My wife and I have driven for Landstar Express America for about fourteen months. We own the truck which is a D unit. Our previous experience had been mostly in 18-wheelers (six or seven years) and also at one point we drove a D unit for someone else for about five months. The experience we are now having is definitely the most pleasant we have had. I need to point out that some of the information that has been given to you is not quite correct. We do not pick our freight from a "load board". Most of the time we are contacted by one of the Landstar Express agents who ask us if we would like to take a certain load. We can either take it or not. Not all the freight pays the same. We try to not refuse too many loads but by the same token we will many times turn loads down that are going into a difficult area to get out of.
The owner-operators who drive the big trucks for Landstar (formerly Ranger, Ligon, etc) do indeed pick their freight from a load board. The expedited division (Express America) can pick freight from the same board if it is something we can carry. These loads are usually not as profitable and we have not taken one for a long time.
Landstar has a great computer program which we use all the time (we have wireless internet). We can, for instance, look up a certain city and see how many D loads went out of there (you plug in a radius) in the last, say thirty days and which express centers pulled them. We generally make a few phone calls to let those agents know we are looking for a load. Sometimes it helps. Sometimes not. Additionally, the agents looking for trucks can tell who is out there (all trucks must be Qualcomm equipped) and will call us if we are needed even though we have not called them.
We take time off when and where we want to and deadhead where we want to. The catch is, it is usually at our expense. It is also very common to get a call which involves deadheading to a load and the agent will agree to help us with the deadhead expense.
Another good point of the computer program is that we can check a certain area and find out how many of our trucks (empty or loaded) are there. If we are looking to make a move to a better area we won't go to an area that already has several empty trucks.
All in all, we are very happy. This company is not for everyone but it has worked for us. Hope this helps.
Cliff
