The very best owner operator carrier, 90% pay!

I'm sure it has to do with the fact that you're not a new entrant since you've been running a DOT number. I'm leased to a guy but I have my own physical damage insurance and the insurance company told me that after having it for 18 months they wouldn't treat me as a new entrant even though my authority would be new.

 

The rates discussed here are horrible
I was grossing $1.25 a mile in 1997

my nephew is averaging around 85 cents a mile , as a company driver.
driving someone else’s brand new W-900 hauling oversized overweight flatbed 3 axle RGN. Driver gets 20% of the gross.

the company gets around $10 a mile for Oversize overweight secure loads , and they never fool with back hauls , so the return trip is always for free.

 

Oversized is another world entirely. But yeah with Landstar I did not touch anything under 1.88 (my % after 2.80). There are Mercer flatbed guys claiming to still be averaging over two. But I am learning they play favorites with people that have been here for a while, first empty first loaded be ######. I also have no load alerts, the go to your coordinator, so I don't see when things pop up and my coordinator AKA dispatcher will not set my preferences to a certain $ amount and ignores the hundred things to pop up for a dollar a mile without sorting out the good ones and I never hear from him.

It does not help they appear to be doing the same thing Landstar agents started doing and not bothering to find their own Freight. Most of what I've haulled has been JB Hunt I think. They're also supposed to have in-house loads that you can claim without talking to anyone, they often are not actually available so claiming them will get you in trouble. They also have multiple agents posting the same load, another thing that they're not supposed to do.

The company being discussed originally, MAG was occasionally running a better rate than Mercer and they had only one agent. Even the Uber Freight they pulled often paid better than what I do with Mercer. Overall they really are still the best company I worked for, I just knew I had no patience for truckstop.com with them refusing to put prices on loads

I figured out the other day the load I was pulling for 800 would have pulled 1200 if it was original Freight rather than double broker through JB Hunt. Would have went from 1.60 to 2.40 a mile.

If the dedicated I just fpund does not work out I'll probably be looking at JB hunt next. They have a board and everyone ive worked for seems to get between 20-50% of their freight from them. If they do the same as Landstar they take 35% off the top before brokering it out.

If you are used to finding your own freight and just want an insurance and fuel discount MAG is definitely worth it

 

Truckstop has nothing to do with whether or not the rates are posted. That's all up to the broker. DAT is the same way. All you got to do is pick up the phone and call.

 

I know they both work the same. That is just a huge waste of time. I'm amazed that neither requires a broker to post a price. Calling to see if something I'm interested in is still available is one thing; calling to see if something is available just to find out if pays half what I will accept is ridiculous

 

Add to that it keeps rates low because no one can tell what the actual average is and every trucker using those boards should be highly pissed. It gives broker a huge advantage to negotiate and really screws drivers out of as much as possible while still getting there load covered.
Of course if people posted competitive rates they would be even more likely to get a load covered but most are to short sighted and greedy for that

 

You do make a counter offer?

 

If I'd had the patience to try that system yes I would make a counteroffer. I would often call people with loads close to what I was looking for when working with Landstar and negotiate. ( that is another thing that's not supposed to be acceptable with Mercer but I noticed it's still standard practice)

But if the original offer is a dollar per mile and I want 2 minimum there is no point in trying to negotiate. So why would I waste time with a board that it's full of loads paying a dollar or less per mile? At least the boards that do posts prices had their fair share of those, but I can sort them out. It's very simple to implement, but neither truckstop or DAT care to, why not would be a better question

 

It’s already been said that the broker is the one who post the rate. As for why there’s a few reasons. Some are cheap garbage. Some want to see how many call to gauge the demand. Some want to get a truck that doesn’t know what it should pay.

 

I meant why does dat nor truckstop require the broker to post a rate