Just curious were you get your freight from: broker? Load board? Direct shipper? were
 

Just curious were your best rates come from?
I hear a lot of people say they have direct shippers they deal with and also use brokers when slow. What is the most common places to get freight for you???

I get loads from our internal load board at Landstar. But then I save broker names and phone numbers on my cell phone, and if the load paid well, I call them next time I'm in the same area. Once they get to know you they might start calling before posting a good load on the board.

Good post. Thanks.
So
Landstar ? if you sign up with them under your own insurance and authority, can you pull for others also or are you theirs only? How does that work?
Load boards? (if so which ones)
Direct shippers?
Or brokers???
Were have you had good luck?

my best rates come from brokers....desperate brokers.

lol I didn't think there were such people in the world.

There are a few. I wouldn't want to have to keep many trucks moving tho.

If you want to get your own authority you can pull loads for Landstar or any other broker. Unless you lease to Landstar you can pull for anyone you wish. If you do lease to them then you are restricted to their loads, although you could still pull loads from other brokers.

The only loadboard that I currently subscribe to is mymembersedge.com. You can join as a member of OOIDA. It is part of DAT. I don't use the loadboards much, but at one time I subscribed to Internettruckstop and getloaded. I dropped getloaded when they raised their price from $35/month to $45/month. Most loadboards cost about $35/month.

I don't think that most people will give you their personal shippers or brokers names. Any shippers or brokers that work well for me, may not work as well for you. I have developed some relationships over the years. That takes time. You can begin to develop your own relationships by subscribing to loadboards and knocking on doors, if you want to get direct shippers. I could give you names of some of the larger brokers. The Midwest and Northeast seem to have the best rates overall, but I have gotten good rates in other areas. It depends on where you want to run and the type of freight you wish to haul.

true gman. i called LS yesterday to do some fishing before i jump in. i spoke to amanda yesterday, she was very nice. she told me for my home area (south fla), the hot spots are, mass, ny, ohio, chicago, and texas. she told me she could get me loads out of ohio down here for $3.08 pm then they take their cut.

i've been speaking to a friend of mine who is going to help me out with a broker that can get me loaded out of south fla. he said coming back in is no big deal. gman, what you told me a while back was very true. the triangle seems to be the best thing (miami, tampa, jax). or running to atl.

my plan is get some money behind me with brokers, then start knocking on doors.

It sounds like a plan.