Do not let the great pay at Tyson Foods fool you!

I would like to warn everyone that has ever considered Tyson Foods for a career in trucking well in advance!

I have been an employee for less than a year and I have a total of 7 years experience in trucking first of all. The pay and high weekly miles is what attracted me to the company initially. The other 2 companies that I was with since I started driving had decent pay per mile, but I need a company with great pay and health benefits cost that I could retire from. Things started well for the first 2 months at the company, then slowly they have been going downhill since June. Tyson absolutely does not pay for any sort of detention pay until you have sat for 24 hours, then you get $85 per day afterward. I just found out that they can screw over their company drivers with waiting time for loads, and not their contractors today. Why would a company want to make their contractors a priority and not their own is beyond me? I was told by a loader at one of our plants today that the cost of making contractors sit for more than 4 hours is very costly for Tyson. Therefore company drivers are allowed to sit for as long as Tyson feels when a load is not ready, though they are dispatched to the fleet managers as ready now or within a short time frame from where you are located at. Now when you are dispatched a load, you are given a time frame of a long length before a load is ready at many times from what I have been seeing. (ie 12am-11am). Also the waiting time for a fleet manager to pick up the phone when you are questioning a load starts off at 10 minutes minimum up to 30 minutes from my last experiences as I have looked at my call history in my cell phone.

I feel like Tyson lures people in by offering 40 cents a miles for experience with 3 years or more-39 cents a mile for less than 3 years experience and attractive health benefits along with the affordability to them. I know that recruiters lie, so this is why I did research on a few truckers blogs including this one before joining. Since I could not find anything that was major red flags on the blogs nor with a driver that I met at a truck stop, I went ahead to apply. I really regret going to this company so much. I left a company that had trucks governed at 62 and that paid 36 cents a mile, higher cost of health benefits, but I always had 3000 miles per week. With Tyson I pay $58 a week for great medical,dental,life,legal,and accidental insurance. My weekly miles started off at 3000-3300 a week excluding home time weeks. Since the month of June up until current, my weekly miles have went from 2000-2400 a week. I am getting into a financial bind and my family is suffering with this company's constant bouncing around with miles and not wanting to pay detention pay for 24 hours. Before with having my wife's and my income combined money was decent and not super high. With my old company our incomes was more than enough to pay bills, put a bit into savings, and still have some to splurge occasionally afterwards. Now with both incomes since June, it seems like our money is becoming more scarce after bills are paid.

It is sad that a big company like this treats their drivers like scum, but I guess the bigger company you are the more power to screw people over that you have! Please be very aware everyone of Tyson before you leave any company to go there. Looks are deceiving in every way with them. At this point I am looking at a few companies that pay about 6 cents less per mile, higher health benefits cost, and their drivers are getting 3000-3500 miles plus a week. If I go with one of the companies that I am reviewing, we can break even as if I was making 40 cents a mile with Tyson and getting the miles that I am getting now. I have been also been looking for a local company with great pay, but I am not having any luck so far. By the way, the otr companies that I am researching I have personally talked to drivers, seen their paystubs, and have seen all great reviews on the truckers blog sites. For personal reasons I wish not to share which ones they are.

Thanks for reading my warning about Tyson!

 

The messed up part is that they do not explain the super long wait times. They say the $85 detention pay is for sitting or being broke down for more than 24 hours. I have gotten it sooner when my truck had issues 2 weeks in a row and I had only driven for 3 days out of each week. But then I had to raise a fit to get the pay for the times that I was broken down on the initial day. They only wanted to pay me for 2 days of detention while I sat for 3 1/2 days. Tyson finds ways to screw drivers in every way sadly. They always justify their company's illogical policies with unacceptable excuses. I could not take it anymore after being there for almost a year. So I am in the midst of choosing between one of three companies now to start within the next 2 weeks. I am running from this company and telling as many people as I can to do the same!LOL

 

anj8488 if you are happy with sitting for a day with no pay and then taking a gamble to see if the company will give you $85 the next day, then so be it. To each of one's own view when it comes to what is financially acceptable employment wise. If a day without pay works for your finances then so be it. I will not accept it from any company for any reason.