Sysco Truck Driver Reviews: SAFER Files, Hourly Pay

A Sysco seat is not drop-and-hook retail and not a mega-carrier CPM card. Careers copy sells foodservice: tractor-trailer to restaurants and kitchens, you unload meats, produce, frozen, and dry goods by hand, often before dawn, then home most nights. The federal file is not one “Sysco” USDOT. Look up the operating company on the truck — a local LLC, or a Houston file such as Sysco USA I Inc — before you treat a store-brand job board as Costco-style depot work or a Dollar General rolltainer route.

Pay, home time, and online ratings move by DC. Verify current figures with that operating company, on Indeed, and on the FMCSA SAFER Company Snapshot. Rules change. Verify current requirements at fmcsa.dot.gov before you act on anything in this guide.

Sysco safety record: what FMCSA data shows

Start with the federal file — and do not stop at the brand. People searching “Sysco SAFER” or “Sysco DOT number” will get a list, not a single truck. On the Company Snapshot pulled for this article, USDOT 156275 is Sysco USA I Inc at 1390 Enclave Parkway, Houston, TX 77077, phone (346) 422-3019. Entity type: carrier / shipper. USDOT status: ACTIVE. Out-of-service date: none. Authority: authorized as a motor carrier of property (except household goods) under MC-737096. Operation classification on that card is both authorized for-hire and private (property). Cargo checkboxes include fresh produce, liquids/gases, chemicals, refrigerated food, beverages, and paper products. If a recruiter hands you a different number, stop and open that card.

The same snapshot — FMCSA systems dated 09/10/2026 — lists 1,472 power units and 1,719 drivers. MCS-150 mileage is 46,399,647 for 2024, form date 02/09/2026. That is a large file. It is still not every Sysco truck in the country.

U.S. roadside inspections, 24 months before 09/10/2026 (USDOT 156275): 443 total. Vehicle 327 inspections, 56 out of service (17.1%). Driver 442 inspections, 10 out of service (2.3%). Hazmat 19 inspections, 0 out of service (0%). National averages printed on that snapshot (table dated 08/28/2026) are 22.26% vehicle, 6.67% driver, 4.44% hazmat. Vehicle and driver OOS both sit under the printed averages. Hazmat is a small sample — do not treat a 0% line as a fleet grade.

U.S. crashes, same window: 1 fatal, 28 injury, 29 tow, 58 total. FMCSA counts involvement in reportable crashes without a determination of responsibility. A file this size will show volume. Read the current card yourself.

Canada on the same snapshot: 0 inspections and 0 crashes in 24 months. Do not invent a Canadian average.

Safety rating on 156275: Satisfactory. Rating date 06/11/2007. Review date 03/30/2007, typed Compliance Review. That stamp is almost two decades old. It is not a 2026 audit. Walk the fields with our SAFER score company lookup.

Do not mix these Houston files:

• Sysco Corporation, USDOT 2215799, DBA Alfmark Transportation Co, same Enclave Parkway campus, phone (713) 584-1390. Entity type: broker. Authority: broker of property (except household goods), MC-255606. Power units: 0. MCS-150 mileage: 0. Safety rating: None. One U.S. inspection on the 09/10/2026 snapshot. That is not the delivery fleet.
• Sysco USA II LLC, USDOT 165699, MC-306337, same Houston address, 366 power units / 379 drivers, MCS-150 9,892,250 miles (2024). U.S. inspections 137; vehicle OOS 14.9%; driver OOS 1.5%; crashes 1 / 4 / 10 / 15. Rating: Satisfactory dated 03/25/1991 (review 01/22/1997). Another operating file, still not your local DC.

Local opcos are the ones that actually dispatch you. Examples from the same NAME search: Sysco Boston LLC (Plympton, MA), Sysco Louisville Inc, Sysco Albany LLC (Halfmoon, NY), Sysco Syracuse LLC (Warners, NY), Sysco Riverside Inc, Sysco Lincoln Transportation Company Inc. We pulled Lincoln as a check: USDOT 53284, MC-205330, 1100 Kingbird Road, Lincoln, NE 68521, 145 power units / 151 drivers, MCS-150 7,080,002 miles (2025). U.S. inspections 97; vehicle OOS 23.1% (just over the 22.26% printed average); driver OOS 0%; crashes 1 / 3 / 4 / 8. Rating: Satisfactory dated 03/04/2005. One Nebraska file is not Houston, and Houston is not Syracuse. Open SAFER by the number on the door.

Who a Sysco driver actually is

Sysco is a foodservice distributor that runs company trucks from DCs to restaurants, hotels, healthcare, and schools (careers.sysco.com). Headquarters sits at 1390 Enclave Parkway, Houston. Careers copy listed more than 76,000 colleagues and 340 distribution facilities worldwide. Job-overview copy on driver posts listed more than 71,000 colleagues, a fleet of more than 13,000 vehicles, and about 333 facilities. Treat those as marketing counts, not SAFER power units.

The Class A seat this article covers is the CDL-A delivery driver: tractor-trailer on an assigned route, manual unload of mixed foodservice freight, customer-facing drops, then back. Shuttle and night-double seats exist on the same board. That is the product — not a Walmart no-touch rumor, not a Costco hourly depot card, not Dollar General rolltainers at dollar stores. Same private-fleet-ish genre as Walmart truck driver reviews, Costco truck driver reviews, and Dollar General truck driver reviews — different freight, different body of work, different legal names.

Hiring bars on the Evansville, Plympton, Riverside, and Rutland posts: age 21+, valid Class A, a driving record that meets company insurability (wording varies), touch freight, overtime / weekends / holidays as needed. Preferred, not required, on those posts: about 1 year customer delivery, 6 months hand-cart work, food-and-beverage experience. Plympton and Riverside also listed a pre-employment background check and drug screen. Requirements change. Verify current hiring bars with the DC that would actually dispatch you.

Do not confuse Sysco company drivers with a contractor running Sysco freight, or with US Foods ads that Indeed stuffed into a “sysco cdl driver” search. If the W-2 says another legal name, you are not on that SAFER file.

Pay: hourly foodservice, not a CPM card

Sysco’s public Class A listings paid by the hour, with productivity incentives on top. The figures below are from public posts when this article was researched. Rates change by operating company, union status, tenure, route, and overtime. Verify current pay for your role — training rate, full rate, incentive, a slow-week example, and whether the seat is company Sysco or a contractor — in writing.

• Sysco Boston / Plympton, Massachusetts (careers listing): “Beginning Training Pay $29.60 hourly. After training $37.00 hourly.” Header also printed $10.00–$48.00 with a state-range disclaimer. Home nightly for most driver trainees. Touch freight. Apply path: careers.sysco.com.
• Riverside, California (Indeed listing): $32.01–$48.00 an hour. Local, home daily, overtime and weekends as needed. Same touch-freight summary.
• Rutland, Vermont, Sysco Albany, LLC (Indeed listing): “Start at $33.53 per hour. Full time rate after 90 days is $35.53.” Header also printed $10.00–$48.00. Local, home daily.
• Evansville, Indiana, Sysco Louisville yard (careers listing): no dollar figure on the post. Algorithmic “compensation range” disclaimer only. Do not invent a CPM or an hourly floor for that yard.
• Indeed salary page for “Truck Driver” at Sysco: about $106,205 a year from 99 postings, displayed low $50,000 / high $183,000, 26% above Indeed’s national truck-driver average. Company jobs page estimated $108,641 a year for that title. Treat those as mixed recruiting math, not a guaranteed W-2.
• Indeed “Delivery Driver” hourly page: about $19.14 an hour from five postings, low $9.55 / high $28.75. That cut can mix non-CDL, helper, and check-in titles. Do not treat it as the Class A floor.
• TheTruckersReport salary box: $980–$2,308 per week (displayed average $1,331) on a tiny survey set: $2,308 (Illinois, 06/11/2026), $1,120 (Palmetto, FL), $980 (Austin), $1,000 (Mississippi), $1,538 (Grand Rapids). Those are self-reported, not the Boston posting.

There is no public CPM card on the company posts pulled here. The product is hours + route + unload. If the warehouse is late, the trailer is stacked poorly, or the restaurant cannot take freight, the day stretches and the body takes it. A Chicago TTR note (06/11/2026) called $40 an hour “nice” on 14-hour days and still walked 7–9 miles. A Palmetto, Florida, former-employee note put base at $27.66 and said the check works if you can get close to 70 hours. Verify current pay for your DC.

What drivers actually say — including why people quit

Public review pages are not a verdict, and Sysco’s company-wide stars are not the fleet. Indeed’s Sysco page filtered to Delivery Driver, updated 09/06/2026, listed 570 delivery-driver write-ups. The 3.2 out of 5 headline on that scrape sat on 7,208 company-wide reviews — warehouse, sales, and office mixed in. Do not quote 7,000 stars as driver sentiment. Indeed’s own likes on the filtered page: ability to learn, meeting personal goals, fair pay. Areas flagged: time and location flexibility, belonging, trust in colleagues. Indeed’s truck-driver job-title block on the company jobs page sat at 2.8 from 495 ratings.

TheTruckersReport’s Sysco page sat at 2.8 out of 5 on 4 reviews, with a displayed weekly range of $980–$2,308. That sample is tiny. Weigh recent titles at your DC, not the foodservice logo.

The stay-or-quit split on driver-titled write-ups matches the queue note — this is physically heavy work, and that is why the check is higher than a no-touch local:

• Pay, home nightly, and working solo are why people stay. Recurring notes: hourly plus incentives, daily routes, benefits, staying in shape because you walk the route. Titles include “Great place to work but can be heavy,” “Excellent job for someone who wants to work its not for lazy people,” “Dont take it for granted. Great pay.” A Fremont, California, Delivery Driver title (07/28/2026) called it the hardest labor job you will have, then said the job is “easy” if you can get past that — more labor than driving.
• The body, overloaded trailers, dispatch, and hours are why people leave or tell others to run. Titles include “Run away,” “Do not recommend,” “Burnout likely,” “Horrible Sysco Syracuse HORRIBLE place to work,” “Only for the money.” An Evansville Delivery Driver title (05/28/2026) described an overloaded trailer you can barely stand in, let alone hand-truck. A Jackson, Mississippi, note (05/06/2026) called the job very demanding and personally did not recommend it. TTR (Palmetto, 02/05/2025) said home every night did not mean seeing family every day, and engineered time constraints were not realistic. A 2022 Baltimore/Jessup TTR note flagged a points system, driver-facing cameras, and a revolving door — one attributed rant, not a court finding.
• DCs are not interchangeable. Syracuse equipment complaints, Chicago union notes, satellite-yard burnout, and a West Jordan, Utah, “unload a truck on your own” training complaint are local stories. Ask which yard is hiring.

Drug tests: interstate CDL work is subject to DOT drug and alcohol testing; a refusal or verified positive is a federal issue, not a kitchen-policy rumor — see fmcsa.dot.gov. Plympton and Riverside postings listed a pre-employment drug screen. Do not invent a Sysco-specific panel, wait time, or fail rate. Ask recruiting what they run after a conditional offer.

Who a Sysco seat fits — and how to vet it

Sysco tends to fit a CDL-A driver who will live near a Sysco DC, accept restaurant multi-stop work, and unload foodservice freight by hand in weather for hourly pay plus incentives — and who wants nights at home more than no-touch miles. Shuttle and night-double seats are a different body clock. Evansville, Plympton, Riverside, Rutland, Palmetto, Chicago, Syracuse, and Lincoln are not one job. Ask which legal name is on the truck.

Look elsewhere if you will not unload by hand, you need drop-and-hook only, you will not work early or long days, you will not live near the DC, or you will not re-open SAFER the week you would start. Compare other files in our trucking company reviews hub rather than picking a foodservice logo.

1. Confirm the legal name and USDOT. The door might say Sysco Boston, Sysco Louisville, Sysco Albany — not 2215799, and not automatically 156275. Match the W-2 to the card.
2. Re-open the SAFER snapshot the week you would start. Authority, vehicle OOS, driver OOS, crashes, and the rating date. Use the SAFER lookup walkthrough.
3. Get pay in writing. Training hourly, full hourly, incentive, a 50-hour week versus a slow week, and union or points rules if any.
4. Name the work. Multi-stop restaurant delivery, hand carts, 40–60 pound cases, possible 100-pound moves, early docks — not a sleeper 48-state board.
5. Cross-check people, not just the brand. Indeed’s delivery-driver filter, TTR’s tiny sample, and a carrier search on cdlscan. cdlscan is two-sided — carriers review drivers, and you can research the house — and search does not require buying a full report. It will not replace SAFER or the offer letter.

If you have already run for a Sysco operating company, add a review on cdlscan so the next applicant is not guessing from a foodservice careers page. Search is free; a full report is paid. Neither one replaces looking up the USDOT on the truck.

Frequently asked questions

Is Sysco a good company to drive for?

It depends whether you want restaurant multi-stop work with hand unloads, hourly plus incentive pay, and home nightly — and whether that DC actually loads and dispatches. USDOT 156275 shows active authority, a 2007 Satisfactory rating, and vehicle out-of-service under the national average printed on that snapshot. Local files can sit over that average. Indeed’s delivery-driver filter is 570 write-ups, not the 7,000-review company score. Verify current pay and hours for your DC.

What is Sysco’s USDOT number?

There is not one. Houston Sysco USA I Inc is USDOT 156275, MC-737096. Sysco Corporation 2215799 is a broker with zero trucks. Your door may be Sysco Boston, Sysco Louisville, Sysco Albany, Sysco Syracuse, or another LLC. Confirm the number on the truck.

How much do Sysco truck drivers make?

Public Class A posts were hourly: Boston $29.60 training / $37.00 after; Riverside $32.01–$48.00; Rutland $33.53 then $35.53. Indeed’s truck-driver salary page averaged about $106,205 a year from 99 postings. TTR’s box ran $980–$2,308 a week on a small survey. Rates change; get the current package in writing for your DC.

Do Sysco drivers unload the truck?

Yes on the public Class A copy. Postings say manually unload meats, produce, frozen foods, groceries, and dry goods, and may need to lift, push, or move product averaging 40–60 pounds and as much as 100. That physical work is the main quit theme on Indeed and TTR. Ask whether your lane is live unload or a shuttle.

Does Sysco hire new CDL drivers?

The posts pulled here preferred about one year of customer delivery and six months of hand-cart work; they did not advertise a finishing-school seat as the default Class A job. Careers also listed a CDL Driver Academy Trainee (Non CDL) title. That is not the same as walking into Evansville as a new CDL-A. Verify current hiring bars with the DC.

Why do Sysco truck drivers quit?

Public titles cluster on hand-unload labor, overloaded trailers, early and long days, dispatch, and pay that does not match the body of work until you have a better route. Some drivers stay for hourly pay and nights at home. It is not a court finding.

Does Sysco drug test truck drivers?

CDL interstate drivers are subject to DOT drug and alcohol testing. Plympton and Riverside postings listed a pre-employment drug screen. Ask recruiting what they require after a conditional offer. Do not invent a panel.

Is Sysco a private fleet?

Careers presents company foodservice trucks from DCs to customers. SAFER still lists large files such as USDOT 156275 as authorized for-hire and private (property). USDOT 2215799 is a broker. Read the card for the legal name on your offer, not the marketing headline.

How do I look up Sysco on SAFER?

Search the brand and you will get dozens of names. Open FMCSA’s Company Snapshot for the USDOT on the truck — or start with 156275 for Sysco USA I Inc in Houston and then find your local LLC. Read authority, inspections, crashes, and the rating date.