I want specifics on Hirschbach/Van Pak

my instructor doesn't let Hirschbach come to the school to recruit because they've had a history of being full of $#!^.

so, if you talk to them, keep that in mind.

 

From what I hear the company drivers are at nose level with the water. Their saftey guy has people on the chopping block but then again these new rules they want to keep thier rating up. The company is drasticaclly changing (which I don't think is for the better). They are closing thier S. Sioux city,NE and Mass yard in April. They put on a great cinderella story for the first 90 days with miles then cut you off. Although if you own your own truck they will ALWAYS help you get it fixed and work with you on the deductions out of your check. Tyson seems to be either only in-house freight which kinda scares me. Thier trailers are a LOT better than most companies. I wouldn't do the lease purchase but for a company driver it might work. I have heard a lot of o/o and lease go back to company drivers for them and they are doing ok.
Good luck... ps they are getting real strict about matching logs to thier "people net" not just matching fuel anymore

 

I'm a company Hirschbach driver. I'm doing okay. I drive a 2009 Pete 387. The 1st year was tough as I had two terrible dispatchers that both got fired. I now have the best dispatcher in the world. Alot weighs on the dispatcher you have and not so much the company. The economy is tough for everyone right now. Bouncing around companies is not the answer.
I get my miles, I get home when I ask, I have a 401k and my doctor bills get paid. I stay out 4-5 weeks at a time because it works better for me and the company. I like taking 4-5 days off instead of a weekend. The ones I see fail, fail themselves, then try to put the blame on someone other than themselves. You have to form yourself around the industry and have the right frame of mind to succeed. It's not going to form around you. You can't be late all the time and expect the company to like you.
We're meat haulers and the shipper calls the shots. We run illegal alot. Meat is a perishable with time against you. The longer we take to get it to market, the less time the grocer has to sell it before it turns You have to be creative on the logbook and good at it. This job ain't for every trucker.
Are regulars are Tyson and Farmland and other cold warehouses.

There are a alot of shake ups going on. The company is downsizing it's offices but not the driving force. The economy is hurting all companies. Those that don't make smart decisions won't survive. With all the DOT crackdowns in the near future, the driver is going to have to tighten up his act also or you'll be flipping burgers.

I had about 10 driving jobs in the past 15 years. I been with Hirschbach the longest. Things got better for me when I changed my attitude and accepted that companies are pretty much the same everywhere.
The student above, Hirschbach doesn't hire out of schools. You need at least 1 year experience. Your instructor is full of it.

 

No, YOU'RE the driver, YOU call the shots.

you wanna know why this CSA 2010 is raising a lot of hairs? It's because of people like you who think that running illegal is the proper way to drive. Meat is perishable? Who is hauling meat that isn't frozen in a reefer? Frozen meat isn't perishable. Oh, Tyson, that explains a lot.

I may still be a "newbie" to this industry, but whenever I see the words "we run illegal" it should be translated into "run away from this company because it's YOUR ###, as the driver, who will get roasted."

This is why I always laugh when I hear someone whining about CSA2010 kicking truckers out of a job. It's your own fault if you have enough crap on your record to warrant being black listed.
ugh, but this is an old thread, and I'm in a agitated mood I guess. Time to sleep anyway. I need to get my rest to drive my 8 hours tomorrow. See, this is what proper trip planning gives you. Plenty of time to go from shippers to receivers. Sure, I could push it, and maybe I'll average a couple hundred more miles on my pay. But it's not worth the stress, aggravation, and risk. I like being laid back. I like being able to run LEGALLY. If you can't make your run huffin' 11 hours a day, then you're with a crap company.

The DRIVER has the POWER.

You start bowing to the shipper, the receiver, or your dispatcher, then you're volunteering your rights away.

It's not just your life behind that wheel. You run illegal, fall asleep and kill someone, your ### is TOASTED. And I wont feel sorry for you one bit.

 

You got a good point SWAPS but he majority of the companies give u no choice of running legal because they will keep doing it and thats when the jumping begins my first yr otr has been terrible i condo has a point u start realizing all companies are the same after a while and the good ones like GTI wont take me cuz i dont have enough experience thats BS im tired of hearing that.

 

Ya don't do it unless you liked jacked up loads, no sleep, and no money!

 

I know you haven't hauled Tyson. You're running your lips on what you think and not what you know. The meat is freshly slaughtered and put on the truck warm as it comes off the line. Blood and chicken juice runs out the drain holes. At 20 degrees it would take 42,000 lbs of meat 3 days to freeze to the core. Meat has a 10-14 day shelf life from slaughter. Each day it isn't on the shelf is one less day the store can't sell it. Especially chicken changes when it freezes. You ever eat one with black leg bones? It's been frozen.

You don't have a clue the games they play either. You either run it or get comfortable watching DVD's. And since the majority of drivers don't last 6 months and I've been there 3 years, I have no clue where you get this blacklisted stuff. Not saying much, but as far as a truck and loads go, I get treated better than the rest. But you still have to play the Tyson games regardless.

CSA2010 started. I'm sure things will change. Take a look at their scores. They have three alerts in the high 80's. You don't get scores like that living in your fantasy world. The shots you call with this company is play their game or quit. Take your choice.

Go work for them, K&B or the other small ones and when you have a little experience, come back here and post. I'm sure your thoughts would change by then.

 

Ran Tyson out of Monett, MO - not so much JIT live loads but drop and hooks - one thing you had to watch out for was the CO2 (nasty stuff) they fill the trailers with as a bacterial retardant - one of our drivers hopped up in there to install load locks, not knowing that and promptly hit the deck - by chance his teammate came back, looking for him..

He filed an OSHA complaint and now they have warning signs - and - you have to ventilate the trailer up at the guard shack before you put load locks in...

Never minded those loads - they were always ready. Tyson out in Central California was a whole 'nuther ball game....

 

I'm glad you said that. I didn't know about the CO2. Never been to the Monett one, but there's hundreds of Tyson plants. We never get an opportunity to put loads locks in most places. The yard jockey will pull the trailer off the dock and seal it there, then he'll drop it in the yard for us to go get. Shelbyville, TN Tyson is the only one I can think of where we have access to the load. We take off the dock seal and reseal it at the gate.

I had one damage claim last year and it was a Tyson. I picked up a sealed load and the first drop was at the Sherman, TX Tyson. They made me drop the trailer and go back outside the gate. Then they unsealed it and put it in the door. When they were done, the trailer was sitting in the yard resealed after they pulled it back out.

I got to the second drop and two boxes of fat was on the floor busted all over the place where the 1st Tyson drop threw the boxes half arsed up there.

It was a Saturday about 0200 and I called Tyson OS&D. I got voicemail as nobody was there, but I left all the pertinent info on the claim. I sent our dispatch a message and told him the same. As usually, weekend dispatch ignores you or doesn't answer the phone. So since the crap was all over and the boxes were badly damaged, I cleaned it up with a broom and put it in the dumpster. It was either that or let the forklift run all over it. I chose to throw it in the dumpster as it was just fat used in pork and beans. It wasn't high dollar pork loin or anything. I had another load Sunday too.

Come Monday when Tyson OS&D come back in, the sorry arse ***** charged me with it and it cost me $87, just because I didn't save the boxes all weekend. I thought that was sorry as heck. One of their many ploys to keep costs down.

Tyson will have their day. Their meat is so pumped up with drugs and steroids eventially the country will catch on. You ever see that white foamy slime in a cooked chicken breast? That's a direct result of what's put in them chickens. They have chickens they raise that can't walk because their breasts out grow them. Nasty stuff!

 

You know that was because Cheryl Pyrrha blame on you. you think Hirschbach is so great... I ran as illegal as he'll and still got screwed I wouldnt go bragging about and I am not proud of it I drove 4200 miles a week plus with them didn't ask for extra money was very fuel efficient and still hadn't seen a paycheck since Sept. If you call a company tua gives you directions out to the middle of the woods instead of getting you to a wal- mart distribution center great. Then you are a fool. Loads are dispatched as illegal as heck and then they turn around and Blame you. Screw that I am not working for free and getting disrespected by idiots who know more know how to run a trucking company than the man on the moon! And just so you know there are trucking companies that do know how to properly run drivers and do have a soul! I will miss a few of the decent dispatchers but the rest are too dumb to scratch their #####!