Truck Stop Backing Incidents

Let me preface this by saying that I'm very new at this. 6 months out here on the road and tonight something happened to me, that has happened before, but the other drivers response irked me so much and completely blew my mind. Simply put, he backed into my trailer. Tail to tail. This is the 4th time in 6 months and I'm swearing off pull through spots for the rest of my career. It threw me from the bunk so I (admittedly irritated) went to talk to the driver that hit me. When I went to his door, since he couldn't be bothered to climb from the cab and see if he hurt his own trailer, I told him he hit me. His response was "Nah man I just bumped you." So I know this is going to go well. I asked him to pull forward so I could check and see if there was any damage. He then lashed out at me asking if I was serious, how long I had been on the road, and betting me $20 that there was no damage. I finally threated to call his safety department and that got him moving. There wasn't any damage and that's fine. It's the end of it. I really don't care. My question is, is this a common thing out here? Some of the people I've run into would rearrange this dudes teeth with a tire thumper, and he acted like it was no big deal. I'm just trying to figure out if I'm in the wrong. I mean, I'll hit people every night if it's just the status quo....

That kind of bumping is not common. But you know from your own experience how hard it is to judge that distance at the back of the trailer.

I think you did the right thing to give the guy a hard time, but you could have drawn the wrong card and he could have given you a harder time!

Hard time given, let it drop, life goes on.

I don't park at truck stops overnight at all. Well at least not if they're busy. Either way I think i've done it twice in the past year. Time is money and i don't have the time to deal with repairs because of someone elses mistake. If i need to take a shower or wash clothes i do it from 10am to 2 pm outside of cities on a two hour break.

I don't park at truck stops overnight at all. Well at least not if they're busy. Either way I think i've done it twice in the past year. Time is money and i don't have the time to deal with repairs because of someone elses mistake. If i need to take a shower or wash clothes i do it from 10am to 2 pm outside of cities on a two hour break.

Where DO you park? I'm very motivated to avoid truck stops ...

I'd love to not park at truck stops, I didn't know this was an option.

First, keep in mind i tend to have late endings to the day since i'm in flatbed. I tend to stop on the 9pm or later side which gives me more options in business parking lots. But some of what i'm listing is available any time, like behind stores.

Rest areas, still a risk but usually pull through parking so it's a much lower risk, shippers or consignees(even if i'm not delivering to them that night if i'm familiar with them), walmarts, behind lowes, behind home depot's(lowes and homedepot both are friendly to my company since we have large contracts with them both), hobby lobby's(always empty, how do they even stay in business?....), menards, tractor supplies with enough space, shopping centers(strips) big enough to hold a truck but small enough to not be called a mall, weigh stations, on ramps/off ramps that don't have no parking signs with large amounts of clearance from the road(can be seen using satellite images, preferably on ramps near the start due to the lower travel speed of traffic at that point (but this is still a ticket risk however small), occasionally you'll find a mall that will allow you to park if you sign a waiver of liability. All of those can be planned ahead of time with a little google maps searching in the area near where you're wanting to stop. If i'm going to certain types of areas like big cities with no space premium(i.e. not chicago, but like bourbonnais or joliet on the outskirts) i can usually depend on finding a large closed down business lot, also found using maps.

I think in all of my avoiding truck stops overnight for about a year and a quarter, i've received one 75$ no point parking ticket, and been shoo'd off from one walmart by property security before i even closed the door to go inside. I'd say the grand majority of my parking is the combination of rest areas, behind lowes, and consignees. I usually only park at walmarts when i need supplies or for the weekend. Also keep in mind i'm at times liberal with where i park because i'm always in the truck(no coming back to find it's gone) and usually have a plan B nearby in case i get shoo'd away during the night.

I left out kmarts.

I know that in my area, a lot of trucks use the 24hr McDonalds & B-King also.

He hit you so hard it threw you out of the bunk, but didn't damage your trailer? He got lucky then, and must have been lined up near perfect with you.

To answer your question no I don't believe this is very common, in almost a year out this has never happened to me and I always take pull throughs if I can. That or maybe it has, but I never felt it and there was no damage to my trailer. Are you pulling far enough into the spot? If the rear of your trailer is sticking over the line, that could be part of the reason it's happening a lot. Not blaming you, obviously it is the fault of the driver who hit you, but four times in six months seems excessive.