Landstar

Well said! One thing I learned that alot of GOOD loads, at least van loads, is never posted to the board! It takes a good 3-6 months, if you are persistent to learn how to find those loads.

 

I did not DH all the way home. Was trying to point out that it would have paid that amount even if I had to DH! But at LS most of the time you have to DH out of canada to the US

 

Ive had my Hazmat and TWIC card for 5 yrs and have only used the TWIC card once. I don't like to haul Hazmat as the company i'm with doesn't pay any more. My better half just got her 1yr exp complete so now im getting her to apply with me to LS. The company who does the checking said to not finish my process until she is with me to save on paperwork. I hope between the two of us we can get some routine team loads. I live in Houston and she is out of Youngstown.

 

can you squeeze in some houston? i may become very interested,..

 

I'm in the process of moving to Landstar myself - van side.

This is after I've had a couple of Landstar BCO's that I've chatted with pull out their smartphones and show me the load board, and let me browse it a bit. Yes, I know that Landstar takes 35% of linehaul if you're pulling their trailer - and about a third of the loads I found still paid quite a bit more to the truck than I get now with Crete. Another third pay roughly what I make with Crete, and the final third is the really cheap stuff that I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole. Given that there seems to be plenty of freight to keep me busy with the same or higher revenue per mile than I'm getting now, and given that Crete hasn't really been keeping me busy lately, it seems like a no-brainer.

Also, my wife worked 6 years for a small trucking company in Mableton, GA, which ran maybe a dozen trucks and brokered quite a bit more freight than they hauled. She did sales, dispatching, collections - you name it. She's disabled and staying at home these days. But, we have a nice home office set up and she's computer literate. She's not averse to the idea of finding me freight on the Landstar boards that fits my revenue and geographical criteria and "dispatching" me, at least until I get in good with a few agents, as it's my understanding that the really good freight never actually makes it onto the load board, and the only way to get it is to have a good relationship with a few of the right agents. There's also the possibility of my wife becoming a Landstar agent, maybe down the road a bit.

I deliver freight ontime, every time, barring breakdown or road closure. I prefer to have as much control as possible over what I'm doing. My truck is paid for and it's always maintained. I never put off oil changes or brakes or anything else. As soon as I spot a problem, I get it fixed. That said, my truck does have 700,000 miles on it and has been in shops 5 times since Labor Day. One of those trips to a shop was behind a tow truck, to get something fixed that had just been fixed - twice in the previous 3,000 miles - by Freightliner of Chattanooga (they offered to run my overhead for free, to try to make up for my having to get towed in to fix their fixing - I declined...my truck won't see the inside of that shop again, even for free). With any luck, I'll not have to have anything but scheduled maintenance for a while.

Does any of this sound like an even remotely good plan to you guys who have been with Landstar for a while?

 

RedBeard, Landstar will keep you busy, but don't get discouraged by the cancelling loads and loads that are rescheduled. No matter what, until you have been at LS awhile, don't prebook loads. Don't book a load to get to another load. Go to the good areas or go to bad areas and plan to deadhead. You probably wont listen to me, but if you do, your stress will be lessened a lot. Don't book a load until the load that is on your truck is off your truck unless you know for certain that the load you are going to book is one that you can absolutely make it to on time. Sounds like commons sense to me, but so many BCO's make this mistake. Like while under a load to Houston, you call on a load that picks up the same day in Beaumont, but then the unload in Houston gets rescheduled or the forklift breaks down and now you can't make it to Beaumont. I know many drivers that will prebook 5 loads and if one little thing goes wrong, you have to call all of the agents and explain. You don't want to be the guy or gal calling agents all the time to explain why you can't pick up their load.

 

I can see that. Especially given that I've had so many repair issues lately. I at least want to give myself a chance to go get "Small Problem Number 9837405" fixed when I get empty before I commit to the next load. Well, maybe if the load I have now is a drop-hook delivery - and the next load picks up 12 hours later - and it's a weekday. And then I'd still sit on my hands and count to 100 before calling the agent to book the load

 

landstar has a lease purchase?when did that start?

 

No, no lease-purchase availible. They will finance a new trailer through Landstar Contractor Finance Corp, but that is not a Lease-purchase, it is a straight finance contract, same as any other finance company, or bank.

 

Thanks for all the posts