I work at The Sygma Network

Also, to anyone that doesn't know, the vast majority of Sygma locations are non-union and they do everyone they can to keep the union out. It used to be that the union locations didn't pay much better than the non-union ones anyway, but that may have changed by now.

 

You must be lucky to find the 65mph trucks at the Danville center. I had not seen one of those in years. Even if I did you are not allowed to run that fast or the computer would ding you. How fast are you allowed to run in IL now with the higher speed limit? I pass Sygma trucks when I am doing 65 and it looks as though you are still running 55mph.

At holiday pay rate you should make ~ $18 per hr. When did they start paying for lunch black out times?

I dont recall the route you posted in the last bid package. Then again the route may have morphed into that. Since they screwed the drivers out of the bidding process senior drivers may have never seen that good of a route again while a new guy got it. You never know though the route might get a extra 20-30 hours added to it but you will still be stuck on it while a another guy gets a better route out of pure luck. If that happens dont say anything though because you may be labeled as a complainer/whiner older driver.

$600 would be one heck of a incentive pay but they claimed to stop doing that. It would be hard to pay that when they say they only make a few pennies per case.




I guess they are messing with the bonus program big time if it is bi-weekly now. Of course the bonus programs really blows compared to when they first came to town. Not nearly as many bonuses and the ones they have are getting harder to achieve. Only a few guys are still on the better old safety bonus program but they are finding ways to get rid of them.

The warehouse man really screwed things up for the drivers when he moved to the Transportation manager position. Now that he is moving up even higher it is hard to imagine that many are going to want to stick around. Each manager change at that center made things worse over the years. Too bad since it seems to be a decent company that I would probably still be with if it were not for the misguided local division. I miss the hard earned pay and the good benefits but they really ran that job into the ground.

 

I work for Mclane and we do the same line of work, and he's right. Its great money and if your physically able to handle the rewards are unlimited. I bought my first house at 25, have 3 vehicles a motorcycle, and still have money to raise a family of 6!! But as he said, you have to get along with your partner. Our division mainly runs team, which I am not fond of. I would rather run single and work harder (pay a little more for single) than have to put up with some of the "senior drivers"

 

I learned to live with most of that stuff. Stay there for a few years and you'll learn that there's no sense in complaining about it. It never does any good. If you work as a company driver for just about any type of distribution center you'll have the same problems. Companies run trucks tight because they're trying to save money. Product isn't loaded well because warehouse employees are trying to meet a quota and many of them could really care less if it causes more work for the driver. For most of them, whatever is fastest and easiest is what gets done.

 

You're absolutely right. They do know that most drivers don't run legal (especially teams). But they'll deny it every time. They create routes that give teams 30 min. to deliver a stop of 150 cases and drive 10 miles to the next stop. They know that if only one guy delivers, that will never happen. Of course, they'll deny it every time and say "if you can't meet your delivery times legally, we can adjust your route and your delivery times." Sometimes some effective adjustments can be made. In other instances, there's no way possible to adjust the route and still deliver to stores when customers want deliveries, avoid lunch/supper blackouts, and pickup backhauls during shipping hours.

This brings us to the primary reason why I left Sygma. They create extremely strict policies that they know drivers can't/won't adhere to and then they'll use these policies against drivers when it benefits them. Perfect example: team drivers logging legally. Most team drivers will log "sleeper" when they're actually "on duty". If Sygma has a reason to want to get rid of you, THEY WILL use this policy to fire you. There can be several reasons why they'd do this. Maybe a particular driver is a screwup or maybe a particular driver complains too much (at least, in their opinion, and the complaining is most likely completely justified anyway). Or, maybe they're trying to cut costs and eliminate the drivers that are costing them the most money (which usually happens to be the senior drivers that have the most vacation, the most in pension, are at the top of the pay scale, and are on the "old" safety bonus program (which pays significantly more than the current safety bonus program).

I AM NOT just speculating here. I've seen it happen several times. I've seen some of the best drivers they've had, that have been there several years, get fired for breaking one rule one time. They will drive hundreds of miles to "spy" on you while delivering and subsequently fire you for policy violation.

It's not just log falsification either. I've seen drivers fired for one instance of not using a seat belt or forgetting to put a wheel chock under a trailer tire in a dock.

Moral of the story: If you're employed at Sygma, cover your butt and watch your back. If you don't follow all of their rules (and many are just plain ridiculous) all the time, every time, you will have ZERO job security.

 

Another way they can try to get rid of you is by using the attendance policy if they wish to. I achieved perfect attendance the majority of the years I worked at Sygma and still found the policy rediculous. If you miss just certain days you can be fired in as little as 2 occurences if they choose to enforce it. This is not no call no show or obvious faking. It is just based on when it happens even with doctors excuses. If you have a route that goes out Friday saturday or sunday and you call off it counts more against your attendance then if you call off on a weekday route. (Monday counts as a weekend route in certain situations). So if you miss that one route on a weekend and one before a holiday even if it was several months later now your points are high enough to get you terminated. You supposedly get 6 sick days a year but if you use them you are fired.
Oh ya the attendance bonus that is another that they got rid of.

 

that is great, sounds like mclane and sygma took a page from each other! This is my first CDL job, and again the money is great, but the thought of doing this till retirement or even until I can pick up my own route is mind numbing. I have been with them for 2 years and still do not have enough seniority to pick up my own route, and I wont kiss another "senior drivers" butt just to get picked up to run with him. So 24/7/365 im on call, until I can pick up my own route. The sad part is I kinda set the bar too high for myself. Being this is my first CDL job I can't seem too find another one that pays as good!! Any ideas? That dont send me away for weeks at a time?!

 

Man, that is a long time to be on the "extra" or "floater" board (or whatever you want to call it). Just curious, which Mclane location do you work for? There's one here in Danville, IL. Some guys I've talked to love it and some hate it. Of course, the same goes for Sygma too.

You'd have a real tough time finding another driving job that pays better. From what I've heard from several different people, most Mclane drivers make more than Sygma drivers. OTR wouldn't even come close, unless you found a really good company, you have a lot of experience, they pay for that experience, and you get a lot of miles.