landstar

[makingmoney]

Does anyone know the details for Landstar,(web site) anyone have dealings with them, I am running for a company out of North Carolina, and I have been sitting for 2 days in Detroit Mi. I have a straight truck, FL70 It seems my carrier isn't able to find loads.

I am thinking about switching companies!

Any help would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

I guess my name should be NOT-making money

 

[guest]

Landstar Is a good Company,but you will need to learn there system. You have to call there agents in each differnt city they have Express centers. Give Jeff a call, he is a really nice guy. If you don't like what he has to Say, You can always Call FedEx Custom Critical if you don't mind running team.

Drive safe

Dave Mayfield
FEDExCC/Roberts express O/O Since 3/1/1995
C1847,C2045,D3397,

 

[elton10]

>
that wouldnt be All States would it?

I am running for a company out of
>North Carolina, and I have been sitting for 2 days in
>Detroit Mi. I have a straight truck, FL70 It seems my
>carrier isn't able to find loads.
>
>

 

[LDB]

Landstar is a good company if you can get in good with several express centers. I was with them through last week. I have taken my second truck and moved it to Panther where I have my first truck. Panther is a better fit for my temperment and driving style. Landstar has excellent people and will treat you fairly. If their system fits you it's great. Good luck to you.

Leo Bricker, owner trucks 4958, 5447
OOIDA 677319
73's K5LDB
Highway Watch Participant, Truckerbuddy
EO Forum Moderator
----------
Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[JohnO]

Over the last couple of months I've talked to 10-15 Landstar Express America O/O and they all agree it takes around 6 months to learn their agent system for dispatching units.

Also been told being new guy on the block one needs to contact and make your pitch to agents until they get to know you.

 

[late for dinner]

One thing about Landstar is that they wull let you grow your business. I ran for Roberts abd FedEx for about six years and when youy do one of their dispatchers a favor they remembered for about 3 tents of a second. With Landstar your are working with the agent and not the company. If an agent lies to your or dont return a favor he is the looser in the long run. Landstar is not first in, first out dispatch. Its a good old boys network and you can either adapt to it or not.

 

[davekc]

The best of both worlds is in my opinion somewhere in the middle. That is why I think Panther is one of the best fits. You have their availability of freight and can use your own. So, kinda of a cross between Fedex and Landstar without the bs.
But I will say Landstar and Fedex has some good agents and do provide some good return loads when we get in a pinch. Namely the west coast.




Davekc
owner
21 years
PantherII
EO moderator

 

[stewart the dog]

The one thing no one brings up when discussing landstar BCO's (Business capacity owner) and the express centers is the fact that they are all independent businesses
and the express centers first concern is customer service. As a new BCO a phone call to the express centers is all part of building a business partnership. The adversarial relationship between driver and dispatch that seems to be more prevalant in many other trucking companies is not present at landstar. To succede at landstar you need to be prepared to make your own choices about loads and to work with the express centers as a business partner. They supply the commodity(loads) you provide the service. Another thing that helps to get loads is to check on the express website for loads that have come out the area you are going to ,wich express center who had the loads, and contact them.The express center get freight from all over the USA not just in their local area.

 

[Marty]

Landstar is a good company on a whole but right now is not the time sign on. Landstar has lost a great deal of custumers to discount carriers in the past year and business is very slow. This year so far I have had very few weeks in which I grossed over $500. I have had 7 weeks with no income. Last week I had one 90 mile run.
If you are going to sign on with Landstar I think you should wait until the Fall when hopefully things will get better.

 

[wallytrucker1]

What type of unit do you drive at Landstar and which customers did they lose to discount carriers? Thanks in advance for you reply, Greg

 

[late for dinner]

You didnt ask me but I'm willing to tell you. First he drives a van and second, asking about someones customers is not the way to make friends and be part of the team you are asking about.

 

[wallytrucker1]

I have two D units on with Landstar and I became curious when someone posted that Landstar is losing custormers to "discount" carriers. The insinuation of " Martys " post is that things are bad here at Landstar. Things may be bad for Marty at Landstar,However, some us are doing just fine here at Landstar. Each of us run our business our own way, some plans work and I assume some don't. I did not want anyone to get the wrong impression of the company. Still waiting to hear what customers were lost; so many times one little rumor grows to a story of a company getting ready to close it's doors. Just the facts and I'm not concerned with his custormers because if the numbers he posted are accurate, he doesn't have any to spare. I hope there are some LEAM van drivers who can respond because they are certainly in a better position to comment on van freight than I am.

 

[late for dinner]

van freight is down wally. my run count and $ are down 50% over last year and the year before. As to the lost customer base, Last week I delivered to a customer that I was told we had lost. Yesterday I picked up at another shipper that I was told we lost. BNA lost two of their biggest, one went under, and one went to Mexico. With LEAM adding cargo vans it only makes the slow times that much worse.

 

[wallytrucker1]

Sorry to hear the van business is down. I had heard that there was a freeze on bringing more vans on, but it sounds like maybe that changed. You assume a company knows its freight flow and volume and then staffs accordingly, thereby not starving folks out. I'm not very familiar with the inner workings of LEAM, so it's just an assumption on my part that they are actually concerned about everyones ability to make a living. I can understand if you lose some of your freight, but I could not understand bringing on more trucks to handle less freight:-( . Perhaps that explains why I'm not in mgmt.. The news guy says hurricane season is just around the corner and outlook is not good. If last year repeats itself, I hope you van guys can stay busy and make up some lost ground. Be safe.

 

[LDB]

I was told there was a freeze on vans as recently as the MATS truck show when I talked to the guys there.

Leo Bricker, 73's K5LDB, OOIDA 677319
Owner, Panther trucks 4958, 5447
Highway Watch Participant, Truckerbuddy
EO Forum Moderator
----------
Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.

 

[Marty]

I am a van driver and for us things are very slow. Straight trucks are doing better. Right now there are 18 loaded vans on the board out of 131 vans that are currently in service. There are 80 loaded straight trucks out of 213 straight trucks that are currently in service.
Since my opinion previously broke out in controversy I won't offer any other opinion. You can decide if you consider this as slow or not.
As far as which custumers were lost it is not my place to say. Call up the various LEAM agents and ask them. The custumers are theirs not mine.

 

[Marty]

I just wanted to add to my previous post that I am not trying to tell people not to sign on with Landstar or that Landstar is a bad company. I think that Landstar is the best company out there.
I just wanted to give my fellow Expeditors a little more information to base their decision on.
Transfering from one company to another when things are slow can create economic hardships unnecessarily. There are out of pockect costs that must be considered as well as a lose of income for up to a month.
Sometimes waiting for busier times is more prudent.

 

[wallytrucker1]

I think we can all agree there is a learning curve involved at each company, especially at leam with the agent system we have. We can probaly also agree that it's not just other expediters that read these posts but also people looking to get into the business. I personally would like to be up to speed at my new company when the freight picked up. If that meant coming on board during a slow time and learning the ropes, so be it. We all know if the recruiters are going to open up slots, they will be takers. As far as opinions and controversey, I thought this was the place. What good or fun would it be if we all agreed on everything.

 

[ATeam]

Maybe it's already out there and I have not yet learned of it. If not, I'd like to say LEA's recruiting and retention efforts could be improved by an in-depth explaination of Landstar's system, including a working model of the board that could be sampled online. Anyone researching the Landstar choice quickly learns that Landstar has a sytstem that takes time to learn and that is not for everyone, but I have yet to gain a good understanding of how the system works day-by-day for drivers (BCOs in Landstar-speak). I've had Landstar BCOs show me the board and have watched them use it, but I fear that there is more to know. That fear of the unknown is a barrier to prospective BCOs, I think. Prospective BCOs might be easier to find and new ones easier to keep if they knew better what they'd be getting into before they got into it.

 

[Marty]

The online web site shows where trucks and vans are sitting or if they are loaded it shows their current location and destination.
This is useful in determining where to relocate.
There also is a load board on which LEAM's sister companies(Ligon,Gemini,Ranger,and Inway) lists their loads. You can specify partial loads inorder to find loads that might fit on a straight truck or a van. Frieght that will fit on a van is a rarity. Straight truck can find shippments occasionally but after the sister company gets it share and the LEAM takes its percentage you are lucky if the load is worth taking. In general these loads are only good to help defer the costs of deadheading out of an area that never gets loads from LEAM custumers. Even then most of those loads are posted days in advance so waiting for those loads is usually a bigger lose than deadheading to a good area and getting a good paying LEAM loads that much sooner.
When you are sitting wating for a load agents are supposed to go by your place on the list. This is determined not by your arrival time at a certain location,as is the case with most expediting companies, but by who has the longest lag time since his/her last load was completed. Some agents try to follow this rule, most don't. Most agents give loads to the drivers of their choice. How this is determined I know not. During the years I have been with LEAM I have never been late. I have rarely turned down a load and only with very good reason. I have been courteous to all the agents as well as their custumers. You would think that this would be what it takes to gain favor with the agents but it hasn't worked for me. I get loaded around on a regular basis.
I hope this helps you out. If you have any questions I would be happy to answer them.