00:05 And I wanted to ask you, what stands out for you the most in this show? I mean, there’s hundreds and hundreds of booths and exhibitors here. What catches your eye?

00:15 Blondes and redheads.

00:18 There you go. Jose.

00:25 Welcome to Six-Figure Trucker, the podcast where we share advice on how to be successful in trucking and have fun while doing so. We’ll share stories, news, and advice on how to earn six figures in trucking, and we’ll speak to guys and gals that are already doing so. Let’s get to the show. Hello everyone and welcome to the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. And you know if you listen to this space, it’s a place where we elevate and celebrate the drivers that work for Norton Transport, all drivers in particular because we this country wouldn’t roll on without them. They’re very important. Of course, they’re essential for the success of Norton Transport and we’re very grateful for all of them. And this week, we have taken the show on the road. We’re in Louisville, Kentucky at the Mid-America Trucking Show and we’re having a blast here. This place is huge and we’ve got one of our favorites. We’re not saying that just because he’s here, but he’s joining us live here in person. And that is Jose Palma. Jose, welcome in.

01:25 Yeah, you look like you’ve had a good time already today.

01:28 Already? I started super early. I’m super excited. Well, you know what? We going to we’re going to go free. I’m like Norton got me. We chilling. They got me the room. I’m at the freaking Marriott chilling super on the top floor chilling. I mean, I do have a little bit of advantages because I’ve been booking with Marriott for a while. So, my status got me up there, but God, it feels good to get a little something back cuz I all put my blood, sweat, and tears into Norton Transport. Let’s get it. And that’s a fact there. He does put his blood, sweat, and tears into it. We’re very grateful for it. And I see here in front of us on the table here at MATS, Mid-America Trucking Show, you’ve got a nice colored drink there. A little fruity looking thing there. What is that?

02:12 Yeah, that that is a little fruity, but it has they told me they put a couple of shots of vodka in there and it’s like Bahama. They call it Bahama Mama.

02:23 Yeah.

02:23 But you know, it’s all good. I mean, for me, this is a one day vacation to represent my company to do what it is. What is possible, what’s not possible, what is real, what is attainable. And I’m here. I mean, I’m blood sweating tears. Norton, man. Like I sent the text to the bosses like Jose Palma, you should put a hyphen on that, Norton. That’s good. Jose Palma-Norton. Now, we’re very glad that you’re staying with us here. And it’s you know with this drink you have in front of you. It’s almost like you’re on a cruise but on land at a trucking show.

03:01 Yes. Yes.

03:02 Well you know this is called the Six-Figure Trucker and you are I mean we don’t want to get too personal with you but you’re definitely a six-figure man.

03:09 Yeah. Yeah. No Six-Figure Trucker. When I say that like you know coming from where I come from I got it’s going to take I don’t know maybe next year gross without paying taxes. I’m about to hit a million—

03:21 That I’ve made with Norton. A million.

03:24 That’s awesome.

03:25 Without police following me, without know what like it’s it these are the these are real.

03:30 You’re listening to Jose Palma here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport. This particular episode, we’re live at the Mid-America Trucking Show here. And you know, when Jose was talking about he’s a closing in on a million bucks, you have to understand Jose is a deck driver, one of our very best. And explain to them people who may want to get into deck driving what kind of characteristics, traits, and abilities you have to have to do deck driving, which is one of the highest levels of driving there is. Well, in the beginning, you’re going to get sold the biggest dream in the world, but there’s a lot of give and take. Give and take and learning what it is, which like in my level when I get to talk to people that haven’t gone through the struggles that I’ve gone through, it’s the avenues you got to take because everything ain’t the same. You can’t look at a load and look at the numbers and be like this is my end-all.

04:33 Like everything changes and it and it’s dedication. That’s the biggest thing I can tell. Everything changes as it goes.

04:44 Now, you were talking about your background. Tell us from where you came from as a young man, as a teenager to where you are now. Well, with teenager, I mean, the short and the long, which it could get long and get long-winded from New York, Queens, let’s get it, baby. 50 Cent, all that. What you see is what you believe, you know. So, from what I saw is what I believed. And running the night life, running the club’s life, getting to touch that. It is fun. I got to touch a lot. There comes a time in life when you start hitting 30s, 40. I’m about to be 50 in a couple years. And you gotta you got to figure out what I’m going to do forever. Nobody thinks about forever. I don’t think about forever, but this is definitely a pivot point in life if you get to learn the skill, make some money, and I don’t know about anybody else.

05:45 All you need to have is a little GED and a little CDL experience and you can make 150,000 a year.

05:53 You’re a straight-up kind of guy and you didn’t you don’t like to take people down a path. That’s not true. It does take a lot of effort and a lot of work to get to where you are. Tell us about that path that you did take when you from the when you first came on. I’m assuming you started in singles and what it’s taken you to get to the point where you are now as a professional driver. Hey. I started in singles. It was my path to get away from everything. I didn’t have a whole bunch of things on my plate to worry about, which I always tell everybody in driveaway, people come from different walks of life. Like, just cuz you come from this, come from that, you can’t expect much when you first start. You got to put some you got to put some work in. Figure out the game. The game is for everybody to take. Once you learn the game, it’s off to the races. Then you can figure out multiple companies, multiple stops, multiple this, but you got to or you could stay loyal like it’s different for me.

07:01 I didn’t look for much. I just wanted to be loyal to Norton and it worked out for me. But as long as you learn the game, learning the game is number one. After that, everything is easy.

07:15 You know, you were talking about being here at the trucking show and staying loyal to Norton, but treating this as a one two-day vacation. What’s it like being here in this massive trucking show?

07:27 It is super different. I have my ignorant ways of looking at stuff.

07:35 Igloo ways. No. Ignorant. Ignorant. Ignorant. Ignorant. Ignorant. Okay.

07:40 I’m a Colombian American from the hood. So—

07:43 You could take that to your imagination. I’m not going to put it out there like that.

07:48 But in the end, it is very accepting and when you get when you grow and live in life, it’s bigger than what you might just see just cuz all you know is what you know. And that’s for me coming from where I come from. And the greatest thing about trucking, well, it’s not even trucking. Driveaway. Driveaway. People come from the craziest places. You cannot be a full-time trucker and then come to driveaway thinking, “Oh, this is a way out. This is a lifestyle.” You— driveaway is not trucking. To me, driveaway is driveaway. Totally separate. And the deck singing requires people to have a little bit more knowledge than the average single driver. Just a little bit, which you need to have because you don’t want to lose a finger, a arm, a leg, a truck fall on you. Like there’s there is aspects to the game that are very important.

08:55 But in the end, when it’s easy, it’s easy because you learn the game responsibility, doing the decking, and making over 100 grand a year. I mean, how can you beat it wrong? As opposed to bumping docks and pulling a trailer, having time schedules, and a whole bunch of dumb stuff that I never did. And here I am 7 years later in the game. I’m late in the trucking game cuz I’m 45. But Jesus Christ, had I known I could do this when I was 21—

09:34 You’d be retired.

09:35 I’d probably be retired.

09:36 Yeah, absolutely. Well, we’re very happy that you’re enjoying life and things are going great for you. But I was going to ask you on the on this trucking show. Yesterday we had Big E, Eric Ryan on. He said hello. Yeah. Yeah.

09:49 I was trying to meet up with him today, but he had to leave. But you know, Eric loves trucks. Goes nuts about them. He lives the truck life.

09:56 He’s from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

09:59 Are trucks that big for you? Do you go to bed thinking about trucks or do you say I just need to know my next load?

10:05 I would like to love knowing more about trucks, but I know the basics and moving them. I’m like a woman that looks super freaking good and you just let her be like, “All right, it’s fine.” As long as she knows my name. I’m that guy. As long as I know what the truck is called and it looks nice, that’s who I am.

10:31 Gotcha. You spend a lot more time mentally and physically in obviously transporting the truck and that’s where your focus is.

10:39 Yes, it is. It is. It is. I don’t know all the I mean I would love to cuz same like cars you know like I know what a SS Monte is and all that I know what a Peterbilt that I know when I hear it but the ins and outs I’m not so into it but hey who doesn’t like a truck that got chrome lights they call it chicken lights at night because at night when that truck is lit up from the front to the back— It’s super cool. I don’t do that cuz we do driveaway. Every so often we get a cool truck that might have some extra lights.

11:18 Mhm.

11:18 But I’m not, you know, I’m not there at that. But I respect it.

11:24 Right now, you guys being deck drivers, you usually don’t have to use the sleeper. But do you have a truck in particular that as the horse you prefer one over another? Like mechanics has told me before, to me the Cadillacs of trucks, hands down is always Peterbilt, Kenworth.

11:42 Yep.

11:42 All day, every day. But I’m always stuck moving Freightliners and Western Stars.

11:48 I got you. Can you tell that much of a difference between Peter Kenworth and all the others?

11:54 The bells and whistles are always the biggest different thing. So when you go with bells and whistles, it’s just when you sit in the truck and you just start touching but buttons, you see little various like there is literally heated seats as what you see in a car. So these trucks got heated seats and then there’s a button for AC seat like the seat gets cold. I haven’t seen a car I mean maybe in like Volvos or Mercedes or but like in a regular 9-5 man affording something they don’t have cool seats.

12:35 Gotcha. Well, tell us I mean that’s got to be nice to have temperature controlled seats either way. Not just warming you up, but you can take it back down if you need to.

12:43 Hell yeah. All day every day.

12:46 Tell us what’s your plans. What’s Jose going to do today after the truck show? Well, you got the PG version and the rated-X version.

12:54 Let’s meet somewhere in the middle.

12:56 It’s actually going to be the middle, man. Because I’m just here enjoying the vibe. Happy that John actually called me because Justin and Michael didn’t call me, but you know, they’re always busy doing what they got to do.

13:16 Sure.

13:16 But John called me like and I’m like, you know what? I can make it over here. And any given time that I could represent Norton, which I represented as much as I can, and as the bosses tell me, you always got to undersell and oversell. I’m a overselling guy because it’s possible.

13:37 Well, as long as you deliver.

13:39 Yes. Because what I can do, you can do, too. There’s, you know, there’s always obstacles, up and downs, all that. Like I’m a real person, you know? So in the end you if you get to hear my voice to hear all that like you can Google search all that it’s real in the end. There is bumps and rolls and things you always got to earn like anything else in life. But in the end it is a family. It is a family and this is my family. Jose Palma aka Norton for life. Let’s get it. You’re very correct. It is a family. And let’s branch that out. Within the family, what member of the family would you call yourself? Are you a father? You a grandfather? You’re a brother? What would you call yourself?

14:29 I would call myself the uncle—

14:32 Because the uncles love me. They love the uncles. Cuz I was just at the office yesterday. And all my little dispatchers, my little safety that gets forgotten because like I told the like I told S I was like listen it’s not nobody don’t like safety it’s just safety is the grim reaper cuz guess who watches us doing what we do if we do whatever they watch our back so when we mess up and make like a left when we said a right safety’s there to check them now we got our dispatchers— They work super hard and all that. So I come I show them love. I show my dispatchers love. My supervisor above the dispatchers. Everybody does the same. But I understand I’m only one person. Every dispatcher in Norton has 50 drivers. Norton got what three 400 deck drivers and then on top of that they got like 700 single drivers.

15:34 So, I have to give a little bit of leeway when they don’t answer my call and I’m cursing them out. Everybody, if you get to listen to this voice and you get to the end of this podcast and you a Norton driver or you do this driveaway single, give it a chance.

15:52 Now, you were talking I’m sorry.

15:53 No, no, just give it a chance. Just come through the office and have a face to face. Your attitude will change about it. You’re listening to Jose Palma here on the Six-Figure Trucker brought to you by Norton Transport and we’re on the road here in Louisville, Kentucky at the MATS event here. And I wanted to ask you this. You said you stopped in the office yesterday. Where did your travels take you before you got to the office? Where did I’m assuming you dropped a load, picked something up. Tell us kind of walk us through that.

16:20 Well, my load I had a stomach issue. So this month I was super slow because whatever I’m getting old. So my load was going to the lead truck was going to Greenville, South Carolina.

16:35 The other three trucks I already forgot. I just moved so many trucks. So from Greenville I already knew that I could just drive a rental to the office and I had to get my check for driver of the year 2023.

16:48 Do ty baby. I had to get this money because knowing they’ll give you the money, but if you don’t show your face and take a picture, they ain’t going to give you the money. So, boom. I had to go there and show love. I mean, I already know everybody again. I’ve been there seven years.

17:04 We’re a family, man. It’s a family reunion when you drop in—

17:07 All day, every day.

17:08 Did that girl get your attention? I saw you look away there.

17:11 I mean, she got a little red hair and all that, but—

17:14 Anyway, back on the track. Back on the track here.

17:16 So, yeah. All I know, hit me up. Anybody that listening to this later, I got your back. And I’m a regular schmegula Norton driver, seven years tough. And I’m working on being the go-to guy that everybody needs to like complain about. And I got you. Let’s get it, man. Driver mentor aka logistic advisor Jose Palma. Let’s get it.

17:52 Also known as deck demon. And I wanted to ask you what stands out for you the most in this show? I mean there’s hundreds and hundreds of booths and exhibitors here. What catches your eye?

18:05 Blondes and redheads.

18:08 There you go, Jose. Jose, thank you very much for joining us. We’ve had a great time with Jose and I’m sure you will too when you listen to this episode at the Mid-America Trucking Show. Jose, thank you so much.

18:20 Yes. Thank you, John. Man—

18:21 There you go. Blondes and redheads. What about brunettes?

18:23 Blondes and redheads, man.

18:25 There you go.

18:25 It brings the color out.

18:28 We’ll see you on the next one.

18:30 Let’s go.

18:36 Six-Figure Trucker is brought to you by Norton Transport. Norton Transport is a driveaway trucking company that customers can rely on. It offers excellent independent contract driving opportunities to professional, courteous, and qualified drivers that can provide the kind of service we deliver. If you’re interested in learning more about Norton or just want to subscribe to the show, check out Six-FigureTrucker.com. That’s Six-FigureTrucker.com.