Tyson foods happy trucker

Ain't that the truth. I drive by the Logansport, IN factory every night. Whew... Lol. Good to hear they treat drivers well.

 

October 1, 2012 I will be 56 years old. I have never driven a truck. I hope one day to learn.

I currently work as a retail clerk, I have been with my company since April 17, 2007.

Back in 2008, I had called up Tyson Foods to inquire about the requirements of possibly becoming a truck driver and working for Tyson Foods, out of Springdale Arkansas. The individual who answered the phone was a man by the name of Victor. He was extremely helpful with the information that he gave to me. I was calling from Hartford Connecticut at the time. I realize that Connecticut is out of the hiring area for Tyson Foods truck drivers.

I had been living in Wichita KS from 8/23/1996 to 10/9/2006, before returning to my home state of Connecticut to help my 2 sisters care for our elderly mother. She passed away September 30th. 2007. I remained in Connecticut till January 2009 helping my 2 sisters settle our deceased parents estate. I eventually returned to Wichita KS January 14, 2009.

Several months ago, this year, (2012), I had called driver recruiting at Tyson Foods. Again, it was Victor that answered the phone. After I mentioned to him that I had called him several years earlier, he inquired as to what was taking me so long to get started in trucking. I mentioned to him that one of the schools that he recommended no longer had a truck driving program, since 2009. The school is Wichita Area Technical College. The school did mention that they are seriously thinking about bringing the truck driving program back into their curriculum. It has not yet been done.

Victor mentioned 2 other truck driving schools, one being in Oklahoma and the other being in Missouri. Per Victor, Tyson Foods is particular about the driving schools that graduates come from before taking them on as beginners.

Tyson Foods stays in my mind for these reasons:
1) They have their own fleet of trucks, do NOT have owner operators, or lease purchase.
2) All the drivers are company drivers.
3) The starting pay for beginning drivers is well above the average compared to most trucking companies with beginning drivers.
4) Give or take, the drivers average 2500 to 2600 miles a week.
5) Most of the deliveries are to and from other Tyson Foods facilities, therefore drastically cutting down on wait time for the drivers to be loaded and unloaded.
NOTE:
It does NOT bother me to help load and unload trailers.
6) Tyson Foods appears to be overall driver friendly while simultaneously expecting excellent results from their drivers.

In the mean time, I am using the waiting time to get my body into much better physical shape. I have already lost about 30 lbs. I have about another 15 to 20 lbs. to go. I am also working on other things as really trying to get my blood pressure down to decent levels without the use of medications. I have yet to take any.

I am trying to make sure that my sugar levels are really in check. I am trying to avoid diabetes. It does run in my family, along with heart disease and cancer. Before my mother passed away, she was on 4 shots of insulin a day. She also had 3 major open heart surgeries in a 13 year period.

I am slowly, but surly, changing a lot of my eating eating habits. It can be difficult, but NOT impossible. I also realize that stringent D.O.T. health and fitness standards must be met.

I have never been arrested or convicted of any felonies or misdemeanors at all. As years go by, I try very hard to be careful who I associate with, along with staying out of trouble as much as possible.

I do have parking tickets, speeding tickets, failure to yield right of way, and passing a school bus with red flashing lights on my record. My last ticket was back in 2007. My last accident was back in 2010. The driver ran a stop sign right into me. I was not at fault on this particular accident. However, there have been 2 prior accidents that I was at fault. One was back in 1995, the other was around 2000, not sure of exact date.

I have been diligently trying to clean up my credit record. I have been steadily paying off every bill and debt that I ever owed. I am also going over my credit report to make sure everything is accurate and up to date. I am seriously trying to get all my personal affairs in order.

I have never married, and have never fathered any children. I went back to make absolutely sure about this to avoid having to worry about any child support payments and wage garnishments. KNOCK ON WOOD, none should ever occur.

I have never smoked or taken drugs. What little drinking that I ever did, I gave up many years ago. If I do go to a bar with some people, I will only order a soda or juice. I have never had a DUI or a DWI. The risks and penalties are too much to bear.

I am hoping to be able to get off the ground in the next several years to become an over the road truck driver, PREFERABLY SOLO.

I have no close family ties in the Midwest. Both of my 2 sisters live about 1500 miles away from me, one in Connecticut, the other in New York. As mentioned earlier, both of my parents are deceased, along with all 4 of my grandparents. I only have 1 aunt and 1 uncle left, ages 87 and 92 respectively. I also have a few cousins left. Unfortunately, so many of my relatives have passed away.

As a possible potential truck driver, I do not have the stresses of having to worry about family issues if I am far away from home.

I live in a 1 bedroom apartment, therefore, do not have to worry about maintaining a house or the yard that goes with it.

Many recruiters and truck drivers alike have told me that it is extremely important to have a clear head and try to be as stress free as possible if I do eventually go into truck driving, that a truck driver must have all their concentration and energies on both their driving and getting to their destinations both safely and on time.

I realize that there is an incredible amount of regulations from the federal government that must be followed to avoid losing ones CDL license and/or getting fired from the trucking company that a driver works for.

This is why I am currently doing a lot of the things that I am doing, not only for my own health, safety and well being, but to also prepare to start complying with regulations that a truck driver must comply with.

 

This reply is coming from a former driver who worked for Tyson Foods for 10 years. Most of your information is correct, but I need to correct a couple of things. You will wait a long time at a lot of their oplants, up to 15-20 hours at some, but not all. They do have about 200 KLLM trucks leased to them pulling Tyson trailers competing with the private fleet for freight, Recently they shofted all their port loads, which were a gravy trian to KLLM and SRT.I left there because I got burned out on the reefer business all together, not an issue with Tyson. Crowder State in Neosho, Mo,. is a great driving School that they use. I was a trainer at Tyson and had nothing but good experiences with the students they put out. Not trying to rain on your parade but offering some additional info.

 

Reply to "Tennessee Trucker"

Thank you for the post. Thank you for correcting me on any misinformation that I may have had.

Even with some incredibly long waits to get loaded or unloaded, along with any other trying situations that will come about, Tyson Foods still seems to be an excellent choice of a company to work for. I do realize that if Tyson will not take me on, I would have to look elsewhere, hoping to find another company as Tyson Foods, that is , if there is another one like or similar to Tyson Foods.

 

I thought about Tyson until I heard they do slip seating. Plus most of their plants smell like boiled turds with a billion flies that jump in my truck when I open the door.

 

Is "slip seating" really all that bad? As long as no damage has been done to the truck, inside or out, "slip seating" really should NOT be an issue. The only other issue that I can see is that if there is "slip seating", that both the inside and outside of the truck should be thoroughly maintained and cleaned out as an act of consideration for the person taking over the truck.

As for the flies, they can be frozen out or boiled out with the correct use of the thermostat inside the truck. I am thinking about what I do with my own car.