I have a friend of mine who currently runs 2 trucks as a fleet owner with Swift. (And before you ask he passed the lease section of the stupid test and got his own financing.)

He is thinking about going to Landstar and wants me to drive a third truck and/or dispatch for him. While I wouldn't mind doing this (besides that Haz-mat crap) I wanted to see if any of the O/O's on the site were affiliated with Landstar could tell me what my buddy and I are walking into.

 

First and foremost, you are pretty much completely on your own with Landstar. If you don't actively seek out loads and contacts with agents, nobody else is going to do it for you. The safety department is very anal. If you can get in good with a few agents, and watch where you run, you can do quite well. There are lots of fleet owners who have trucks leased to Landstar.

 

I have leased to Landstar. When I was leased there were several fleet owners that I met who leased to them. In fact, the main reason I went with them was due to a fleet owner I met. He had 16 trucks leased to them. There isn't much difference between leasing to Landstar and running your own authority. I still haul Landstar loads on occasion, even though I run my own authority. Landstar brokers a lot of freight outside their owner operators. Landstar is like a broker who owns a bank. They are very rigid about some things, such as your logs. In some respects you are treated like an employee. In other ways you are treated like a business owner. They call their owner operators BCO's. That stands for Business Capacity Owners. Landstar doesn't own any trucks nor do they have any company trucks that you will need to compete. They do have a large freight base. I can often get better rates with other brokers than I do with Landstar, but they sometimes have good rates. It depends on the agent. I think that if you have several trucks you are better off running your own authority. If you lease to Landstar you will still need to track down your own loads. Landstar will finance your base plates and permits, but you will pay a premium for the privileged. You still pay for them, only in weekly deductions. If I leased to Landstar I would increase my base plate and permit costs by about $500 over what I pay in my home state. Of course, you can get your own base-plates, but will need to pay the entire cost upfront. They will keep track and file your IFTA for you. If you don't want to deal with the paperwork then it might be a good fit. The challenge with Landstar is finding those agents who have the best paying freight who can keep you busy. You can do well with them but many have also lost their shirts. Some freight pays well but some of their agents have cheap freight. They do double broker on occasion. I recall hauling loads for JB Hunt and Schneider among others when I leased to them. However, I think you can do as well or better leasing to them than many other carriers. They seem to take their time approving BCO's and drivers. It is usually easier to get drivers through the maize of paperwork once the owner is leased to them.

One advantage you have when you are leased to Landstar is that you can search their freight online and the rate is usually posted. On their public board, you need to call the agent for the rate. Many owner operators who do well with them have their spouse constantly checking their load board for the best paying loads. If you are quick, you can often find a very good paying load but it isn't usually on there long. That is why it is helpful to have someone at home checking the board.

Another good thing Landstar does for their new owner operators is to help them find their actual operating costs. Or at least they used to do this when I first leased to them. It used to be part of their orientation. More carriers should do this for their owner operators. If you lease to Landstar you will do things their way or they will cancel your lease. They have a rather unusual way of looking at their owner operators.

The bottom line is that you can make money with them if you are diligent and get the job done. Your success will be on your shoulders. They will not spoon feed you like some carriers. They have lost a lot of owner operators this year due to the economy so they may be anxious to recruit new owner operators. Good luck.

 

I'm looking more at doing his dispatch work from here. Given I don't have Haz-Mat and am not to thrilled about getting it. He's doing orientation next week in dallas so we'll see how it goes.

 

It can help to have someone sticking close to the computer and making calls when you are leased to Landstar. It can be much the same when you run your own authority.