I am in total agreement with what GMAN is saying. Be very careful with signing up with LS. I was with LS up until this last week. Freight rates on the board are the really cheap freight. I started in mid August. I worked the system the way we are taught (Lane match, load match,etc) to the best of my ability. I have been in private business before. I feel that I have good business skills and discipline to run brokered freight. Started developing some decent agent contacts in certain areas of the county. It takes several months to really get things working smoothly. It did seemed that some of the better (larger) agents to have enough mouths to feed and really don't want to deal with a new BCO. I really loved the freedom of running the way LS has it set up. However, if you don't have the time or financial backing to hold on till you catch up with the system it will be difficult.
Spoke with several BCOs and most said that unless you have your truck paid for and have a significant other at home helping with the bills, it is very hard to make ends meet right now with rates where they are. It is true that they nickle and dime you with all sorts of charges. At first flush it seems that 64-65% (64% for your first 120 days for dry van) would be good revenue. Take your % of the rate then subtract for fuel. Not much left over for all other financial obligations of business and personal.
I started reevaluating my present financial situation and what I was generating per mile. I started looking to go back to a dispatch
issedoff: with set rate per mile system. I put my feelers out to see what was available. Had a few companies of interest contact me.
I decided to talk with BCO advisor a week ago about what else I could do to increase revenue with LS. Since signing on with LS, my financial obligations had changed with more revenue needing to be made (lost renters in house having to pay mortgage again and a few days down with truck repair). I also asked that
if (notice the word is if) I decided to terminate my contract what steps I had to do to fulfill contract obligations. Also spoke with a orientation leader about my situation. Both of these men said they understood my situation. Never in either converstation did I say the words or any words that were close to "I want to terminate" or "I want to cut my contract". Just checking out options. To make a long story short they decided that I wanted to quit and they terminated my contract without my knowledge. Found out that I had been terminated after trying to sign on to the load board this last Wed. :hellno:
Lucky, I had a safety net developed after having a few cpm carriers interested in me. I will be signing on with a new company this week. When this economy improves, freight and rates improve, I would consider returning to the LS system. I really hate giving up the freedom but one must do what one must do in business in order to survive. Sound business decisions must, at times, take priority to what the heart really wants to do.
If you are making your business and personal expeneses presently with your currrent carrier, my suggestion is stay there. Wait till things improve in the trucking industry before making the move to a LS style of running.
