Tyson Foods has made it impossible to leave

Good luck to you and your entire family, for many years to come!

God bless every American and their families! God bless the U.S.A.!

 

Great story OP and happy for you ! You earned it !
I came to my company in June of 2017 flat broke and couldn't imagine working anywhere else now .
Told my dispatcher the other day I'm getting lazy and spoiled and he said you earned it and you are dependable and don't complain.
Welcome to the " worked for it club " op.

 

Happy for you! In this industry, you get rewarded for hard work. Most of the drivers on here want to get rewarded big $$ but aren’t willing to put in the work.

 

Amen to you, Brother, I'm glad that you found the perfect place for you. And Tyson got themselves a Great Driver......Win Win.

 

Thanks for sharing your story.Good luck to you!

 

This sounds like a great company. I wanted to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind. If you're too busy it's ok.

I looked on their website, I see regional pays $0.48-$0.52 CPM starting out. But, it doesn't give a pay rate for OTR.

1. Any clue what the starting pay rate is for OTR for someone like me with 2 years experience reefer and dry van, all with the same company? Is it the same as regional pay?

2. On regional it says additional pay $35-$40 per delivery stop. So, does this mean you get $35 for the drop and $35 for the hook? Or just $35 for the whole trip? And, it says "per delivery stop" so are you still getting this money for the live loads even if you don't have to wait long enough for the detention pay?

3. Does OTR have the same $35-$40 per delivery stop pay or is it different? On the site when you click OTR it just says "drop and pickup pay" but it doesn't specify a specific amount?

4. What's the hometime like for OTR (it just says "generous" on the site) and are they sticklers about the hometime or is an extra day off not a big deal?

5. What would you say the ratio for drop/hook versus live loads/unloads is, for both regional and OTR?

6. Do they make you get trailer washouts 100% of the time after every live unload and if so, at their facilities or Blue Beacon?

7. Are the trucks usually new? Did you ever get a brand new truck as your time doing regional or OTR?

8. Trucks automatic or manual?

9. Do they force chaining during winter or can you park it if you don't want too (or feel safe) chaining?

10. You said you netted $1,300 doing regional and netted $1,000 doing OTR. Is that normal, does the regional usually pay more than the OTR? I would think it would be the opposite but if not, regional would definitely be the way to go $300 more per week is a lot of money.

11. Do you get per diem in your pay or no?

12. They said drivers average $70,000 per year. Would you say with your experience, is that about right for both OTR and regional? Is more possible if you run hard?

13. For regional was it usually 34 hours home or 48 hours home, or did it just depend?

14. How many loads had a window on them to be picked up/delivered, what rough percentage would you say?

15. Was the driving more night time or day time and if night time, was it like 3rd shift 8:00pm - 8:00am or did you usually stop your day before the sun came up?

16. If you do OTR is it all 48 states? Do they go the Northeast, West, Pacific Northwest and California as well as the Midwest/Southeast?

17. Where do they fuel at what truck stops? And can you fuel where you want to or do you have to fuel where they tell you? Like for example if they only fueled at Loves could you just fuel at whatever Loves you wanted too or would you have to fuel at their chosen fuel stop?

$1,300 net per week sounds amazing. Glad you found a great company and thanks for sharing!

 

As soon as those idiots put that yellow on my trucks steps and hand rails I'd be gone. I'm not riding around in a clown car.

 

Thanks for your testimony! It’s good to hear that hard work and good decisions has good rewards. Maybe more people will catch on.

 

I worked for Tyson as an OTR Driver for over 1 year. You won't get Regional from the start. The Regional positions are cherry positions, and everyone starts OTR, and you put your name on the list for one of the Regional positions. It normally takes 6 months - 1 year on the list to get to the top and picked for one of them. Not sure of their pay now, but OTR pays a couple cents less per mile on the whole, but Tyson pays you extra for short runs. You can make an extra .02 - .06 cpm for the short runs. You will run mostly nights, but sometimes back and forth between days and nights. No fuel solutions, so you fuel when you need it at Loves or Flying J and Pilot locations. On OTR, be ready to drive in all states from Denver east all the way to Maine, and all states in between, including Florida. The guys out of Pennsylvania terminal run most of the NE stuff, but I'm from Oklahoma, and ran some NJ, NY, MA, CT DE runs. For the most part Automatic trucks, but they may still have some of the sticks. They have Per Diem, no chaining is required, wash truck twice a month at Blue Beacon, hometime 1 day for every 7 days out, trucks are slip seat and whatever one you are assigned. You have to leave your truck at one of their terminals on hometime, and drive your car home. Someone is usually using it the two days you are off, so be prepared to wipe it down when you get back in it. They recommend you take out anything valuable when you are on hometime because of it being slipseat. I used to take everything out everytime I went on hometime. Overall a good company, and you will run 2500 - 3300 miles a week on OTR, and make good money. A few things you might not like, but no company is perfect.

 

Thanks for this, this helps a lot! The only negative I can see is the slip seating as an OTR driver. Thanks again for providing this for me, was very helpful!