My Experience with Landstar

No offense taken. I was kinda excited when I saw that you posted on my thread. I've seen a lot of your posts and have found them to be very helpful. I've been with Landstar 8 months now. It was rocky at first but I learned the system after 6 months and things have smoothed out. I am working off the load board. My loads are averaging about 2.30 a mile right now. I'm having to run in the "snow-belt" to get decent rates but you gotta do what you gotta do, right? Looking forward to hearing from you.

 

First thing I will say is that if you own your own truck you have to be organized.
I worked for Marten Transport as a company driver for 2 years, then switched to owner operator. Marten does not have a lease purchase program so they refer people to Lone Mountain Truck Leasing.
I had done 2 lease purchases before (unsuccessful). So I did have some experience.
As a first time buyer it was hard to get financing. My bank (Wells Fargo) wouldn't work with me. I found a 2009 Century at Freightliner of Charlotte. I was waiting until I had two years with my employer because I was going to earn 2 weeks vacation and cash it in. Well, they wouldn't hold the truck for me so I decided to look around.
This was 2 years ago and it was hard to find a used truck that wasn't an automatic or a Volvo or Mack.
Lone Mountain has a 2010 Peterbilt with less miles for less money so I cashed in my 401k and put 6200 down. Truck had 476,000 mi. It was using oil like crazy so I wanted to get it checked out before the 50,000 mi warranty was up.
Well, the engine needed to be rebuilt but half of the price was covered by the warranty. The NTP warranty was very good and that's the way to go.
Marten had been changing the oil every 45 K mi. So I do not recommend buying a fleet truck. They know the truck only has to last 3 years until they get rid of it.
I would recommend Freightliner because the TA stocks parts for them.

 

$1.40 to the truck average for all miles driven.