Jim Palmer Wilson Logistics Training Montana

Don't think the overnight driving is so much a rule as a guideline. I did one night drive while in D-seat but the rest were days. Now C-seat was a different storey. On our second trip it was full steam ahead.

Matthew W., good to know there is another Wilson Logistics driver here.

Hey there Kelly, I am a solo driver for Wil-trans. Nice to see another thread on here for our company, good luck to you in your training period. I should correct a tiny bit of information here, your trainer actually can have you drive nights during D-seat. The reasoning behind this from what I was told is that since he is in the passenger seat next to you he can help keep you out of trouble, I don't necessarily agree with this whole heartedly. especially if you are driving one of the '15 or '16 vehicles as they have some pretty crappy dim headlights and there is no way the trainer can save you from making serious mistakes, just try and coach you out of them from the passenger seat. Anyhow, I did some night driving when I was in D-seat so figured I'd pass that bit of information on to you. As for the loads, you get some good ones and some bad ones. That's just kinda part of the job. Best of luck on your training and keep us posted!

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.

Hey Matthew, thanks for the info. They certainly made it sound like a rule but it's all good for now as Ed prefers to drive during the day. It will be interesting to see if we drive as a team as I progress. He told me that's something he typically does not do. I'm good either way as I've said, his house his rules.

Day 6 So, I can fall asleep like a baby, which I did listening to classic rock...but staying asleep is a different story. Woke up at 3am ( the usual) and made my way out of my bunk at 3:30am. Was able to have my coffee and hang out in the drivers lounge and catch up on some emails. Now 6:50am and my trainer is still crashed out LOL. We'll figure out a routine for the next 3 weeks.

We did 262 miles to Idaho falls with some breaks in between to practice some backing. Nice to have the time to do that.

We stopped at Walmart, the funny thing about that is we took a wrong turn and ended up in the parking lot! Imagine that, an 80,000lb vehicle manuvering up the lane toward the store. Definitely some shocked looks on people's faces but all went well and got out of there with no issues.

Trainer is great, very patient and always looking for opportunities to educate me and guide me.

The shorter miles are good to get conditioned slowly as I usually jump in with both feet and I can see where that could be an issue out here trying to do too much to fast.

Tommorow should be 300+ to get to where we need to be for Monday delivery.

Thanks for tuning in and be safe out there.

Cheers!

My best bit of advise from my own experience so far is slow down. By far my biggest opponent has been myself, I came from a career that was go go go before this job so I was used to just blazing a trail. It is very easy to wind up in a rough spot when you don't slow down and think through what you are doing. Take it slow, and pick your trainers brain every chance you get. You're only on his truck for a short amount of time, and there is a large amount of information you need to attain to be successful in this career. That being said I believe anyone can be a trucker as long as they are willing to put in the time to learn to do the job. Also, no matter how good you think you are at backing... GOAL(Get out and look) every single backing maneuver for your first 6 months solo. You're still learning perception and you really don't want any preventable accidents, most of your accidents are likely to happen at truck stops. I had a really silly accident at a truck stop during my solo week which resulted in a sit down with our training coordinator here at wil-trans. Luckily it didn't result in me having to do another 10k miles with a trainer before another solo week and I still got to upgrade to A seat right away. However, he told me to always ask myself 3 questions as I go through my day. I'll list them here for you to use as well.

1) What could go wrong? This can be anything from bumping into a truck while backing into a truck stop to tire blow outs etc. Ask yourself all the time what can go wrong right now?

2) How can I prevent this from happening? Obviously for the backing bump you want to get out and look. For tire blow outs you can check your tire pressure every morning during your pre-trip, etc.

3) When should I do this? The answer here is always right now. Do you're pre-trips every day, even when you don't think you need them. Always get out and look when you have even the slightest question as to if you're gunna hit something. And even sometimes when you think you have it perfectly in there.

Hope these 3 questions will help keep you safe, they're doing wonders for me.

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.

My best bit of advise from my own experience

1) What could go wrong? This can be anything from bumping into a truck while backing into a truck stop to tire blow outs etc. Ask yourself all the time what can go wrong right now?

2) How can I prevent this from happening? Obviously for the backing bump you want to get out and look. For tire blow outs you can check your tire pressure every morning during your pre-trip, etc.

3) When should I do this? The answer here is always right now. Do you're pre-trips every day, even when you don't think you need them. Always get out and look when you have even the slightest question as to if you're gunna hit something. And even sometimes when you think you have it perfectly in there.

Damn great advice Matthew, thank you for taking the time to post that! Cheers, Kelly

I wont bore you with the day to day so I'll be back in a few weeks with an update once I'm back to the yard to take CDL test.

Cheers!

Thanks four your post I started training today at Jim palmer

Any updates? How is the D seat training going?

Thanks four your post I started training today at Jim palmer

Good luck, ask lots of questions! There are no stupid questions, only stupid peiple because they didn't ask when they had the chance to learn.

Ok, I'm back to recap 4/7 to 4/23 Montana to south of salt lake, back north of salt lake, then through again to drive across I80 and Nevada to the Bay Area. From there, Central California to southern California, to East of LA then up to Bellingham. Over to Wenatchee down to Redding CA to switch me into another trainer's truck as first trainer was heading to AZ for home time. From there up to Tacoma area the next morning for early delivery the next day. I drove the Majority of miles but trainer took over so we didn't run my 70hr clock out. We got to a Wilson yard with 20 minutes of drive time remaining which brings us to 04/18. 4/19 To Toledo Oregon, then down to Corning CA. Off at 5:30am to get down to Redlands CA then up to Barstow, CA for a 34 hr reset. New trainer had been on vacation so he was not going to pick up any hours at midnight. With that being done, we left at 4am Monday to get to Missoula by Noon Tuesday. Monday we split our 14 hour clock running the rest of California, through Nevada, Arizona, Utah and finishing in Idaho Falls for the night. We made our appointment window arriving at 10:30am for a live unload that took about 3 hours. After, we headed to the yard where I got to do a few 90 degree practice backs. I found out I would be testing the next morning, Wednesday, 4/24.

As a side note, the 34 reset wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The 1st night is a normal night so really it's only a day and the next night. I went on a 8.3 mile desert hikes enjoying the blue skies and sunshine and got to meet a desert turtle, pretty cool!

Not sure how to attach a photo so hopefully the below link will work.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xY3TVVCJDThQkpT67

Cheers, Kelly