The Real Ugly Truth About Landstar

I leased to Landstar for 15 years..had a perfect record..no accidents no cargo claims no problems. My wife and I drove team and we drove many many miles.
When we first signed on we were out of Rockford. We were wary of lease companies because before Landstar, we had leased on to a company that had not registered our trailer or filed our fuel taxes correctly. We watched carefully at first and Landstar Inway kept our records correctly so we stopped verifying their paperwork. We felt we could trust them.
However in 2004 or thereabouts, everything was moved to Jacksonville..and the paperwork started to be a mess. Addresses weren't changed, licenses weren't verified, logs went missing, the new trailer wasn't registered. People on the phone were unfamiliar with trucking. I talked to one supervisor who did not know what a CDL was. We were stopped for a stolen trailer because Landstar hadn't registered it properly. A few thing over a few years..but it added up. Now it is costing me to hire an attorney to sue them because Landstar did not do the insurance properly. Yes, it is their mistake, yes, it is going to be resolved but I have to sue them and it will take years and the lawyer will get the money.
Look...trucking is based on trust. A driver has $$$ dollars worth of freight and is wherever he wants to be doing whatever he wants to do. A company has to trust that driver is where he is supposed to be doing what he is supposed to be doing..mainly delivering the freight on time in good condition. I could be trusted to deliver. A driver has to trust that the Company is doing their job which is taking care of logs and fuel taxes, and registrations, correctly billing customers and getting the insurance done correctly.
I prove 1.5 million miles worth of Trust to Landstar. Landstar made a mistake that cost me $$$ and Landstar says shove it where the sun don't shine..

Don't trust Landstar!

 

The problem with the insurance with landstar lies in the fact that as per their contract, as a resident of Nevada I was required and it was mandatory that I have workmans comp as per the state of Nevada. Landstar knew I was a resident of Nevada and should have provided that policy. Instead they purchased and provided a policy that is occupational accident insurance that did not and does not meet any standard of workmans comp in any state. We were not to haul one stick of freight until Landstar verified that we were covered under workmans comp. That part of the contract was included in 2004 and 2007.
When we discovered the error, we called Landstar and asked them why they were not in compliance with their contract or the State of Nevada. The supervisor said the mailing address they had was my mother's house (mailing address) in Arizona so we didn't live in Nevada. I told her I was a resident of the State of Nevada since 1997. She said I had not provided proof and an address of my legal residency to Landstar. I told her I had a Nevada CDL. She said she couldn't verify over 9000 drivers. I said, "Check their CDL's because I can have many mailing addresses." Landstar faxed and mailed to me hundreds of documents to truckstops. But, I told her, "Federal DOT regulations state that a driver can only have one CDL and it must be issued in the State of residency." I am a Nevada Resident, Landstar had my driver's licence on file, Landstar knew truckers receive mail all over, but the supervisor did not know that State of Residency can be verified using a data base and matching insurance against CDL's. She never did understand what a CDL was or what it meant.
So we called State of Nevada. They said to file a claim and gave us the policy they had on file. The policy was only for Corporate and not for peons..so we called the Landstar legal department and a paralegal stated that we could not be on the policy because we were not employess except that under the contract that Landstar wrote and we signed, Landstar was required and mandated to provide that policy to any BCO who was a resident of Nevada. The paralegal said it that part of the contract was meaningless because we were independent contractors, Landstar didn't have to abide by that part of the contract. Landstar only had to abide by the part of the contract Landstar agreed to abide by and they weren't going to abide by any of it.
Landstar can verify the residency of every driver in Landstar System by checking the CDL. Landstar states that all residents of Nevada will be covered by Worksmans comp but Landstar's records are a stinking mess and we have to sue.
So be it. If they made a mistake, they should correct it but it is nothing but a runaround and excuses. and blame. Landstar makes a mistake, it is suddenly our fault. All your responsibility....
Don't trust Landstar.

 

Ranger Bob..The part that fried me is the policy on file in Nevada is only for Corporate, paid for and paid out by Landstar. Reinsuring, taking our insurance deduction and buying cheap policies and keeping the difference is 1% of Landstar profit. The policy we have is a pool of assigned risk, the flatbedders and high risk truckers and was discontinued in 2006...but the old hands were "allowed to keep" that rewritten policy..without notice or notification ..while corporate gets the kiss of premium benefits paid for by the flatbedders and other high risk truckers who get the kiss off.
Lost Trucker..The State of Nevada states that insurance fraud is red flagged by low cost (such a deal) and when you actually claim the benefits, the policy is not what you bought. The original policy we signed up for has been reduced to nothing. They make changes without notification and then when you need to collect..there aren't any benefits or the benefits are minimal.