The ugly truth about Landstar

better yet, what are the odds of keeping and average gross revenue to the truck of 1.75 or better, on all hub mile, just by using the load board. if I can average that. then I can make money. my break even point with prime is 1.40 a mile right now. my fixed expenses fun me 1350 a week. you do that math. if getting my own truck and leasing to landstar can cut my expenses down to 550 or even 600 a week, then the rest is left to the variable expenses, ie fuel, maintenance, tire fund. wheres the problem? I see none. other than the fact that my wife get card swipe happy every time the bank gets high. anybody else wanna add to that.

 

No idea. That is not my territory. When I decided to stay as local as possible, I committed to 6 months to see if it would work. That meant sitting at home watching the board, calling agents, etc. it took a while, but I was able to make it work.

 

that's understandable. im not looking to do local stuff really, I enjoy the road. if I could get a regular back and forth from my area and back that's what I would like most. but its whatever makes the money from the start. it seems reefer freight is slim with ls, just from what I hear. I hate that. its gonna be hard to relearn how to sleep without that unit droning on beside my head.

 

You essentially answered your own question with your comments on capitalism. Money is the lubricant that fuels business. Of course we're all out here to make a profit, but what it comes down to is negotiation. Each agency is different and I can only speak for mine. I've told my guys and girls to find out what the average market rate is and post our loads 10-15% above it. It's a fair rate out of the gate so 95% of the time I don't have people asking for more money. They are jumping up and down to secure the freight and get a rate confirmation. I enforce complete and accurate dispatch and professionalism/common courtesy. Doesn't mean our people are push overs, but they aren't going to treat you poorly either so long as you are friendly and professional yourself. In all reality, if we're $50-100 apart I'll either ask you to split the difference or give it to you. I'd rather focus on the moves getting completed and the driver's doing a good job so I get MORE freight versus trying to make an extra benjamin on one load and something get screwed up. If we need to move something, we'll negotiate and take a loss but it's not something we look to do frequently.

I'd listen to Nikimbre. He's good people. You'd do better off pulling flat/step in the SE with LS. Don't be afraid to tarp, driver assist, or go the extra mile. That's how you get on people's call lists.

 

This is essentially what I was trying to say. If your just trying to stay in the carolinas/georgia/al/ pull platform. I couldnt do it with my van, but easy to do with stepdeck......

 

Step deck seems to be the best option within LS in order to get the best rates.

First, I'd put the wife on an allowance, in the form of a salary you pay yourself. Set up a separate company account. The point should be to build the company account in order to replace your truck or purchase additional trucks. Your $1.75 might cover your current needs, the additional $0.25 should be set aside for future needs. I've discussed this with several successful O/O's (LS and other independent), several of them pay themselves a salary and then record a profit for the truck/company. That way you know you can pay another driver to drive the truck (or trucks) and still make a profit.

 

Rates at ls haven't been very good last six months. To many double brokered loads. It's about time for them to purge some agents again and
it will improve a little. I still make them my next to last choice followed by tql.
had to many tonu the agents wouldn't pay and it was their faults. Figure best way to hurt them is make them not get loads covered
If I don't load them maybe no one else will. Agents that suck CQU , ASH , BAT this has to be the stupidest one I may sue him since he lives in same area I do.
Theres a few others I can spot them from afar.Just like chr houston branch sucks mostly.

 

Yep.They come hear to ''stir'' the POT...

 

That's why I don't mind calling LS when I'm working spot market boards, you generally don't get some crazy lowball initial offer that you then have to leverage up.... if the rate is about where it should be then we are really close and it's just a matter of wrangling out a couple more bucks.. really, it's the lowball stuff that has me passing over brokerages like Allen Lund, I know from experience that calling them is a big waste of time...

But my question was for LS drivers utilizing LS boards, are they resigned to the fact that whatever the posted rate is, that, that's the rate? Or, can a LS driver call a LS agent and negotiate??

I think the biggest obstacle for cultural Americans to hurdle in this business is the retail mentality, by that I mean that culturally we're raised with this retail store/price mentality... we go into the store and whatever the price tag says, well that's how much it is...we pick up the item and move to the register, and even when we get a deal as retail consumers, the deal comes in the form of an advertised discount... we didn't negotiate the deal, the merchant advertised the deal as a way to get us into his store...

now, because of this cultural conditioning when a new o/o calls his first broker and is quoted a lowball rate, he/she gets frustrated and yells some expletive and hangs up.... I see it over and over, o/o's don't want to negotiate, they want to call up, get a fat, or maybe just acceptable, rate offered, say, "ok", and drive the truck.... it just doesn't work that way... on the opposite side of that I find myself constantly negotiating for goods and services, and not accepting the retail price as a final authority, but rather as the jumping off place that the negotiations begin...

One thing LS has done well is to capture the American retail mentality, couple it to the LS load board system, and sell this to the American trucking public... you'll hear this pitched in the LS ads on Sirius.... "the freedom to succeed by finding your perfect load", or something to that effect..