Rate comparison between own authority and Landstar

You can walk down a trail in the dark and hope you dont fall off a cliff, or turn on a flashlight. I like flashlights. Point is, we are moving towards our own authority, but taking it one step at a time.

 

I guess I do things backwards since I started this business while the economy was still in the dumps. My reasons for going out on my own have more to do with who controls my business than chasing dollars. I know freight is tight, but I also know that just running load boards there is enough of what we look for to keep us profitable and busy. We have a niche market that we serve. Some unexpected expense and downtime have pushed our timetable back a bit, but not stopped us.

One thing I have learned is that if your margins are so tight that down turns in business will put you out of business, you are already in trouble. Every aspect of the economy is cyclical and you have to be able to handle it if you plan on staying in business long term. I have noticed that freight really tightened up this year, but we have still been able to find what we are looking for. After all I just need one load that comes close, I don't need the perfect load every time.

 

I notice on our BOLs that a lot of our loads are actually rebrokered from carriers that would evidently rather rebroker them, than try to cover it themselves. This tells me that in addition to working load boards, we may want to develop relationships with the broker arm of large carriers. We are simply looking for about 4-5 loads a week, that are small enough that one agent told my wife yesterday he doesn't even bother posting them, since no one wants them. Of course the rate per mile has to be worth it. Our filters are set up so that we don't even see anything less than $2.00 a mile. What we are doing isn't a big secret, Landstar even did one of their webinars and talked about how you can make money this way.

It's just that it's a lot of work and you pretty much have to do it as a 2 man/woman team. I couldn't do this until my wife quite her outside job and took over the office end of things. Yesterday was a prime example of the work it takes to keep rolling. In addition to all the loads that were still on the board, but were already booked, she had 3 loads that she booked and the agent called back to say it cancelled. Finally, near the close of business she got a load for Monday into Tuesday. If she hadn't been able to concentrate on finding a load, I would have lost Monday.

 

We also learned quickly about building relationships. My wife is great at dealing with the agents, even when they tick her off to the point she wants to spit nails, she just smiles through the phone. The agent that made us mad this time, might turn into one of our best sources of freight. They also appreciate the fact that there are only 2 reasons we would ever cancel a load. If we breakdown, or if the consignee on our current load decides to take all day. If a load cancels, we just deadhead to the next load and eat the loss. Knock on wood we have not had to cancel any loads we book. I do sit a lot, because we build in plenty of extra time for reasonable delays at the customer and traffic. When you consistently arrive at customers an hour early it doesn't take long to get noticed as someone that can be counted on.