Landstar Questions

Great Video on Landstar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJdNjMzY1LA

 

Yet another ex-kirby vaccum salesman that Landstar hired and calls an ''AGENT''.We have many of these so called clueless agents wondering around here Dewey....It is sad that Landstar will hire people out of the State Hospitals and call them ''agents''....

Dewey.If no ''conformation'' in 1 hour....It is a SCAM....MOVE ON...I give them 20 minutes....I refuse to be a ''needy'' desperate BCO chasing these so called agents like a crack ho chasing JOHNS...Have some self respect and Integrity Dewey and move on....

 

If the agent or broker for ANY company doesn't get you a load conf for a same day load in a half an hour, and won't answer their phone, move on. For a next day load or more, I'll give them an hour or two, but I won't stop looking. If they go home for the day without sending it or communicating with you, I look for other freight as the odds are the freight is gone and they don't have the courage to call you.

 

Dewey, the bottom line is NO CONFIRMATION NO ROLL! The agents know that don't let them bully you either. With the rate confirmation you are locked in and if the load does cancel at least you can get a TONU. If you don't have the confirmation you are free to look and take other loads. I tell the agents ill roll as soon as you get me the confirmation and not before then. Don't let them bully into rolling or loading with out the paperwork you can get screwed in a heart beet, they know this

 

The answer to that depends on when the load picks up. If, say, the load doesn't pick up until late afternoon or evening the next day, i'd wait until morning and call them. But, if it is supposed to pick up in the morning, and they still haven't given you your FB or returned your calls and e mails, I would get another load and put that agent on my " Never Call " list for future loads.
Like Dogcatcher says, never roll until you have the confirmation. The TONU payment is pretty crappy, but it sure beats driving for an hour or more and getting nothing at all.

 

The process to get a rate confirmation is somewhat time consuming and dispatch the truck is somewhat time consuming. Many agents do their "dispatching" at night so they can continue to work to get loads on the boards and reply to drivers calling in on loads. That being said, while you may not get the "complete and accurate dispatch" within an hour, that agent should provide you with the freight bill number within the hour. If you have the freight bill number, you have the load even without the freight bill or rate confirmation in hand.

As for the comments of the agents Landstar hires; to become an agent with Landstar is just as difficult as it is to become a BCO. Now an actual agent may hire subagents who are like many of the drivers for Landstar who are not BCO's. I looked forward to coming to Landstar as it was advertised to be "100% Owner Operator" only to find out that many BCO's own multiple trucks and put drivers in them; thus the "company driver" mentality and problems exist, to a much lesser degree but still here in ways, at Landstar.

 

Going back to my blanket/pad question, does the customer usually require the 72" X 80" or does it just depend on the size of the freight? I got 10 72" X 80" and 10 40" X 72" today. The 40" was on sale for $3 a piece at Harbor Freight so I couldn't pass that up. The quality is not the best but it should work for awhile.

Has any here ever done that west coast copier load that requires 50-70 pads and 30 ratchet straps? What does the agent mean when they put it as a VANL load? Thanks in advance for your feedback!

 

Logistics post trailers.

 

Vanl just means dry van usually with several blankets and straps. We did one and went To uhaul To rent pads/blankets... $10 for a dozen for length Of load... Had them for a week. We dont have extra space To store them.
Dewey, i am sending u a private message.

 

It's not really all that time consuming if you have a direct customer that sends you tenders. You fill in the information WHEN you post the load, and then all you have to do is enter their tractor number and make a couple quick updates and it's done and ready to print. Now, sometimes when you're slammed and short staffed like we've been this week, it was taking me 4-5 hours on some loads to get confirmations out to people. The key difference is I was staying in contact with those guys. It also helped that their loads were picking up 3-4 days out and NOT today or tomorrow. I prioritized my loads as well.