$$$

OK, dude. Again, not trying to be a dick, but....three years....did you not take note of where you went frequently? Did you not have a conversation with other people in the industry? Lots of things to be gained by having simple everyday discussions about who went where, what was hauled, how often it ships, etc. Example: Pay attention to what you see being hauled. I pull a stepdeck so I pay attention to open deck freight. I have seen lots of loads of electrical transformers. I know from asking around that there is a place in MS that ships a lot of them. Haven't hauled them myself but I know from asking around where they come from, what they might pay and who to call to see if they are available.

I have done this with other stuff and have some agents I call when I am in their area. I am one of many that do this, therefore the agent does not need to post the laods because the trucks come to them. These are the loads that never hit the board. This type of stuff almost always pays better than board freight. And no, I'm not going to name names, I reached out, I hauled and I proved myself to be reliable so as to be allowed to haul again. Nobody is going to put in all that effort and then give away the contact info to a new guy.

If all you have done for the last three years is wait for someone to tell you what to do you might be in trouble. What were you hauling? Were you OTR or dedicated or ?

What are your expenses like? You making payments or do you own the truck outright? You have a trailer or planning on pulling one of theirs? Do you have at least $10K in the bank, to get you started?

 

These are things you're supposed to know before you went out and made a huge financial decision in buying a truck.

Do you know your numbers? Your operational costs per mile? Buying a truck doesn't mean your gonna be sweeping $100 bills off the floor. Needless to say Landstar has a webinar that shows you how to use the load board, no one chooses the loads for you like if you were a company driver.

No one here can tell you how to make money. What may be good for them may not be good for you, there are lots of resources available to GUIDE you on how to be successful, but asking on a forum "how to make money with Landstar" is a very lazy approach. Do your homework, I wish you the best of luck.

 

Bud if you asking questions like this then I think you need to re-evaluate your decision...

One of the things that help me was me being a company driver on percentage. Also took note on how good loads paid out of certain regions and how far of a deadhead I had. I did pretty well here at LS for 2 years and of course the bottom fell out like just about everyone else has been feeling. You can still make money but you gonna have to work for it. I wasn't interested in staying out more than a week at a time and you pretty much gonna have to do that in today's market to be somewhat successful. Good luck man you #### sure gonna need it. Best thing I can tell you to do is head to Chicago, I-85 between Charlotte and Greenville, Stay out of Florida and say hell no to Texas... Good Luck

 

What if you're from Florida?

 

It's possible to make it work. @fortycalglock is from FL. I think the point was that you can't count on constantly going in and out of places like that. I live in WY. Still making good money. But I only take loads going there when I'm ready to go home. If I tried to get loads that go out and then find one to come right back to the house I would starve to death. Because of where I live I have to go out, chase the money loads for a while and then find one going home.

 

Pretty much what he said... if you wanna be home every weekend you can pretty much cancel that or you won't make much money living in Florida regardless of the freight market. Fortyglock has been here for a while so he pretty much have some good connections where getting out of Florida isn't as hard compared to others...

Pretty much I can tell you is run like a dog for a couple of weeks or 3 then go home for a week.. You can always find a load to Florida it's the getting out part that's darn on near impossible

 

Oh ok , hey what do you guys do about health insurance? I hear getting your own is over 1k a month.

 

The trick with FL is to wait for a decent outbound while waiting at home. When you see it, grab it and go. That's my strategy. It's much easier to be sitting at the kitchen table looking at the board than in the truck. Of course that's after you've called/emailed/texted all your preferred agents. I've turned down multiple $3-4 gross loads in the last few weeks due to some family issues at home. Some of those hit the board afterwards if none of their other first calls were available. Remember, anything that stays on the board after the first five minutes either needs extra service, a rare trailer or is a low rate. Good paying loads get booked right away and disappear off the board.

 

Go without or kidnap a doctor. In the meantime don't engage in risky behavior.