Considering Landstar as a next step

You'll still go broke, landstar is garbage, all foreign brokers they bait and switch loads all the time. You get loads canceled on you all the time, use to be a great company but it's awful now, don't waste your time or money!!!!

 

Ok

 

Not sure about all that. I've only been here 2 months & so far I'm making more money than I ever have & have yet to have a load cancel. I know it happens & will happen to me eventually, just good luck so far. I keep myself booked out for about a week & do very good. I don't have any special agent buddies either. So far I run strictly off the board & couldn't be happier, best move I ever made

 

either you can figure it out or not the majority of people who lease on don't make it a year and the majority of those who make it a year stay for ever , if you do it right you make more profit than running under your own authority, landstar corporate is seldom delt with and nobody will hold your hand its up to you to build relationships with agent's and sort out the bad ones and there are great ones and a few bad ones the learning curve is about a year but you can make decent money from day 1 if you pay attention to what you are doing ....... as far as trucks go i have had good luck with freightliner cascadia with a dd15 in it , 10 speed ....
.. it is the easiest to work on compared to the others its a 2012 and I haven't had many def problems i got it with 140000 on it and its at 740000 on it now ..... was going to California a lot so needed the after treatment . you cant idle and run it at 70 and try to avoid temperatures below 15 degrees. .... that advice was given to me by a mechanic and so far has worked .... but no matter what company you ask about you will get people who had a bad experience with them thats trucking ... I have been leased to them for over 3 years and I am not going anywhere

 

You can’t walk a mile in someone elses shoes, you’ll get blisters.
So far, I have not had a load cancel on me, bait/switch on anything, and 8/10 times usually get a little more money than load posted price.

Not all are foreign brokers, for the last month I have had dealings with those who speak more proper english than I, I’m just a country boy.

And if you go broke, (not you as meaning anyone inparticular on this, metaphorically speaking/typing)you must be doing something wrong on picking your loads.

Noone holds your hand and gives you anything, but some drivers if you talk to, and know what to ask usually will give you tips and suggestions.
This is my first year here and I’m more than happy.

 

I just had my return load cancel for friday morning and it was a landstar load ... stuff happens they were short on product and shipping it Monday oh well i will scramble and find something tomorrow . I do know what noodler is talking about , sometimes a load is listed by several different agents at different prices and of course you call the highest priced one to book it ... well the shipper doesn't cancel the other agents and if someone else takes the load at a lower price then your load gets cancelled. ....so I stay away from those . there are a lot of good agents and agency's and they are actively seeking direct shippers and you can trust them . and all are Americans . some foreign Brookers are good and usually work with the same customers and there loads are ok ....... now there are many Brookersthat are working off other boards and dont know anything about the load in emergency but its buyer beware. .. I have 2 shippers that I do a lot of stuff for and they call me directly when they have something and set up the best days then I call the agent and he does the paperwork through landstar . sometimes I will be booked up for a couple of weeks with these and other loads that agents call me with before they list them on the board . I do take a couple of what I call desperation loads when an agent calls trying to cover a load on the board. ..... i still use the load board but probably only about half of my loads, there are several regular shippers around the country and when I am headed into the area i call the agent and see if he can save me something even if he doesn't have one sceduled at the moment he knows that he will have one and maybe not the destination yet but will call me in a day or two . sometimes I will have 2 weeks booked in advance sometimes work a day or 2 . sometimes I will book a load a week out and work to it , takes a little bit of practice but worth learning how to do it. and just staying on top of rates . sometimes I will do a backwards search coming to the house and book my return load before the load going out but I work out of ohio and it pays decent which ever way you go for the most part. ..... theres plenty of niches at landstar but its up to you to find yours and if you cant no worries about everybody is hiring

 

and when it comes right down to it if you fail at landstar you dont have anyone to blame but your self ..... you cant blame the dispatcher or load planner because its you , most people need someone to tell them what to do if your that type you wont make it for sure .if you cant make yourself get up and go nobody at landstar will do it for you . it took me awhile to learn its not so much knowing what loads to take its knowing what loads not to take .......