Long Time No Hear....

Hey cool to see ya back man! Glad to hear things are going well for ya. Still pumpin out the miles I see. No surprise there for sure.

How you like driving for a private fleet like Tyson versus an independent company like Werner? Must have quite a few advantages, eh?

I will first say that there is no perfect company out there. There are a few things that can be improved always but I have found that Tyson has fewer things wrong than most.

No matter which company I have driven for I have made good money. Be it large or small carrier but with Tyson they seem to bend over backwards for the drivers....to a point. We are treated pretty well. Perhaps that is an advantage working for a private fleet.

Its hard to say what the difference is cause over the years I have learned to deal with trucking and take it for what it is. Its a lifestyle. Maybe its a positive attitude I get from dealing with any level of management. Everyone in the company is accessible to the drivers. No one is hidden behind closed doors or bullet proof glass. I think a lot has to do with how respect is given to the drivers.

Maybe it is over the years I have learned not to sweat the small stuff and therefore just don't pay attention to the stuff I have learned to accept in trucking that maybe newer drivers have not learned yet. Whatever the case it does feel different at Tyson and I like it.

There is more of a relaxed attitude here and it shows when dealing with dispatch. The Driver Trainers are a big help. They are not dispatch. They are there to handle everyday ,simple issues, that come up that drivers need fast answers to and are current drivers themselves so they are pretty easy to get along with. They also handle the logs. Best thing that dispatch and the planners actually understand log books and how they work.

Payroll,DM's and FM's all seat in the same room and are not behind closed doors. One thing that is common with all companies can be miscommunication between departments but I have found that to be a far and between sort of thing though it can happen.

One thing I think that helps is management is not trying to run the entire company. You have transportation management and then you have the production side ran by their own management team. It keeps things simple. Both are separate entities unto themselves with a management team that covers both of those teams if that makes sense. So kind of what a "Pyramid company graph" would look like.

One thing that is pushed here is....We are not a trucking company. We are a service company that provides service mainly to our own plants and outside DC's like Walmart and HEB and the other large DC companies. We haul our own product out from our plants and more often as not back hauling ingredients to our plants to make more product. Mostly plant to plant loads that are always drop and hook.

The chain of command goes:

Driver Trainers(driver support) takes the pressure off dispatch and helps keep DM's from being overwhelmed by driver phone calls.

Dispatch(DM) We have our DM's direct phone number so we can talk to them directly.

Fleet Manager

Transportation Manager

Safety

HR

Then a whole other management system over our immediate change of command.

See, you hit on all the major points we've always tried to teach people that are new to this industry. For the newbies, pay close attention to the things Guyjax is saying. This dude knows how to get it done out there and he's making all kinds of excellent points. You'll save yourselves a ton of grief if you can learn these lessons the easy way now instead of the hard way later.

The first one:

No matter which company I have driven for I have made good money.

Everyone thinks they have to spend three months creating spreadsheets of 350 different companies, interviewing drivers, digging for weeks through every site on the web, looking for that one 'diamond in the rough' company that's going to make them happy. When you've been in this industry for a while you realize that all of the major companies have tons of miles available and will treat their top drivers great. You can do well anywhere once you've proven yourself to be a top tier driver and show them you're going to stick around for a while.

The second one:

Maybe it is over the years I have learned not to sweat the small stuff and therefore just don't pay attention to the stuff I have learned to accept in trucking that maybe newer drivers have not learned yet.

Trucking is hard no matter where you work and there's a lot of baloney you have to learn to deal with. A lot of new drivers think they're working for a bad company when things aren't going well. Their schedules will change, they'll sit for a day, they won't get home quite when they expected to, and a million other things that happen all the time. They expect their company to make life easy for them, and when it's not they figure they're with a lousy company. They don't realize how much of that stuff is "just trucking". It happens everywhere. You have to stick it out for at least a year with that first company before you really begin to understand how this industry works.

The third thing:

Maybe its a positive attitude I get from dealing with any level of management. .....You have transportation management and then you have the production side ran by their own management team. It keeps things simple. Both are separate entities unto themselves with a management team that covers both of those teams if that makes sense. So kind of what a "Pyramid company graph" would look like.

You guys, look at how this dude knows the entire structure of his company from top to bottom. You have to learn how your company operates on the inside and get to know the right people. Again, a lot of new drivers think their company will hand them the keys and then make life easy for them. They figure you should automatically get all the miles you want all the time and things will always run smoothly.

They don't realize that there are times you're going to need to speak with the higher ups about things. Sometimes your miles are down for a few weeks. Sometimes you need some extra hometime because of a family emergency. Maybe you live a little outside of the main freight lanes and it takes certain loads going certain places to get you home on time. Maybe there are certain dispatchers or load planners that simply aren't getting you the information you need when you need it. It could be a million things.

You really have to understand how your company operates and you have to get to know the right people so you can figure out what's causing any issues you may be having and go get them worked out. People want to quit as soon as things don't go as they expect. They don't understand that you have to learn to work through these things or you'll never get anywhere in this industry.

Guyjax, I've never worked for a private fleet like that. I imagine it's pretty cool. Of course it still takes the cooperation of a whole lot of people in order to keep those trucks moving but at least a lot of those people all work for the same company, whether it's in the plants, on the docks, in the shop, or in the offices. And it would feel different knowing you have your own company's freight in the wagon. That's pretty cool.

Certainly glad to see you pop in. You know you're always welcome here. Guys like you can teach the newbies more in a few paragraphs than they'll learn in 6 months of trial and error. It's great for them to hear how the veterans who turn the big miles out there make it happen. And I'm glad to see you're still bustin out the big miles and doing great. Very cool.

Hey 6 String, Got an interview with OD I wanted to know if I could ask you a few questions. Do you have an email address and maybe we could exchange numbers?

Good to hear from you and glad you're doing well. I wonder if it's you when I see a Tyson truck up in PA / OH.

Hey 6 String, Got an interview with OD I wanted to know if I could ask you a few questions. Do you have an email address and maybe we could exchange numbers?

Good to hear from you and glad you're doing well. I wonder if it's you when I see a Tyson truck up in PA / OH.

The private messaging on this forum was nixed, which I think is unfortunate. I don't feel comfortable posting my email on the forum. Contact Brett, give him your email to pass on to me, and then I'll get in touch with you. I'd be more than happy to try to help.

D-Wash, you can also just simply ask your questions right here in the forum and others can benefit from the discussions. Just simply start a new thread with your questions about getting started at Old Dominion. I can guarantee you that there are others who will come in here at a later date and really appreciate the chance to hear Six Strings words of wisdom on the subject.

Gotcha 6 Strings I understand!!!

No problem Old School you're right!!!

D-Wash, you can also just simply ask your questions right here in the forum and others can benefit from the discussions. Just simply start a new thread with your questions about getting started at Old Dominion. I can guarantee you that there are others who will come in here at a later date and really appreciate the chance to hear Six Strings words of wisdom on the subject.