Jim Palmer Trucking Based In Montana

Gerard A,

I agree with you that this company does really look like an amazing company and yes I was drooling over the brand new equipment. Personally I'm hoping to get the Peterbilt 579 since from what I can see it looks like the sleeper cabin on it is a bit larger and the mattress looks bigger. Anyone out there that knows if this is true or not please let me know? I'm a big and tall guy at 6'4 so larger sleeper cabin is very important to me, as is also a thicker more sturdy mattress that would better hold mh weight since a good night's sleep makes me a safe driver.

I currently drive a 2014 579 for Decker Truck Lines. It's like an in between the 386 and the 586. So I'd say it's slightly roomier than a 386, but less so than the 586.

For anyone paying attention to this still, I'm actually in Montana right now with Jim Palmer going through my first week getting my CDL. I got the permit for Montana yesterday and when we got back to the terminal I was in a truck doing laps around the yard to learn to shift. After that the trainer drove us to a truck stop outside of Missoula and we did laps around the parking area, then had lunch and I ended up driving the truck back. This was all bobtail , we came back to the yard got the trailer and drove some more.

When I applied to Jim Palmer I had already done my home work, I spent a couple of months researching, weighing pros and cons, then started wrapping stuff up at home so I could do it. Then I came across Allie and Valerie's stuff, and applied with Palmer after applying a couple of other places. The application process took a couple of weeks, they verified references, verified employment. They are a subsidiary of Wil-Trans and Wil-Trans is part of Prime's Advanced Fleet Program.

The training program and pay is very much the same as Prime's because when I asked about the similarities the short answer was "What Prime is doing works." And I believe that since I applied there too.

Right now I'm getting the 1 on 1 treatment from the get go. Out of the applications they had the phone interviews and checks they did I'm the only student this week. This may not be the case but I lucked out big time. Everyone here has been so friendly and have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome. They put your name on a sign at the front door to welcome you your first day.

I've met nearly everyone in the building including the owner, and I don't have any complaints right now. If the company is this good at the door I don't think I'm going to leave any time soon.

They are trying to get more people in the door but they don't mind being choosy about it, every driver Palmer brings in is a risky investment for the company because it's unsure if the prospect is going to stay in this day and age.

I guess I lucked out, I'm going through the full program with them and yes you do have to sign the one year contract. I'm from Texas originally and this was a major life change for me especially in employment lol.

If you are interested in Jim Palmer continue talking to the recruiters, they aren't blowing smoke the company is doing good with what they have now but they do want to grow but don't mind growing slowly, and Haley is a good recruiter, first time she met me she handed me her card and let me know call day or night if I ever needed help with ANYTHING.

If theres any questions I can try to reply as I go through the program. I'm in Missoula till the end of the week then I'm going OTR for a bit with an instructor so I can come back and pass my CDL exam.

Hope this helps someone out.

CDL:

Commercial Driver's License (CDL)

A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:

• Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
• Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.

Bobtail:

"Bobtailing" means you are driving a tractor without a trailer attached.

Terminal:

A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.

OTR:

Over The Road

OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.

OWI:

Operating While Intoxicated

OOS:

When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.

Wil-Trans:

Darrel Wilson bought his first tractor in 1980 at age 20, but, being too young to meet OTR age requirements, he leased the truck out and hired a driver.

Through growth and acquisition, Wil-Trans now employs over 200 drivers, and has a long-standing partnership with Prime, Inc. to haul their refrigerated freight. The family of businesses also includes Jim Palmer Trucking and O & S Trucking.

For anyone paying attention to this still, I'm actually in Montana right now with Jim Palmer going through my first week getting my CDL.

Hey there Jeff,

Let me be the first to congratulate you on living the dream. Please keep us updated on your progress. On the outside, it looks like a great company to be with and I wish you the best.

For anyone paying attention to this still, I'm actually in Montana right now with Jim Palmer going through my first week getting my CDL. I got the permit for Montana yesterday and when we got back to the terminal I was in a truck doing laps around the yard to learn to shift. After that the trainer drove us to a truck stop outside of Missoula and we did laps around the parking area, then had lunch and I ended up driving the truck back. This was all bobtail , we came back to the yard got the trailer and drove some more.

When I applied to Jim Palmer I had already done my home work, I spent a couple of months researching, weighing pros and cons, then started wrapping stuff up at home so I could do it. Then I came across Allie and Valerie's stuff, and applied with Palmer after applying a couple of other places. The application process took a couple of weeks, they verified references, verified employment. They are a subsidiary of Wil-Trans and Wil-Trans is part of Prime's Advanced Fleet Program.

The training program and pay is very much the same as Prime's because when I asked about the similarities the short answer was "What Prime is doing works." And I believe that since I applied there too.

Right now I'm getting the 1 on 1 treatment from the get go. Out of the applications they had the phone interviews and checks they did I'm the only student this week. This may not be the case but I lucked out big time. Everyone here has been so friendly and have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome. They put your name on a sign at the front door to welcome you your first day.

I've met nearly everyone in the building including the owner, and I don't have any complaints right now. If the company is this good at the door I don't think I'm going to leave any time soon.

They are trying to get more people in the door but they don't mind being choosy about it, every driver Palmer brings in is a risky investment for the company because it's unsure if the prospect is going to stay in this day and age.

I guess I lucked out, I'm going through the full program with them and yes you do have to sign the one year contract. I'm from Texas originally and this was a major life change for me especially in employment lol.

If you are interested in Jim Palmer continue talking to the recruiters, they aren't blowing smoke the company is doing good with what they have now but they do want to grow but don't mind growing slowly, and Haley is a good recruiter, first time she met me she handed me her card and let me know call day or night if I ever needed help with ANYTHING.

If theres any questions I can try to reply as I go through the program. I'm in Missoula till the end of the week then I'm going OTR for a bit with an instructor so I can come back and pass my CDL exam.

Hope this helps someone out.

Sounds like an amazing place to get your cdl and start driving!! Congrats and good luck!!

CDL:

Commercial Driver's License (CDL)

A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:

• Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
• Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.

Bobtail:

"Bobtailing" means you are driving a tractor without a trailer attached.

Terminal:

A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.

OTR:

Over The Road

OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.

OWI:

Operating While Intoxicated

OOS:

When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.

Wil-Trans:

Darrel Wilson bought his first tractor in 1980 at age 20, but, being too young to meet OTR age requirements, he leased the truck out and hired a driver.

Through growth and acquisition, Wil-Trans now employs over 200 drivers, and has a long-standing partnership with Prime, Inc. to haul their refrigerated freight. The family of businesses also includes Jim Palmer Trucking and O & S Trucking.

I thought I would give an update, I didn't want to flood this thread with posts (high-jack it), but also I just wanted to give an update about my experience with Jim Palmer.

In short, it's been awesome.

I completed the 1 week training phase at the terminal , then met up with my trainer. He's a great guy, but if you're messing up he will let you know it, but at the end of the day he always gave a full proper feedback on stuff I needed to work on, and advise on how not to mess up on the same item in the future. I've had my good days I've had my bad days, I did the majority of the driving and even got to back into a few docks at shipper/receivers which again some where good others made me want to hide lol.

It's basically just like Prime's PSD phase. I had money they could advance me but didn't need to use any of it because I had saved enough for this venture to survive on my own. It truely has been an eye opening experience.

I came back to the terminal last Thursday night, they wanted me back early so we could work on the pad with my backing. For some reason I just had not been getting it. I couldn't do 90's my straight lines didn't end up straight, and I couldn't offset well either. I was nervous I had to take my test on Tuesday 4/05/16 and if I didn't pass even though I had a retake already scheduled, I thought I would fail in my goals.

My trainer is a lease op and I felt guilty that he had to hang around for me even though he needed to make his revenue for his lease payment and his household I didn't want to hold him up and I just felt so down in the dumps about it I thought I wasn't going to make it.

Then a minor miracle happened. The 16 hours we spent on the pad worked. By Sunday I was doing 90's, doing offsets, and doing straights to the point my trainer stopped giving me instructions and just let me do it, all 3 over and over and over again. I was messing up less, it was going into the box more and by Sunday night I was able to do all 3 backing maneuvers without really needing to get out and look and I only needed 1 pullup for the entire set.

I was also nervous about my shifting, up and down. Sunday I did okay with my trainer. Monday when the training staff came back from being off on the weekend I ran with them and got a little better. I ran again before my test on Tuesday and saw more progress.

And you know what?

I passed my test the first time!

I believe all the worry all the doubt is really what was making me have issues. Minor panics kept me from seeing what I needed to be doing, and being afraid to try something different on the 90's versus what everyone else told me worked for them was causing me to fail in that, so on a whim I tried doing something different (a bigger cut at the end so I could see the back of the trailer since my depth perception is a bit off) and it worked!

So now I sit here, at the hotel (my trainer went ahead and took a dispatch for a short load while I was taking my test, we're going to florida when he gets back tomorrow) a fully licensed CDL driver waiting to begin the next (paid) portion of my training.

Everyone here at Jim Palmer has been awesome. Of course everyone at the terminal new I passed before I got back so the recruiters where blowing up my phone to congratulate on top of everyone at home on facebook blowing up at my news I passed, it was truly an awesome feeling to succeed. When we got back to the terminal I got more congratulatory comments from the training staff, the rest of the guys in recruiting, the dispatchers and FM's it was a humble experience.

So now I go on to complete 30,000 more miles of driving before I do a check ride with a guy from on boarding and get my own truck.

At this point I don't care if it's a Pete or a Cascadia, new or used it'll be mine and I'll drive the wheels off it lol.

Thanks for reading and I hope this update helps someone in the future. :)

Thanks for an awesome update Jeff and congrats on gettin the job done! Glad to hear things are going so well over there.

I put in a app talked to a recruiter from Jim Palmer and he transferred me to will trans in Springfield Mo I have a clean mvr its blank paper i have no Felonies no Dui dwi i have worked for same company for 5 years and they told me they wouldn't except me into the training program and told me that more qualified people have applied so i think they are just looking for ex military to hire

That's strange, I am same way, applied and they called me with in a week and said everything was Good To Go and wanted to know when I wanted to start. Told them I have a few loose ends to tie up so may be closer to August before I can get to school. They said that was fine to keep them posted.

I put in a app talked to a recruiter from Jim Palmer and he transferred me to will trans in Springfield Mo I have a clean mvr its blank paper i have no Felonies no Dui dwi i have worked for same company for 5 years and they told me they wouldn't except me into the training program and told me that more qualified people have applied so i think they are just looking for ex military to hire

Anything new..Guessing you are either out on your own NOW or should be fairly soon. I am looking at coming to JPT soon as well

For anyone paying attention to this still, I'm actually in Montana right now with Jim Palmer going through my first week getting my CDL. I got the permit for Montana yesterday and when we got back to the terminal I was in a truck doing laps around the yard to learn to shift. After that the trainer drove us to a truck stop outside of Missoula and we did laps around the parking area, then had lunch and I ended up driving the truck back. This was all bobtail , we came back to the yard got the trailer and drove some more.

When I applied to Jim Palmer I had already done my home work, I spent a couple of months researching, weighing pros and cons, then started wrapping stuff up at home so I could do it. Then I came across Allie and Valerie's stuff, and applied with Palmer after applying a couple of other places. The application process took a couple of weeks, they verified references, verified employment. They are a subsidiary of Wil-Trans and Wil-Trans is part of Prime's Advanced Fleet Program.

The training program and pay is very much the same as Prime's because when I asked about the similarities the short answer was "What Prime is doing works." And I believe that since I applied there too.

Right now I'm getting the 1 on 1 treatment from the get go. Out of the applications they had the phone interviews and checks they did I'm the only student this week. This may not be the case but I lucked out big time. Everyone here has been so friendly and have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome. They put your name on a sign at the front door to welcome you your first day.

I've met nearly everyone in the building including the owner, and I don't have any complaints right now. If the company is this good at the door I don't think I'm going to leave any time soon.

They are trying to get more people in the door but they don't mind being choosy about it, every driver Palmer brings in is a risky investment for the company because it's unsure if the prospect is going to stay in this day and age.

I guess I lucked out, I'm going through the full program with them and yes you do have to sign the one year contract. I'm from Texas originally and this was a major life change for me especially in employment lol.

If you are interested in Jim Palmer continue talking to the recruiters, they aren't blowing smoke the company is doing good with what they have now but they do want to grow but don't mind growing slowly, and Haley is a good recruiter, first time she met me she handed me her card and let me know call day or night if I ever needed help with ANYTHING.

If theres any questions I can try to reply as I go through the program. I'm in Missoula till the end of the week then I'm going OTR for a bit with an instructor so I can come back and pass my CDL exam.

Hope this helps someone out.

CDL:

Commercial Driver's License (CDL)

A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:

• Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
• Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
• Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.

Bobtail:

"Bobtailing" means you are driving a tractor without a trailer attached.

Terminal:

A facility where trucking companies operate out of, or their "home base" if you will. A lot of major companies have multiple terminals around the country which usually consist of the main office building, a drop lot for trailers, and sometimes a repair shop and wash facilities.

OTR:

Over The Road

OTR driving normally means you'll be hauling freight to various customers throughout your company's hauling region. It often entails being gone from home for two to three weeks at a time.

OWI:

Operating While Intoxicated

OOS:

When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.

Wil-Trans:

Darrel Wilson bought his first tractor in 1980 at age 20, but, being too young to meet OTR age requirements, he leased the truck out and hired a driver.

Through growth and acquisition, Wil-Trans now employs over 200 drivers, and has a long-standing partnership with Prime, Inc. to haul their refrigerated freight. The family of businesses also includes Jim Palmer Trucking and O & S Trucking.

I applied with Jim Palmer and was also transfered to Wil Trans since they are closer to home. The application was simple and everyone did seem friendly and like they wanted to know you personally which was a great feeling. However, since they are such a small company you really DO need to have all your ducks in a row when it comes to employment, background check information, and so on. They gave me quite some flack (which I feel they were valid in doing so) about my employment history/gaps and hopping. They did seem very interested in my story and my hunger for becoming a trucker. Depending on what they tell me tomorrow morning I may choose them over Swift if all goes well.