My journey at Landstar

I’ve had three MD alignments on my last two trucks I swear by them. My appointment in Des Moines last week fell through because Kevin Beckett was ill, but we had a good phone conversation and he’s 98% sure after discussing the issues I’m having that I need my kingpins replaced.

I have an appointment set up with a local shop on Nov. 2nd to put my truck in to have the kingpins replaced, and have all my wheel bearings checked.

 

To go over what the issue is with this truck, ever since I bought it eight months ago, it’s had a shake in the steering wheel between 43-48 mph going up in speed and coming back down in speed. When I greased the front in, the shake would lessen and almost go away for awhile, but as the grease dissipated it would come back. When I bought this truck it had 324K on the clock and was a heartland express truck, so I’m sure they did the bare minimum when it came to maintenance.

Originally I had an appointment a few weeks ago at MD alignment in Des Moines, but Mike was out of town and Kevin became ill, so I had to cancel, but Kevin and I had a long conversation about my issue and he strongly felt my kingpins were the culprit. So I put my truck in a local front end/tire shop Tuesday to get the kingpins replaced. Tuesday afternoon the shop supervisor calls and says we checked your kingpins and they are nice and tight, we don’t think that’s the issue. I call Mike Beckett at MD alignment in Des Moines, and tell him what this local shop is saying, he says “I don’t care if there tight, when you grease the front end does the issue go away or get better for awhile?” I say, absolutely, he replies “ the thrust bearings in the kingpins are going out, trust me tell them to replace the kingpins.”

So I call the local shop back and instruct them to replace the kingpins, the local supervisor says “you’re the customer, but we don’t think that’s the issue.” I trust Mike Beckett’s experience and knowledge, so they move forward with my request.

Fast forward to Thursday when I go to pick the truck up, the shop foreman says “well you and your guy were right, the shaking has gone away, and the truck rides great.”

There is a reason Mike Beckett is a consultant to tire and trailer manufacturers, and is a leader when it comes to front end issues, he knows his stuff. This other shop was going to try and spend my money on all kinds of issues that weren’t related to the root of the problem.

 

Picked up a load of deer blinds in Lamar, Mo. going to a buyer in Nebraska just north of Aurora. After looking up the address on google earth I saw it was a farm, so I called the customer to see if there was anything I need to know, he asked “can you make it up here tonight?” I told him it would be about 2130 before I could get there. He said “we will be waiting on you.”

I pulled into the farm, and he and his business partner jumped right on it. Come to find out they are a dealer of these blinds in the surrounding area. They had been waiting on these blinds for 8 weeks, and already have all of them sold. He has another 20 on order, and half of those are pre sold. To top it off, once I got empty he let me just pull off in the corner and take my 10.

 

Stopped and got my 120 day inspection on the tractor this morning, it was coming due on the 25th.

I deliver Monday In Michigan, reload in Livonia going to Pennsylvania for Tuesday, and then pick up going to Richmond for Wednesday. Most likely I will find something getting me back home for Thursday, squeeze in a reset at the house and roll back out Saturday for a short week before thanksgiving. If everything falls into place on my next few loads I’m on track to have my best week at Landstar.

 

I just finished my best week at Landstar, everything fell into place, and every load I booked payed exceptional. I’m posting this not to brag or toot my own horn, but to show what’s possible here. I pull a dry van, but I tend to pull a lot of hazmat and tanker endorsement required loads. Another thing a find funny is drivers that steer away from “heavy” loads. If the load pays good enough, I will max out on weight. When I haul heavy, I usually tell the agent to add .05 to the fuel surcharge for the weight, 95% of the time they have no issues doing that.

Now granted I know rates are unusually high, and are starting to slip back a bit. I just get so tired of the whole “you only get 65%” When people say that they don’t take into account our fuel discount, which last week on average I saved .47 off the pump price for a total savings on fuel of $325.76 for the week.

On these numbers I also have 7% on each load going into a maintenance escrow. Since I started I’ve built up $13,594.78 in that account. This week $828.22 went into that account.

The gross is after Landstars cut, and the net is what hit my account after fixed costs, fuel, and after my escrow is taken out.