Would you leave Landstar if they require you to get eobr?

I will not disagree and have been hammered here many times when I discuss the changes in recent years on dry van side. No, I am not a BCO but my company does a significant amount of business with many different LS divisions. And early on in building my business I thought that the BCO would be a good target for our business model. I have changed that thought but in the process was very shocked by the number of BCOs that are making less than a mileage lease with other carriers.

Focus is still on growing the agents, maintaining BCO level and growing other channels.

Still think it is a world class company but would never lease on pulling a dry van. But send people weekly to them for open deck. Come to think of it I should get a recruiting bonus.

 

LOL, I hear ya......That's alll I ever pulled here is a dry van but I figured it out quickly that you need your own trailer and to specialixe as much as possible so in my 2nd year I bought a trailer and do as much logistics work as I can. I'm lucky in the regard I didn't try starting out on a shoestring and my wife has a decent job which also provides our healthcare, plus just her and I no kids!! That is a big plus. I actually still do pretty darn good. My strongpoint is controlling my costs as I am of school of "it's not how much you earn, it's how much you keep that really counts".......I am proud of the work I have put in improving fuel mileage #'s and reducing both fixed and operating cost......I am proud of my net dollar% and my ROI and net margins.I have seen and known and spoken with numerous current and former BCO's who ran themselves ragged all the way to the edge of bankruptcy or worse.I know of too many guys grossing 160k plus pulling a company van, out 320 plus days a year and having no more to show for it come tax time than I do at 100k - 110k working 8 months a year.I do believe this will become more of the norm here now as you say, buying yourself a job, living in the truck, netting no more than company driver wages when it all washes out. That's certainly not my idea of "Freedom" or being an indepedant business person. I can find that anywhere.......Well the sun is up, the frost is steaming off of the grass and I gotta get ready to leave for Chicago tmmrw, so will catch you later. Good meeting you BBB. Take care!

 

I can explain it. Landstar fails to educate the incoming agents about the benefits of using a BCO over a brokered carrier. Not only that, but they fail to show them when it pays to use a BCO versus a brokered truck. There are several loads I make MORE money on putting them on a BCO versus brokering it out. In the same context there are times, especially when freight is extremely slow where we do tend to broker more loads than putting them on a BCO... however, if a BCO calls in on that load and wants it, we give it to them. We have operating costs as well, most importantly of which is payroll. Income taxes, Quarterly taxes, Corporate taxes, Property taxes... taxing taxes... they eat your profit up. After that you've got all the office expenses, which even for those who work from home you have extra expenses you wouldn't normally have if you worked for John Q. Businessman.

Essentially what it all boils down to is a lack of education on Landstar's part towards the agents and a lack of trying to bring the agents and BCO's together to network and develop relationships. That and the rampant posting of CHR and TQL loads by the so aptly named "cut & paste" agents and the posting of phantom trucks in every major city by agents who don't really have those trucks or a BCO who's asked them to find a load for them are damanging our image with carriers and customers alike both current and potentially new clients. They need to get a hold of these last two issues immediately because it's doing A LOT of damage as many agents are trying to tell them right now.

 

That is being addressed. There is a webex, next week for BCOs to work on those relationships.
What gets me, though, is there are over 60 BCOs signed up for it, out of over 8000. So many are not interested in improving themselves. I guess they would rather moan and groan about how they are on their own and LS doesn't care.

 

So many don't check LS Online very often. Many others are so hell bent on griding the paycheck that they don't have time to stop. Still others aren't very computer literate. They should have regional social gatherings atleast once a year where BCO's and agents can network. Doesn't have to be anything huge. Find some space, order some pizza, and give them the opportunity.

 

I don't disagree with that idea. We do have a choice of doing the webex, or participating on a conference call, at the same time. How much easier could it get?

 

You could put the agents in the truck with the BCO's.

 

Thank you Adam, now what you say makes sense but I am hearing that LS is moving more and more in the opposite direction encouraging agents to help grow the brokerage side so what makes you think anything is really gonna change. Is the lack of new agent education on LS's part just an oversight or by design......besides, now we have a greater influx of subagents that are working 1099 for an agency and it seems obvious that their goal especially trying to get started is to make as much as possible for themselves. No doubt you have seen the video that Rob Napier has out on You Tube. I'm not really sure what to think about that. I have never worked for you but you do come across as one of the few who actually do what they say they will. While I'm glad this issue is finally being addressed nobody can blame the BCO, especially the older ones for being skeptical. What the past actions have resulted in is a severe mistrust of most agents by many of the BCO's here as well as creating a definite us against them attitude amongst the ranks. Add in the lack of BCO support by whomever regarding TONU and Detention and BCO abuse without compensation by many agents and their customers, as well as LS and many BCO's I believe have just adopted the attitude of "We'll believe it when we see it" and many others just don't pay attention to anything coming out of management any longer passing it by as just more of the same old lip service. IMO the majority of BCO's here just want to get paid for what they do, nothing more, nothing less and move along to the next load without being punished for some particular situation that is out of their control.

Regarding the upcoming WebEx presentation, the problem as I see it is they don't explain what topics or issues will be addressed or why......what are the direct goals of this presentation and are they going to post it somewhere where we can review this information at our convienience.......the way it is introduced just goes back to what I was saying.......it just looks like more of the same!! On the surface it just looks like another LS propaganda session.

Those of us who have been here for a while know how many first rate agents, BCO's, customers and freight have gone away in the last 4-5 years. It cannot all be blamed on cost cutting or price shopping.

 

new to forum 8 yrs w/ls and 22yrs trucking total,eobr,r is basically nothing who wants to be up running around after 14hrs anyway? don,t like ls try Schneider where if you have a trl needs inspection get paid nothing,try going to florida on their percentage contract you will pull a load out of florida if it pays you nothing but fuel.try sitting on their spring training or winter seesions for half day for $50.00. myself i.m staying w/ls I know firsthand what I went thru 14 years w/big orange,. the one peeve I do have is a perecentage taken for stopoff on top of lh rate and secondly why ls charging for directscan,nothings free anymore but simply put I don,t do stopoffs and I don,t directscan .people going to always complain about something but I cannot tell you at anytime I felt pressured or talked down to here at landstar

 

My company being using the elogs for years and no complaints by me yet.