Thanks mudpuddle. I have spoken with a couple of Choice OO's in the last couple of days. Their story is the same, good program, all the frieght you could ever want, careful choice will make good money and SNI is first rate in supporting them. A good friend that works at Landstar has had his second problem with them in the last 6 months. Made up my mind to give SNI the nod. Start next week.

Thanks to all who helped,

 

2 problems in 6 months? That sounds like a good thing to me. They must have been some serious problems.

Keep us informed. I'd like to know how the SNI system works, so I can compare it to the LS system.

 

from SNI Choice website:
tken...does the $1.50-$1.55 average they talk about include the fuel surcharge or not?

 

I,ve been With LS for about 1 1/2 years and I get almost all of my loads off the load board via my laptop. I,ve been happy with the system and have run all over the U.S.A. lower 48. This year as fuel has gone up I have increased my min / per mile that I'll take and am still doing fine.

What Rev says is true about logs and fuel stop matching, ya gotta do it right.
Also you can have problems finding good paying loads in the northwest or far northeast and florida. I,ve been lucky I guess when I went to those areas... You have to be on the ball a look for loads eary say 1 or 2 days before ya deliver is all, but you can still get stuck if your not carefull in those areas. Rule of thumb I've noticed is, if a load is paying a really good rate per mile then chances are it's going to a dead zone.
As far as Drop and Hook goes they are there but not alot for sure I;ve done about 6 in two months which is a high number.. At times I'vd had the same trailer for three months running.


Well thats my 2 cents,
Good luck

 

Tken...do keep us up to date on SNI O/O program. I was in Green Bay 2 weeks ago talking with a recruiter in the O/O side. I was approved for the O/O including financing a truck. However, I have decided to go as a company driver for 6 months until my financial side improve a bit more and I have some down payment money for a truck. Just be a bit careful on the interest rate being charge by Schneider Finance. They offered me a truck but it had a hefty 12.5% interest!! Not that desperate to own my own truck at those rates.

Soladad

 

Rev in order to be fair, let me comment on my friends 2 problems first. The first problem is fairly common, agents claiming that a load is already taken when 2 or 3 hours later it is still posted as available. I have had enough comments to believe that to be common especially for new LS OO's. Ok maybe their is some legitimate reason behind it but only if LS does not screen their canidates enough to weed out those with a record of sloppy work. The second problem occured this past weekend. He was home with his truck and load parked in the LS lot in Dallas. At 1:30 Saturday morning another LS driver backed into his truck, pushed the bumper back into one of the steers, destroyed the hood, broke lights ect. He was attempting to drive off but another driver parked in the lot stopped him and called security. Now so far other than the normal problems associated with this type of incident no big deal. But... nobody called my friend until Sunday afternoon. He was under load and as you know if you break down under load the driver that picks up your load gets to set his own price so now it becomes a bigger problem. When he called Landstar their response to both the incident and his problem was "not our problem" and I am paraphrasing. So he worked late to duct tape the hood, hooked a chain to the bumper and pulled it out away from the steer and did his best to get the lights where they belong and away he goes to deliver. I have a huge problem with a company that in this instance offers no help or recourse to one if its contractors or even seems to care that another contractor caused the damage. My friend is delivering his load in equipment that may be unsafe rather than getting his truck fixed because his company told him "not our problem".

Maybe weekend staff, maybe a bad day for the LS staff, maybe a lot of things but I guess I expect more from people than most. I spoke with one former LS BCO who's truck broke down 50 miles from his delivery, according to him it cost him $4,000 to have the load picked up and delivered, more than the load paid him. Again it makes sense that if you have a load rescued you have to pay for it but 4K? When I make a mistake I'll pay for it but don't punish us for mechanical problems that are beyond the scope of the normal.

I guess that is the biggest reason I'll give SNI the nod at this point. I believe I could make more at LS but those intangibles that SNI brings to the table out weight that difference in pay at this point.

Regarding logs at SNI, I've been told they are anal as well and will even monitor your progress through the Qualcom and notify you of potential violations. Don't like the big brother aspect of it but I understand what HOS violations can do to a lawsuit and if it was my company might consider doing the same thing.

In this tough market there are no perfect choices, I guess all we can do is attempt to make our choices as perfect as possible and count on the good Lord to let us know if we're making a mistake.

 

Yeah, if you pay for your own fuel, you only have to match the dates, but I will disagree 100% that it isn't costing you extra. Lately, with the price of oil dropping, I've been paying upwards of $0.20 - $0.25 per gallon less than the pump price at TA with my Comdata card. That's not available if you aren't using the Comdata card, so it is definitely costing you extra not to use it.


Tken, as far as loads staying on the board that are no longer available, yes, it happens, but it happens with any load board. Some agents are too lazy to pull them down, and others are too busy, and pull them down all at once at a later time.

As far as the guy who had his truck backed into, I really don't see how that is Landstar's problem. If you want someone to hold your hand, then Landstar is definitely not the place for you. If you want someone to leave you alone (except, of course, for safety issues concerning logs), then LS is the place to be. The fact that the incident took place over a weekend is the reason he didn't hear anything. Most Landstar offices are Monday-Friday, except for skeleton crews for the essential services.

If I were under a load, and my truck broke down, come hell or high water, I would get a rental truck to hook to it. As far as "the recovery driver gets to name his own price", that is just unfounded. I don't believe for a second that a BCO had to pay $4000 to have a load recovered that didn't pay at least that much in the first place. Especially to take it 50 miles. If I've ever heard something that sounded like a truckstop tale, that is it right there.

 

I have no doubt that Landstar hit your friend with a premium price for delivering the load, but $4,000 is a bit much. I think your friend is pulling your leg. Perhaps $400? If he was at a Landstar yard I am surprised that there wasn't someone on the lot who would have helped him out. I don't know if it is still true, but when I was leased to Landstar there was more of a camaraderie with the other BCO's. Of course, that has been a number of years ago. I am with Rev on renting a truck. A few months ago, one of my trucks blew a turbo. At the time we weren't sure what happened to the truck. The driver thought it was more serious. We were under a load and had made a commitment for a couple of other loads, all of the Landstar. I rented a truck for the week to take care of my commitment to them. Everyone was happy. I didn't make much, if anything due to the cost of renting the truck. But, the agent was happy, as was the shipper. He could not believe that I would rent a truck to fulfill my commitment to them. If I am in his area, I have no doubt that I could get a decent paying load if he has one. That is one way that you build your reputation with brokers and shippers. Granted, in my situation I was only brokering some loads through Landstar, but the concept is the same. You do what is necessary to get the job done. There are some agents who will hold back some of their better paying loads for those who demonstrate that they are reliable. Most will not give a new BCO their best paying loads until you prove yourself. It doesn't make any difference what you did where you came from, only what you have done while at Landstar.

You can do pretty much anything you want at Landstar as long as the logs and paperwork match. That much hasn't changed since I was there. In fact, I think it has gotten worse.

 

It has gotten much worse GMAN, now with the fancy new computer system, they match everything they can I lease to the Inway division and just got two maint. reports back ( I was a little behind sending them in) I didn't have all my paperwork on the truck when they blocked my card till they got them so I roughed them out. I knew I put 8 drive tires on in May so made up a date and I knew 12 trailer tires in June so I made up that date to. I had put them thru on LS P.O.s and they had it logged into the computer to match logs, MRs and whatever the h'll else they compair. They were nice though and pointed out the date I did get them so I could send in corrected ones
Basically if anything goes thru LS, a bill or a BOL where they can read where someone put the date and/or time of delivery or you send it a time stamped scale ticket it goes into the computer and they research it.
Been with Inway for years before LS bought them and they were "cool" to be with but went anal after LS got them. That's why, if you see my truck, it says Inway in big letters on the side with Landstar in 3/4 inch hight below it