Comments By guyjax(Guy Hodges)

Hi guy. Been a lurker on the site for a while never posted. Was wondering how much more does your sleeper weigh compared to single axle day cabs? All our dock guys assume the loads are being pulled by day cabs and build them accordingly.

When I was pulling doubles we were 5k heavier than day cabs.

What is the average wait time for company drivers ?

The wait times are different for company drivers. At Tyson plants we drop and hook. And we can get the load there early,no matter how early, also and drop. No holding onto the load. While there are a few plants that outside carriers can sleep at ,most plants only allow Tyson drivers to sleep on the property.

But we face the same wait times as everyone else at the big DC's like Walmart,HEB.

While this " "No DWI , DUI convictions within the last 5 years." seems to be common across all companies you also have one other question that you may not be aware of that will trip you up....."Having you refused testing or a alcohol/drug test in the last 5 years?" which is on every company job application.

Now put the DL Suspension and the testing refusal together(which is the same as a fail) and that can be a deadly combination for a driving career.

According to this website Truck Liability Insurance Policy limits, generally, for operations with trucks over 10,000 gross vehicle weight have a required limit of $750,000. This limit is set by the FHWA on interstate travel and, generally, matched by the various States.

Now that is the very minimum and only covers the damage that YOU do. It does not cover damage that uninsured people do to you. And then you have to add in trailer insurance and cargo insurance which will cause that number to go up.

Check out this link as it deals with Owner Operators and it will give you a pretty good idea. OOIDA If the info is available it will be listed on that website.

How long is their company training?

Officially? 4 to 6 weeks. Reality when the trainer says but close enough to to say 4 to 6 weeks. It can be shorter. Depends on how well you do and how well the trainer thinks you are doing. Very often these are two totally different opinions.

One thing you must realize about Tyson. Since we are a service company the normal rule of most companies "The students do not drive after midnight and between 2am and 5 am....is out the window. We do a whole lot of night driving. So training is handled a bit differently than a trucking company.

The problem with and opinion page is it does not do anyone any good. These type of post always 100% turns to the negative and company bashing whether it was meant to or not. If you want drivers opinions on companies through their experience ,regardless if they cause the issues or not< I am sure you can find that at those "other" forums where bashing is welcomed and allowed.

I have worked for some companies that no one likes but I had nothing but a positive experience with those companies. Then you ask another person and they have nothing to say good at all. Again you are back to square one.

Anchorman beat me to it. But yes a new driver can get on with Tyson.

What did you do with your pooch? Glad you're liking it. How's it been running solo? Do you miss having your brother with you?

Running solo is kind of boring really. I liked always having someone there to talk to and to help out with backing and the like. Able to split the work load so to speak. Had to leave the puppy at home with my brother.

My brother went and started driving dump trucks at home. He is finding out really fast that a local driving job is just as hard as and OTR one. Sometimes tougher cause you do not have a logbook limiting your hours. So its 10 to 15 hours a day of driving locally.

Been with Tyson little over a month. I will hit some of the main points with a some explanation but put the points into a list style of post and if I miss something feel free to ask.

Tyson is NOT a trucking company. They are 100% a service company (the trucking side of Tyson). We service Tyson plants and cold storage DC's with products to fill their orders. Basically you drive all the time. A lot of night time driving. I mean a lot! I drive more nights shifts than day. And since most of our plants are not near the big cities I spend alot of time of two lane roads. You will run a lot of 8/2 split sleeper berth to make the loads on time.

Lay over pay is $85 dollars per 24 hours if you happen to be sitting 24 hours waiting on a load. Only happened once. The plants were upgrading their computer systems ,all at once, and the production lines got behind.

Since we mainly haul our own products we have freight year around and that is not likely to change. Even if your poor and broke chicken is cheap and you will buy it but Tyson also does ALOT of pork and beef also. People have to eat year around.

Tyson trucks are not owned. They are all lease trucks. No company drivers do not lease them. The company does. Per the lease agreement Tyson must maintain them as if they own them. This means if there is a problem it gets fixed ASAP. If on the road or at a terminal with a shop if there is an issue all they say is OK and fix it. Which leads me to the next part.

If your truck has to go into the shop for repairs and its going to be down a few days you either get into another company truck until your truck is ready to go or they rent a truck for you until your truck is ready to go. Yes this means a little bit of slip seating but only till your truck if fixed and your ready to roll again. Basically no sitting around for a week waiting on a repair. You keep rolling and turning miles.

You are assigned a truck and its yours. You can't take the trucks home.They have to remain parked at a terminal on your home time. In this regard its best to live close to a plant so you don't have to drive far to get home. I live 18 miles from the Pine Bluff Ar plant so its no big deal.

Home time is 1 day for every 6 days you are out ,just like every company out there, but have no problem giving you an extra day or two if something comes up while you are at home.

No pets of any kind. No getting around this since we go to our own plants a lot security will know if you have an animal of the truck. If you have a pet on the truck you will have to find your own way home. Remember a lot of our plants are in the middle of no where so it will be a long walk back to town. Don't blame Tyson since every driver knows this from the first day they are hired with Tyson.

The truck are automatics and they have APU's. Depending on the brand of truck its either 10 speed or 12 speeds. For me it took a while to get use to the autos and I like them. Sure I still like a manual transmission but since I spend a lot of times on back roads the autos are nice. Lets not mention traffic. The automatic transmissions are KING in traffic.

100% reefer trailers. Though you will sometimes backhaul dry freight like spices and the like to plants. And the best part....all of our loads are heavy. 43,000 on average. I love the heavy freight. I REALLY hate the wind.

Everyone I have dealt with at Tyson is easy to get along with. The dispatchers are just a phone call away and you can speak with them face to face. They are limited to only 40 drivers per dispatcher. Some fleets have less. Everyone is in one building in Springdale, AR and every department is truly open door and available to talk to if they are there. Monthly safety meetings are held at Western Sizzler which the company pays for so it's great to attend those if you are near a terminal that has a safety meeting that month.

Surprisingly enough most of our shops are very driver friendly. If it's broke they fix it. Simple as that.

The jury is still out on Tyson. So far I like it. Feel free to ask questions if there is something I missed or if you have a specific questions speak up.

I would not worry to much about it even during an inspection but your boss is wrong about one thing. A company audit is not the only time they have access to the time stamps. Since most scale houses are Pre Pass sites they can call up PrePass at anytime and check on a particular prepass number.

Don't worry about taking the PrePass down out of the window. Once a DOT officer puts your truck number i the computer he will see if the truck is assigned a transponder as the computer brings up all the info about your truck.

Now I am not saying they will push the issue but you need to at least beware of what can happen if you catch a DOT officer having a bad day.