I work at The Sygma Network

Do you all deliver panera bread we did those and papa murpheys pizza and wendys on the same truck. The worst storse in the worlds to deliver was panera all those wierd shaped boxes and u had to use elevators stairs and the worst was they were usually on the other side of the complex u r delivering too. u said it right nothins perfect but man that is tough on those time restraints we had lol

 

What new accounts has sygma just recently taken over?

 

I drive for golden state foods out of chicago. We unload using rollerts and we also use liftgates.

 

Crazyhourse00- I work for a local food service in Kansas city and I fell you pain for boxes in the wrong place on a pallet. But that stuff happens all over and upper management just don't care. I have tried to talk to my management about it and it does not work . I have learn to think like a puller and look at the other pallets.

 

I was wondering if Sygma hires out of the Atlanta area. Although I am not a spring chicken I have always liked a hard days work. I have always heard that the food companies pay well.

 

I won't give exact specifics in the interest of anonymity, but I worked for Sygma Illinois for many, many years. I witnessed many changes over the years I worked there.

I can give an unbiased view of this company (Illinois location only, as policies and attitudes of management vary greatly from one location to the next).

Does it pay well? That depends on your point of view. Sure, you will likely earn anywhere from $45-70k per year with Sygma. But, you have to consider the hours you're putting in and the type of work you're doing. When I left, the majority of drivers were out on routes 60-80 hours a week. Some routes (team routes) could be as long as 40 hours straight. When you broke it down by the hour, routes I had ranged from $12.50 - $16 an hour. That's not good pay in my book.

A little less than half of the routes were team routes. You dispatched with a partner and completed a route that usually took 20-40 hours to complete. Trailers were loaded with anywhere from 32,000-41,000 lbs. of freight, generally speaking. You usually had 12-16 deliveries, all unloaded by hand with a two-wheeler and a ramp. With most team routes, very few deliveries could be done legally with both drivers delivering at the same time (and Sygma will fire you on the spot if you're caught logging "sleeper" when you're really "on duty", which is ironic since many team routes are set up to where you can't even complete them on time without logging them illegally- can you say "cover the company butt!"). So, one guy's supposed to stay in the truck while the other guy delivers. Sounds like no big deal, right? Consider that their trucks have just about the smallest sleepers in the industry (just a very small bed, nothing else. And, they have a very strict no idle policy (I was written up for idling when it was nearly 100 degrees outside). The trucks do not have APUs. So, imagine how you'll feel after delivering 40,000 lbs. to 15 or so restaurants by hand and have gotten practically no sleep for 30 hours and still have to manage a 6 hour drive back to the center. Most team routes had 1 to 3 backhauls and you could expect to spend anywhere from 1/2 hr-6 hours at a backhaul.

Sygma Illinois has been transitioning to single layover routes for several years now. In a typical route, you'll leave the center at night, deliver to several stores, take a 12-16 hour motel stay during the day (usually the cheapest motel available, such as Motel 6), deliver to 3 or 4 more stores, and then drive home. Total time out= 30-38 hours. This is done twice a week. Loads are often 40,000 lbs, all done by yourself. You may even have a backhaul at the end of your route. It was very common for drivers to run out of hours or come extremely close to running out of hours at the end of the route.

So, what's the work like? You're delivering to restaurants of several different types. Some are easy to deliver to, some are extremely difficult. You might deliver to a restaurant with a huge parking lot, huge freezers and coolers, and can park right next to the back door. Or, you might deliver to stores right on the streets of downtown Chicago. Or, maybe you'll have to cart the product the length of a football field down service corridors and down elevators in malls. Just depends on the route. But, almost all routes have more bad stores than good ones. You're responsible for insuring that every single case for the order is there and is the correct product. You're responsible for being on-time (in total you have a two hour window to be considered on-time). You'll be expected to work in the most severe weather imaginable. Many deliveries are done at night in which you have keys and alarm codes to stores.

I was never afraid of the work. If you're wiiling to put up with the work conditions, you'll earn a good paycheck and good benefits. By the way, the benefits at Sygma were second to none and were, in my opinion, the best thing about Sygma. Over the years, many things changed at Sygma, however. They started to get cheap. Sure, every company has gotten cheap, and I expected that. A company has to manage costs in order to be profitable. However, they got so cheap that they started being unfair to employees. Policies started becoming more strict. Policies became significantly more numerous. Policies started being used to eliminate employees that were costing the companies the most money. The hiring of inexperienced drivers became much more common. In short, Sygma used their unending list of policies to accomplish whatever benefited them most in terms of $$. They paid no attention to what the long-term effects of eliminating drivers with years of experience would be. Also, things that used to be paid were no longer paid. Another thing I didn't like is they did away with the bidding process. It used to be such that you could bid on routes by seniority at least twice a year. Then, we were told that there would be no more bidding unless there was a significant change of business that required it and we should consider our route permanent. That's all fine and dandy until they start adding stores and miles to your route and you find yourself working 20 more hours a week than what you did when you first bid it.

What's the hometime with Sygma like? That depends on your perspective. You may be home 4 times a week. You may be home every day. But, how long will you be home? Just long enough to sleep in many instances. How will you feel when you get home? Believe me, after 40,000 lbs. of freight, delivering in blizzard conditions, and staying awake for 30+ hours you'll feel more tired than you can imagine (and yes, I've done OTR as well) and I guarantee you're not going to be in the best mood.

When you first start you'll likely be on the "extra board" for several months. You'll have certain days in which you'll be "on call". However, many drivers I spoke to were told they had to go out whenever they were told to. Often, this meant coming back to the center and going right back out again.

Sorry for such a long post. I just wanted to let those who might be considering Sygma Illinois what it's really like. It's tough. It's stressful. It's frustrating. Management is two-faced and unethical. But, I suppose if you can deal with it you'll end up with a solid paycheck (not if you consider the number of hours you're putting in, though) and very good benefits. I spoke to many drivers from other Sygma centers who had not had the same experiences as I have so I cannot speak for other centers whatsoever.

 

Sygma Illinois recently acquired Checkers/Rally's, which are really more of a pain in the butt than what they're worth. Parking lots that have no room for trucks. Waiting on cars in drive-thru's just to get in the back door. Coolers/freezers so small that all the product must be hand-stacked in. In other words, if you think about what you're making while delivering to these stores and compare it with the time it takes to deliver, you're not making squat.

 

Are you sure about that rate? It's only been a few months since I worked for Sygma IL and it was just a little over $12 an hour for downtime then...if you could get downtime approved. Getting interior trailer lights worked on, stores changing their locks and not giving you a key, sitting over lunch/supper hours, bad weather, and closed roads were just a few examples of downtime that were not approved for me.