Weeeellllll, that's better. Makes a whole lot more sense. Yes, so, for us to find loads outside ourselves they'll have to be at least $2.00/mile for us to make the so so rate of $1.30 to the truck. Of course, everything we find will be at least double brokered- the broker and then the Landstar agent. Even if I wanted to mess with all that it may be hard to do.

Coastie, you out there!!! Come back, we're sorry! Coastie, how much $2.00/ van freight are you finding? ops:

That also explains your good, low, fuel cost to gross ratio. You know, Sidman82, you were faced with a choice. You look like a genius and you make everyone else jealous by not telling us you're running local or you tip us off to what's really going on and save us a lot of confusion :wink: So then, the record is straight and I thank you.

I appreciate the help and you writing a book to explain it all.

 

10/4. I will go venturing a little when I move to GA. A few states at most. Maybe gone a day here a day there. That will be tough though.( I mean getting good freight and making money that way.)

Jobs on the Island here are plentiful. I could go tomorrow and work driving a brand new decked out Pete 379 with a shinny dump trailer, making $1300 a week plus benifits and a 401k. I got burntout doing it though. 6 days of 12-14 days, getting up at 3 in the morning just to come home and go to sleep right after diner. To me it's about doing my own thing and freedom. I have been driving for 20 years but am fairly new to this gig. I will do this and be persistant. I will succeed.
This is where the singers come in :shock: LOL

 

Cam and others who are leased to Landstar, you can give yourself an 8% raise if you buy your own trailer. Unless you do a lot of drop and hook, it might be a way to enhance your bottom line while preparing to get your own authority. It would also give you another tax write off.

 

Learned about buying my own trailer in orientation, if not before that. No 8% raise unless you know somebody giving away trailers and tires and insurance. We can't find the freight now and reducing the pool of possible loads wouldn't make sense. That, and sense we may be making a move we could end up having a trailer just sitting in the yard like a number of guys here.

Actually, what would be helpful is to hear whether or not Landstar is doing anything differently. Is the situation at Landstar simply moving with the rest of the economy or are they shifting focus to brokered loads or something else that would explain the trouble that a lot of us are having. With the economy expanding, God help us all if there should be a downturn. Overall, how could rates be as bad as they seem to be for a lot of us over here in this system? I complained on another forum how I called back immediately for a load only to have an agent honestly tell me, 'I just brokered it out'. I don't know.

I'd like one of the cents per mile haters to propose what kind of rates at Landstar would be comparable given that we pay for plates and permits, tolls and deadhead. To be comparable to a guy making $1.18 shortest miles/all miles, what would I have to make, $1.30? $1.40? It's not easy, particularly if you like to do things like go home or have a good gross revenue. That cents per mile guy spends no time looking for loads and he doesn't get 20 calls in a single day about loads picking up next week or later. He pulls more freight.

 

If you are mostly doing drop and hook, buying a trailer would not make much sense. However, if you are doing mostly live loads, then you would put more money in your pocket by buying your own trailer, even with payments, insurance, etc., I don't recall hearing about Landstar brokering freight out to other carriers when I was leased to them. I do remember hauling loads for other carriers, such as Schneider, so they were double brokering loads even then. I made less on those loads, but did fairly well with fuel being about 1/3 of what it is now.

If I were you, I would look at the area where I have been running. If you are running the West Coast, New England and a few other areas, then I can understand how you are running for such low rates. If you run the Midwest and Southeast, then I am puzzled. Rates should be higher in those areas. If you are only making around $1.19/mile with fsc, then you probably could make as much or more by leasing to a mileage carrier. It just seems to me as though there should be higher rates out there.

 

No, I'm not averaging $1.19/mile. That would be a load out of Florida or, if I could have found it, I'd have jumped all over $1.19 to be at the house right now. The question is how much higher than that do I need to call Landstar a comparable place to work financially? It's that figure that I'm struggling to make. It's largely a rhetorical question. Right now I doubt I'm doing better than a guy in a megacarrier system an he gets to go home sometimes.

 

If you want to compare a mileage carrier to Landstar I suppose all you need to do is check their websites or call them and find out what they are paying their owner operators, including fsc, and compare what you are making for ALL miles you drive. That would be the best way to compare. But at least with Landstar, or any other percentage carrier, you have an opportunity to earn more money. With the mileage carrier you are relegated to their mileage rate, so you make the same money no matter where you go or how long you are with them. With a percentage carrier, once you learn the system and who the better paying agents are, you can make more money. I still think percentage is the best way for an owner operator to go. I have always made more money on percentage than I would have on mileage. Percentage offers some incentive to find the better paying loads and agents.

 

I'm not a Landstar lover or a hater but I've been around a while and I prefer to be paid percentage. A friend of mine pulls a spread for Lanstar and he's been complaining for a couple of years now about Landstar selling freight to outside carriers. The good thing with them is when they have tons of work you can pick or choose and make good money. They can't easily cheat you on money because you're paid percentage. When times are slow you have to do the cheap work like everyone else and you may well be working for less than some of the mileage outfits. If they're selling freight that usually means that outside guys will move it cheaper and the carrier is out to make more money and to hell with their own brokers. You can decide whether you want to work for someone like that. It's funny when you talk to long time Landstar guys they all seem to have old trucks or have something on the side they can do when Landstar freight is cheap. Do you think they've figured something out?

 

Ok now, this is good. Looks like we've got something here.

 

It is always tempting to see things are greener on the other side of the fence. They may or may not be any better than where you are now. Freight is picking up as are rates. We are coming into the better season for hauling freight. I think we have also lost some owner operators who have been operating marginally, taking some of the capacity out of the market. That also helps rates. I think everyone has been complaining about slow freight and cheap rates, including myself. There are cycles to every business. Winter months tend to be slower for freight, especially flat beds. Summer, we tend to do pretty well. The key is to keep hammering away during the good months and put something back for the slow months. It is easier to deal with once you realize that there are cycles which must be dealt with and are expected. If you see it as a normal business cycle, it makes more sense. Things do get better.