First year driver with The Sygma Network

Yo, what's up?

To the point. Since this is where you praise a truck company at, that's what I am going to do.

Sygma hired me fresh from school. Someone who worked there told me it would be a good place to start for a noob in the trucking business. I filled an application out online and two days later I had an interview and all of this took place while I was still in school for CDL training.

I informed them of the exact date that I would be taking the test and they said they would be here for me when I obtained my CDL's.

Here comes trouble. The school I was going to for my CDL training ran into a few problems. All 3 of their trucks broke down. I had to wait an 3 more weeks before I could even attempt to get my CDL's. I told Sygma about this and they totally understood and they said again that they would be here for me when I was ready.

Fast forward. 9 months later I am still with the company. They trained me until I felt like I was ready to drive by myself. I was in training with one driver for a little over a month. Never did they try to rush me. The trainer I had was great. First 2 weeks I really didn't drive. He just wanted me to get familar with the lots we were going to and to take my time with unloading the truck with him to ensure my accuracy was up to par with his. I always felt like I was slowing him down so I was always trying to keep up with him. He stopped me a few times and said "hey, I've been doing this for 8 years, you won't be as fast as me. I know all of the product. I know you want to help me out by going as fast as me but you don't need to. Even if you do 75 more cases than me it is still 75 cases that I don't have to do."

Now I have my own route. It was suppose to be a single man route without a helper but they have signed a helper onto my route because I had trouble the first few times out. They have never forced me to go back out. They call and say "hey, heres a chance for you to mak some extra buck, do you want to run an extra route?", I tell them "No" and that's it.

Once I was in a snow storm (just a few weeks ago) and transportation called my cell phone out the blue and said it that if I felt the need to slow down or to pull over that they didn't mind. It is just green beans and toilet paper, no need to kill yourself out there for that crap.

I felt that was really cool of them. They have been nothing but great to me. I am dispatched two times a week.

Only thing that sucks about Sygma is that their trucks are governed at 58mph (if you go over 58 in the state of IL the computer will beep at you and it will give you a mile to slow down, if you dont slow down you will be issued a speeding violation). So actually, I maintain a slow 56mph in Illinois but once out of IL you can push a blazing fast 60mph! Oh, and some of their trucks don't have antennas and that sucks. No Coast to Coast AM with George Norway for me.

Thats it. Sorry if it was long.

 

They do run a lot of teams and 90% of the trucks are the standard VNL420's.

I don't know what speed the trucks in FL are governed at but mine is at 60mph.

Helpers make 55% of what the actual driver makes. Say if I make $600 for one run, the helper will make a little over $300. My helper makes a little over a $1100 dollars every two weeks. Mind you, this is just for helping me unload. No driving involved.

 

I have to go into work tonight, too. Anyway, here is more that I forgot.

They put you in a hotel for your 10 hour layover, sometimes they lay you over for more than 10 hours. It just depends on what time your next stop is after the hotel. I leave my terminal at 1230AM and sometimes I get to the hotel by 11Am that same day and my next scheduled stop isn't until 3:45AM the next day. That is a whole lot of sleep. They give you a laptop, too.

$375 a year for clothing and boots that are ordered through aramark.

20% off of AT&T cell phone bills. Numerous discounts for fitness programs and computers. Gift cards to the stores that you deliver (don't know if all do this but mine does) 2 weeks off vaction first year, personal time and sick leave first year.

I'm just very fond of them so far.

As a noob, are there better trucking jobs out there that would have me home as much as I am now? I am home 4 days a week.

 

I have terminals all over the place. I just got back from my Friday route. I left at 1230 Friday morning with 36,000 lbs. It is hard work. You have to unload all of that weight by yourself on a hand cart! Sometimes you have to deal with pallets knocking over. I have a few pictures I will upload for you later tonight when I get back home.

EDIT: Can't post pictures in the forum?

 

Danville, Illinois