Landstar Questions

Incorporating will do you no good and will only cost you $$$ if you only have 1 truck and you are the driver!! You are right that if you have something bad happen that only the Corporation can be sued if you have a driver and are not driving yourself!! If you are the owner and driver then your Corporation will be sued and then you will be sued yourself!!! Think not it happens all the time. Just look at all the law suits that have gone through in the past. Swift gets sued then the driver is all so sued. Don't waste your $$$ and time to Incorporate with only one truck when your the driver. I know your CPA will tell you to do it but he is trying to make $$$. Think I am wrong ask your attorney!

 

Ok, I respect your opinion, and I admit there is no fix all for everyone. But, being incorporated saved my butt. I also Maintained a personal CPA and a Lawyer on retainer. Who by-the-way is the one who convinced me to incorporate. I did have to sell a truck(I had 6 at that time),and some assets to help cover legal fees.But,they could not touch my personals.even though they tried.And, Yes I was incorporated when I only had one truck too.All over an accident that was caused by a woman on her cell phone.Who incidentally hit me, while I was sitting at a traffic light.Go figure. I did eventually win in court, but boy the cost.Oh, and it can help at tax time too.I realize that it may not be the way to go for some. But in my humble opinion,it really is the way to go in this industry,where you can lose it all in the blink of an eye(even if it's not your fault).Wheather you own one truck or a hundred.There are many other advantages to incorporating and many levels as well. I incourage anyone concidering going into any type of business,be it Transportation or otherwise to do their homework and research on incorporating,and see if it holds advatages for them.

 

If anything changes about a load from the time you book the load until the time you deliver the load you have the legal right by contract to not pickup the load, cancel the pickup, or take the load back AND OR find a warehouse and store it there for the shipper to pickup and cover the cost of storage. Otherwise you can put a lien on the freight to re-coop some of your losses.
Your attorney on retainer will tell you this.

It’s this mentality of thinking that forces drivers to haul for cheap and to take the abuse that the agents and brokers have learned to do business as.

If you drive safe and on time Landstar will always back you on this. At least they have backed me up until this current date.


LLC?

If you have one truck you don’t need an LLC.

Cause some sort of damage to me and I’ll get what you have, if you have the one LLC.

Now if you put that truck in another LLC and run yourself off another LLC, then I’ll only be able to get what the truck LLC owns.
Plus you can lease the truck from one LLC to the other LLC and get a right off.
That’s the reality of LLC’s. That’s what all the big companies do. And it’s legal.

That’s all I have to say about that. IMHO!
LOL

 

Your right on both counts. About holding lien on loads etc...,and especially on the dual LLC practice.most folks don't understand how that works. But if they'll get a good lawyer,they should be able to explain it clearly. Again as I said, "Everyone must do their homework".I,m no lawyer,nor do I have mine on hold anymore. So I can only make my observations from personal experience and memory(which lessens day by day it seems). But I,m still a firm believer that in some form or fasion, As a Business owner and/or operator,you must protect yourself and what is yours.Because when that bad day comes (and for most it will)you don't want to be the one standing all alone,scratching your head,wondering what happened.why everything you've worked for is being taken away.because by that time, it's probably too late.You've already lost.

 

Right, Right.

If you look at every aspect of trucking you always come to the same conclusions.

• The agent and or broker have their butts covered.
• The shipper and receiver have their butts covered.
• If anyone is going to pay for anything extra, the Driver and or Owner operator is going to be the first person that the above four will try to put it on.
• The DOT protects lives. But some of them only create revenue.
• Protect, protect and then cover your Butt. And then watch your back.

 

Exactly, That's the whole point in a nutshell. Protection. Some may not think Incorporating is a good idea,But I don't know any other way for a small business owner to protect themselves and what is theirs. At least legally that is.

 

Right, if you own a house and have retirement and substantial assets and you don’t want to lose them from an accident that’s not your fault and or is your fault.
You might want to look into it.

 

Does Landstar have alot of freight to and from Chicago going to the west coast?

 

Not right now. West to East is cheap. Still slow here. What else is new. :/

 

Hey I'm new here but want to put my two cents in. Sgt Crusty in his posts as of late in right on about Landstar.
I have said before Landstar is not for everyone. You get what you put into it. Most agents are good guys. A few are poor. If you have a problem with one you call customer service and if you are right they will make it right. If you are blowin smoke then keep it to your self.
It takes time to get to know people and thats what you need to do here. You need a good phone and laptop to make things work too. Or someone helping you at home.
BTW my wife and I have been at Landstar for ten years and will not go anywhere else.