I hate Tyson, I HATE Tyson, I HATE TYSON!

I did flatbed for twenty five years and never knew how hard I was working until I started dry vans.Dry vans have a lot more sweeping and pulling nails I don't like.I been doing reefers last three years and really like them.You gotta wait sometimes no matter what you pull,however no matter how bad the economy gets we all going to eat and food comes in reefers.

 

I know the place very well. Same ol' #### every time I go there. Wouldn't hurt my feeling's any if the place was wiped out from exsistance or any Cargill plant for that matter. The hole in the wall truck stop down the road could go right along with it.

As for Tyson, well I will say they have good product's on the shelf but as for pulling their load's. I think I have better thing's to waste my time on than sitting around jacking with them and the BS games.

 

IBP, Grand Island, Nebraska. Rolled in there one morning at 6 am with a load of processing equipment. 43,600 lbs, 9 pieces. The guy points to a 14 ft tall overhead door and tells me to back my trailer in, drop it and park outside the door (it's -5 in a freezing fog, normal 5 hr drive from Denver took 9 hrs).

2 hrs go by, I try to check on the status (we charged $65.00 an hr detention after 2 hrs), no one around to let me in. Go to shipping door, he pages maintanence, they walk me back to the area. They haven't touched my trailer, I tell them that I am now on standby and they are being charged $65. an hr for detention.

Called Dispatch on my way back to the truck, 45 minutes later, I hear the overhead door rattling as it's being opened and a guy knocks on my cab and tells me to back in. Trailer was empty, nails pulled, swept so clean you could have eaten off it. As I pulled out they closed the trailer doors for me and wished me a Merry Christmas, it was Dec. 21st.

I ask what the holdup was before, they changed shifts at 6:30 am, night shift told the day shift supervisor I was there and he didn't feel like unloading me. When his boss found out from his boss who found out from the broker that they were being billed $130.00 per hr standby (the broker had to get their cut) he was told the standby pay was coming out of his check.

 

Thats not cool!!!!

 

I've been to Tyson in Center, TX once and had the same experience. Had an afternoon pickup. Showed up around 11am. Washed it out on site and dropped it. Bobtailed over across the horrible parking lot. Had no cell signal. Had to idle all day and night to keep the smell of the place out and the truck cool. Finally, the next morning around 10 or 11 they told me to hook up. Got paid a lot in detention for it. But ####, that sucked.

 

Did a Tyson load from Rodgers AR to MA 3 weeks ago. Got there at noon appt time was 1PM. Dropped my trailer parked in the staging area. 12 hours later I was called to get trailer. It was a Trans Leasing load and when I signed for the bills I had to sign a paper that if I missed the daily check calls I would pay $500. It required a check at 9 AM and 3 PM to an automated line, arriving and departing calls at each stop and an empty call. Got to delivery point and watch a little fat lumper get a $280 unloading fee for taking a layer off and pulling them off. It took him about 30 minutes and the cash went into his pocket, three hours later they counted the lumpers work and gave me my bills. I put about 42 hours work into that load, if you count waiting time, for a total of $450, that Lumper was an off duty employee and made $280 in 30 minutes cash no taxes. I wanted to unload it and my company, trans leasing, and Tyson started raising hell saying NO!

That's not even my worse at a meat packing place:

Storm Lake IA I once had a two day wait and couldn't leave the area, I had to idle the whole time to keep the smell out. When they did get my trailer in the door the broker cancelled the load and put it on a Prime truck because it was cheaper.

ND, John Hormel. Arrived on friday for a friday appt, was on time but don't remember time. Got the Load Sunday moring with 4 stops: three in Indianapolis and last drop Cincinnati. Company and Hormel was pushing me to run 20 Hrs straight I said no and did it legal. Both told the receivers it was my fault to cover themselves. Every receiver I went to was pissedand treated me like crap. One cater company said I ruined their startup company because they had to have the steaks yesterday to get ready for a INDY 500 party! They wanted to kick my ### and that's honest, they made threats on me. In Cincinnait my last stop it was John Hormel, a butcher shop type place with 10 bins of beef....took an entire day to get it off. My company blamed me for because I wouldn't drive 20 hrs straight for not being able to pull any more of those loads for John Hormel to Indy.

I will never haul another load of any meat...it's a ripoff to the driver.

 

In my years of driving,I always hated going to any grocery warehouse.However there was one good one,United Grocers in Southhaven,MS.

 

If they were to stupid to go down to the store and buy some steaks, they would have gone out of business pretty quick anyway.

 

Ok so yesterday I picked up a load from Tyson. Now this wasn't a meat load it was a tanker load. After they gave me all the paper work I was given a short questionaire to fill out and mail into corporate. As this plant has two gates for trucks to enter, I'm guessing the guys picking up reefer loads aren't getting these surveys.

 

I got one last year. Like they listen, lol. Some desk jockey justifying his job.

I go to so many Tyson I forget some of them.
I remember one chicken plant had like 3 docks. Right next to me was a dump trailer with a conveyor dumping chicken guts into it. Smelled like roses.