My journey at Landstar

Truck ever get fixed?

 

So I pulled my last load for Landstar this week. I made a tough decision about a month ago for my business that I think will help me survive the coming storm of low and volatile freight rates and the economy in general.

Don’t get me wrong, I continued to still pull decent paying loads, but they were getting harder and harder to come by. Instead of spending a few minutes finding good paying freight that met my criteria, sometimes I would spend hours refreshing the load board, calling on loads that just popped up, to find they were already gone. An extreme example that was the straw that broke the camels back for me was, I had booked a direct customer load, got to the shipper in SC, after sitting there for two hours, the load canceled. I started looking for a load, and it literally took me five hours to find a load that met my criteria, that wasn’t gone within seconds of being posted.

In 9.5 months this year I’ve grossed over $199K at Landstar, but after listening to market analysis, and economists, it’s not going to improve anytime soon. Some analysts say it could be 2024 before things head back up. I was around in ‘08, and saw what happened, for me and my business I want stability and shelter from the coming storm.

I was leased to FCC for four years before I went to Landstar, I’m sitting in their parking lot as I type this, getting ready to start back here again.

They are awesome people, have steady contract freight, great freight lanes, and will keep me and my truck busy and profitable in the coming months.

I will miss the freedom Landstar provided, but I believe this is the best business decision for me in today’s environment.