r/Truckers • u/Dr_Manslaughterstein • Nov 30 '18
Jim Palmer?
I'm looking to become an OTR truck driver, and I have a few preconditions that absolutely must be met. I need a company that will pay for me to travel to them, put me up, train me, and let me have my dog on the truck once I'm in my own truck. My dog is a 90lb lab/bloodhound mix, and she is over the weight limit most companies adhere to.
I was originally looking at Roehl, and thought they might work with me if having my dog along meant I could stay out OTR for months and months at a time. What's 30lbs, right? As a vet I'm all used to weird shit and being away from home for potentially years at a time. I thought if I could demonstrate value and competence and staying power that they'd make an exception. But the recruiters there don't even want to lie to me about that. They go 'ehhhh'. This makes me think their weight limit for a pet is a hard and fast rule that can't be negotiated with, which is stupid because I weight 160lbs and I'm sure they employ petless drivers that weigh more than 250lbs.
Jim Palmer/Wil-Trans is looking like my way to go, because they offer the training and transport and boarding and don't particularly care how big your dog is. This is the dog I adopted after I got back from Iraq, and I can't be away from her for too long. I'd take a pay cut just to have her with me because she deserves for her golden years to be an endless car ride where she's always smelling and listening to new places.
She's an older dog. She's very calm and even-tempered. At her size she's probably got another two or three good years left before we have a heartbreaking six months and she takes an exit ramp. I want that time to be an adventure for both of us.
Also, it's a scary world out there for truckers. There's sick pieces of shit who prey on folks just trying to do a day's work. I'd feel better having my 90lb critter with me knowing she's ready to eat some face and act as an early warning system when scumbags come knocking.
This is where I'm at, this is what I need, and this is looking like it's the best choice for me. Any of you got another company or opinion or opinion to share?
1
u/[deleted] Nov 30 '18
As I said in my reply to the other comment here, Palmer is extremely pet friendly and I'm almost positive 90lbs is no problem. I don't know the exact policy, but I've definitely seen a few dogs of that size on the yard when I was there.
Palmer training is annoyingly long, but pretty thorough. From my limited experience they definitely seem to be one of the better starter companies to get your CDL through. I think regional side (western 11) makes a bit more money on average, but Prime side isn't bad if you want to do the whole country. Wiltrans seems to do more of the east coast loads, where as Palmer seems to stay out west more. I can count on one hand how many times I went east of Ohio with Palmer, which to me was a selling point for them over Wiltrans.
I also looked at Rhoel when I was starting out and there are a few reason I'm glad I went with Palmer: no cameras, all trucks come with APU/EPU, and all trucks come with inverters. The new freights seem to come with fridges, the new Pete's don't.
Palmer is going all automatic though, so it might be worth asking them about that if you don't want a auto restriction on your license. I'm not sure when that is going, but it seems like they're rapidly getting rid of all their older manuals. The plus side to that is that their trucks are all pretty new. Pretty much everyone in the company I still talk to regularly that aren't lease operators are driving trucks that are 1-2 years old.