every time he need the full trailer room. I think his belly box was 8k maybe it was a big belly box. So he had like $38,000 in his own specialized trailer.
If I'm putting $38,000 into a trailer I better be making a good profit. He got the American Idol TV show run him and like 5 other drivers. They did pay him good money I thought for that but he was like American Idol run was only ok

 

8k for a box to keep blankets in? Either that number is ridiculously inflated and made up or he got the best screwing since enron. 13k for a lift gate? Again. Hope they kissed him cause they sure did #### him.

 

Remember the box is 25+ feet long and 8.5 feet wide and all aluminum. That's a big box. I was surprised to hear him say the box was that much money installed. I nerve priced one before. I know he could have gotten a smaller one but we wanted the big one.

His lift gate was a folding one that would go under the trailer also aluminum deck and stuff on the lift gate. Maybe it was $10,000 and like 3 days to install.

His friend, another LS drive has the same setup and he was the one saying he should get the same setup but a smaller belly box and regular steal lift gate. His friend was doing $185,000 a year with LS and taking like a month off every year.. He alway had good paying loads. I know one agent he used and I can see why, that agent was like we don't haul no cheap crap. He also had the customers that need that service. You won't ever see his loads on the load board because is specialized

 

If you won't spend the money to get the equipment to set you apart from the herd, you just keep fighting over the same loads with millions of plain dry vans.

LS has over 6000 vans, you need to have something to set you apart, even if it's just logistic post, and a few straps and blankets.

 

Yep. But most people won't do that. They would rather complain they can't get a good paying load.

 

I have never priced a belly box separate from a trailer. One of the resident Landstar drivers at the TA in Las Vegas said his was $11,000. That one might have had a lot of stainless steel. $13,000 for a slider liftgate is in the middle of the price range at most, depending on capacity, brand and options.

As for specializing(blankets, etc.) there are still plenty of idiots that will cut their own throats as well as yours. I quoted a load to Albuquerque this week. Yes, I quoted a little too high(about $100-$200) but the lowest was $1,000+ under me.