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Originally Posted by GMAN
Cam and others who are leased to Landstar, you can give yourself an 8% raise if you buy your own trailer. Unless you do a lot of drop and hook, it might be a way to enhance your bottom line while preparing to get your own authority. It would also give you another tax write off.
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Cam: It's just not the time for me. Probably owe about $4,000 on last year's taxes. Need to put $4,000 for an SEP for last year. My quarterlies are about $2700. Have to have a trailer. Cargo insurance. I want to get to a $25,000 home equity loan at 8.25% (I didn't take it out, I'm just paying it off in exchange for some equity).
Learned about buying my own trailer in orientation, if not before that. No 8% raise unless you know somebody giving away trailers and tires and insurance. We can't find the freight now and reducing the pool of possible loads wouldn't make sense. That, and sense we may be making a move we could end up having a trailer just sitting in the yard like a number of guys here.
Actually, what would be helpful is to hear whether or not Landstar is doing anything differently. Is the situation at Landstar simply moving with the rest of the economy or are they shifting focus to brokered loads or something else that would explain the trouble that a lot of us are having. With the economy expanding, God help us all if there should be a downturn. Overall, how could rates be as bad as they seem to be for a lot of us over here in this system? I complained on another forum how I called back
immediately for a load only to have an agent honestly tell me, 'I just brokered it out'. I don't know.
I'd like one of the cents per mile haters to propose what kind of rates at Landstar would be comparable given that we pay for plates and permits, tolls and deadhead. To be comparable to a guy making $1.18 shortest miles/all miles, what would I have to make, $1.30? $1.40? It's not easy, particularly if you like to do things like go home or have a good gross revenue. That cents per mile guy spends no time looking for loads and he doesn't get 20 calls in a single day about loads picking up next week or later. He pulls more freight.