I love the fact I alone determine how successful I am .... there is no badgering to take freight that is not profitable.
Thank you for your response. For newbies and others who are interested in a comparison, my response is below.
I am a little confused by your statement that "I alone determine how successful I am...." I have seen and talked to Landstar drivers who were sitting longer than they were happy with, just like drivers with other carriers. If I alone could determine how successful I was with Landstar, I would determine that $500,000 a year in gross revenue would be about right, maybe a little more.
I know that is not your meaning. Could you explain further what your meaning is?
As far as no badgering goes, Diane and I have been irritated at times at FDCC by repeated load offers that we repeatedly turned down but did not feel badgered. The difference is that we felt no pressure whatsoever to say yes to a load offer that we did not want. We feel disrespected when our first answer is not accepted, but not badgered to take the load. The difference may be lost on some but it is an important difference.
However, if you say no to a load at Landstar and that is the end of it, that is a significant quality of life difference that indicates a level of respect that Landstar contractors (BCO's) are given and FDCC contractors are not.
However, however, I am not unfamiliar with some Landstar agents and they tell me that if a driver says no to loads too often (whatever too often means), it is a simple adjustment for the agents to write that driver off as a waste of time and simply stop calling. At FDCC, if a truck is in service and able to make the pick up, offers will be sent to it no matter what the agent or dispatcher thinks of the driver.
An agent calls me ... ask's if I want XX load, it pays XX and is XX miles .. has to be there at XX ... do you want it, and can you deliver on time. It matters not if it's going 50 miles or 2,000.
The process is essentially the same at FDCC, except the offer comes by an automated phone call or over the Qualcomm. It will be assumed that you can deliver it on time if you accept the load.
Landstar does NOT use the Qualcomm to track your progress, rather the agents say, "If you encounter problems, let me know, otherwise I'll talk to you when you arrive."
That is different than FDCC where trucks are tracked every minute of every day whether they are under load or not; and with electronic logging now built into every Qualcomm unit, the level of detail in the tracking is greater than ever.
When under load, the ability to track the truck is given to the customer which is part of the service and an incentive to use FDCC for customers who value that feature. Paper logs are out. Vehicle location and hours of service tracking have become one.
My pay is there each Wed, without fail, and the rate will be EXACTLY as it was qouted, unelss they add something, as they will with this current load.
So too with FDCC, except the day of the week is different.
Fuel surcharges are paid at 100%, as are all accessorial charges, (like hauling away pallets .. sorry, devil made me do it!)
So too at FDCC, except before 100% of the fuel surcharge is paid, the fuel surcharge money that is collected from all customers is somehow pooled and manipulated in a way that I do not fully understand.
It was explained to me once when a new fuel surcharge system was implemented but I did not pay attention because I did not feel the need to know. It did not matter to me then, and it does not matter to me now what the fuel surcharge is or how it is calculated. Diane and I accept and decline loads based on what the total pay per mile is for all miles driven (loaded and deadhead).
They could pay $1.90 per mile in fuel surcharge and $0.10 per mile for the freight tariff; or they could pay $0.10 per mile fuel surcharge and $1.90 a mile for the freight tariff. Either way it is $2.00 a mile total pay for the load and that is the number we will focus on when considering an offer.
Wheter I make it or not is entirely my decision, the fact that I do NOT work the entire month of Janurary is no problem to them. (Janurary is reserved for Aruba!)
And with my wife retiring this December, I imagine there will be more blank spaces on my duty roster!
Diane and I spent all of January and the first half of February this year out of service on vacation in Florida. No one at our carrier cared. We went back in service in mid-February and hauled freight as if we had not been out of service at all.
Also, for a Sprinter van, these are the mileage rates I have for the last few runs, and that is net, to the truck ...
We are in a different kind of truck so a pay comparison would be apples to oranges.
Thank you again for your reply. Very interesting and helpful.
You did not say anything about the Landstar agents who not only dispatch freight but also own trucks, and knowing of lucrative loads, dispatch that freight to the trucks they own before even thinking about dispatching it to an ordinary BCO.
While similar practices are becoming evident at FDCC with their company owned trailers and the tractors that are paid a flat rate to pull them (see badger's comments in item 2,
post 46 above), it seems little different from what goes on at Landstar and has been permitted and known for years.
