Landstar Questions

Income tax. Not in Texas there isn't.

 

Yeah you most definitely will do better than $1.80 if you like running Canada... i know that much, but are you a straight truck or a T/T?

 

Tractor trailer. And I don't like running Canada but I had to at panther to make good money and keep rolling. What kind of coin can one expect at LS running Canada? Both in and out? At panther many times I'd empty move out from Toronto to buffalo cuz the loads out paid garbage. about 110 miles to buffalo.

 

I mean it depends... Alot of stuff from all over going to Canada paid north of $4.00 a mile, usually agents have stuff coming right back out.

 

We are incorporated and the wife and I, who run team together, pay ourselves a wage of $750 per week. We also have a driver on a 2nd truck we own. From that we take out income taxes, TN has no state tax so no problem there, we pay SSN and medicare taxes also. Our tax bill averages over $3000.00 per month. I believe it is very important to keep personal and business monies separate. You saying that your wages are $1.00 per mile says that you put nothing aside business wise for emergency repairs like a blown motor or tranny overhaul, that is not good business.
At Landstar you must MUST be a businessman first and a driver second or you will not make it here. Work smarter and not harder is my motto. Landstar will allow you to do this, but you need to be very business savvy and recognize spot markets and freight areas where your competition is not as savvy as you. Specializing in the freight you are hauling is a great advantage over fighting 5000 other bco's hauling regular van freight or flatbed freight. Remember that you are competing for freight with guys and gals who have been here for 10, 20, 30 years and have their trusted agents in their back pocket. The best freight never makes it to the Landstar board and even if you figure out who has this freight, it is hard to worm your way in on it.

 

You must not have read my original post. I put 7 cents per mile aside for repairs. At 10,000 miles per month that is $700 per month that I cost and put in a separate repair account. I also stated almost exactly what you just said, the driving is the easy part, your success depends on your ability to run your business. I've been doing it for 8 years in this industry, but I ran and/or owned 3 companies before this in 3 different industries. So for me the running the business part is 2nd nature, more so than the driving. Anyway, this is the life I've chosen and the financial rewards have been quite good for me for all 8 years. No complaints.

 

So $700.00 per month x 12 months is $8400.00 The last 3 years I have put over $19k per year into my 04 Volvo for upkeep. We have a escrow account and put 10% of every load into it each week. We also keep the business money separate from our personal money to cover added expenses. The older the truck, the more money it takes to keep it in tip top shape.

 

$19k each year, wow. You need to get rid of that heap. I have an 07 Century with almost 800k that Ive had for over 5 years and i havent spent more than 19k that whole time, lol. Including oil,tires,clutch,minor repairs, etc

 

It would be easy to say I don't run 11 year old equipment and I usually don't. However if I bought the truck for say $14,000 cash I would not have a problem putting that kind of coin into large repairs, except for maybe the downtime. I'm not good at sitting for days getting stuff repaired. But 1 or 2 good months would pay for your truck and then gravy. I'm a huge proponent of no debt. Not on a truck, a car, a lawnmower. Never go in debt with anything that has a motor cuz all it does is depreciate in value. That's bad debt. Good debt? Real estate and buying a business. They both go up in value over time, depending on your competence and ability to buy at a reasonable price. But that truck that costs 19k to repair per year and grosses 180k per year can be a hell of an earner, especially if you own it free and clear. My first truck was a '93 FL cabover single axle I bought for $9,500 cash with a 7-car auto hauling trailer. I sold the trailer for $7,500 and earned like a bandit for two years with that truck. Then I flipped that truck for $9,000 and upgraded. Got a great deal from an old guy in Alabama and never hauled cars. Man I miss that ugly money maker.

 

I'm waiting for my package from Landstar to come in the mail. In the meantime I took a look at the board and it seems like some decent flatbed freight (not a lot of van) coming out of Central Canada. I'm just wondering how tough it is too find flatbed freight coming back into canada...particularly Alberta or Sask. Of course I can't see rates on anything but the lady I talked to is supposed to send some examples of rates in and out of my areas.
One question I have, the rate that they show on the board for bco's is in US dollars right?