I feel like I'm getting a real good view at the underbelly of this business.
I'm not complaining or asking for any help. I'm just saying, brokers lie. Lying is how they earn their living. Some are better at it than others, but lying seems to be what they do.
One guy screwed me by having me drive 80 miles into the sticks to pick up a load that was supposed to be 10 feet long and fit on my straight truck no problem. I get there and it's a huge contraption that's 22 feet long and 10' tall. When I call the broker to tell him we have a problem he says "straight truck?, you're driving a straight truck? well, that's the problem, I thought you had a semi." Not only was it 22' long instead of 10, it was too tall to fit it any van. It didn't matter if it was a straight truck or semi, it wouldn't fit. But he figured he found his out and sure enough Landstar backed him up on it.
The last week and a half I've had a steady gig running parts from northern Ohio to southern Ohio for Ch Robinson. I like their quick pay program. But now I've learned that when they send you a "confirmation" it means that you're locked into doing the run, but they have the right to cancel any time they want with no TONU fee. To get into the nitty gritty, what happened is I got a TONU fee from them one day last week on this run when the shipper cancelled and this week my guy at CHR asked me to check to get "dispatched" each day. Today when I called him, he checked with the customer rep and found out the run was cancelled, not only today, but the rest of the week. I didn't realize it, but in hindsight, I've really just been on call. If there's a load that day, fine - I'm rolling. If not, then I get to try and find a straight truck run later in the day.
Like I said, I'm not really complaining. I think I need to save for a big truck. That way they're be more options open when brokers show their true colors.