Has Express America done anything for there drivers. Have they improved there system for getting there trucks loaded? I heard there agents have become lazy and don't try to find new customers.A driver told me the agents put there fright on other companys truck and keep the spoils from there drivers,when asked if this is true they where told Landstar is really designed as a Big Truck operation,and they not geared up for small trucks!Is any of this true?
Is Landstar still the leader in expediting? That question can be answered in a number of ways depending on what you mean by leader. Until we understand exactly what you are asking, the question cannot be properly answered.
I can say that moving to Landstar Experess America was the best move we ever made as expediters. If we re-entered the business, Landstar would be the first company we would call.
What you heard from a driver should be carefully weighed. Landstar agents have full discretion in choosing the trucks and drivers they work with. If a driver feels like he is getting routinely passed over, there may be reasons for it that have more to do with the driver than the agent.
We met a good number of agents in our time with Landstar. I know of none that are lazy. There are many who have developed major accounts or a good book of smaller accounts and are working those instead of working new leads.
Landstar does not let just any Tom, Dick or Harry become a Landstar agent. Only experienced agents are considered and they must have a book of business that shows them to already be successful in the industry.
That does not mean that they are all perfect or all joys to work with. In our experience with dozens of agents, we "fired" two; meaning that we decided to never do business with them again. That was not because they were lazy or unsuccessful. It was because human beings sometimes rub other human beings the wrong way. Where that happened with us, the solution was simple. We simply crossed them off our list. Quite nice, we thought, to have a list of agents that was deep and wide.
Landstar has no company trucks.
Landstar has many operations under its flag. Some of them are big-truck operations. One of them is Landstar Express America which is an expedited carrier that has only small trucks in the fleet. As small-truck owner-operators we did great at Landstar and also benefited from Landstar's big-truck operations in certain ways that were not available to us when we ran with another expedite carrier.
