Alley Dock In Action

Fantastic thread!

Errol and Steve- great posts. Errol- thanks for starting this thread. Very educational. Keep posting. I not only learn things that will help me as a trucker, but I learn about things that I didn't think of, and I learn intelligent questions to ask questions.

I haven't done this stuff in the real world and I don't want to sound like I'm super awesome... cause I know I'm not, but the one you posted in your first post doesn't look all that bad, you even have a good amount of pull up room. Some of the ally docks they showed us in school in videos from the 70s looked easily 10x worse than what you did... but I wasn't there so I didn't see what you had to deal with.

good job.

So.... You haven't had the honor to make an alley dock, yet it "doesn't look all that bad"?

First, I didn't claim to be super awesome myself. This particular one is fairly straight forward, and as I said in my first post, it is similar to one our instructors "scared" us with. I posted an example from real life, that's all.

A weakness you have, Phox, is to judge others when you yourself have little real experience in the same thing you're judging.

I've been solo for nearly one year. I know more now about operating a truck than I did when I passed my CDL. Please wait till you at least get some road experience before you begin passing judgement.

I wasn't trying to judge you at all, in fact I wasn't trying to say I was better, you're better or anything. I was just trying to say it didn't look as bad as some of the stuff I have seen in videos in my class. I even said Good job at the end of the post. I don't think I know more than you or anyone else. Heck I could have 20 years more experience than you and I still would not claim to be an expert... at anything. I refuse to believe anyone is an expert at anything, there's always room for improvement and getting better.

Sorry if you took my post the wrong way and it offended you or upset you, I didn't mean for it to be taken that way.

Great job Errol. Some days backing is easier than others. I have backed into some places I had no idea a truck would fit. Worst for me was backing into a paper plant and through it to get to their tank. I took me an hour with a spotter if that tells you how much fun it was. The plant could have made life easier by not stacking cardboard bundles so close to the painted drive path they had. I asked if they could move the last row and they refused. I got it in there but boy was it eye opening. In your case they weren't going to mive the building so you learn to deal. That's what we do. Makes you appreciate the places with lots of room more.

Phox says,

Sorry if you took my post the wrong way and it offended you or upset you, I didn't mean for it to be taken that way.

Phox, this is one of the problems with written conversation, instead of talking over come coffee. You miss all the other expression and it's easy to misunderstand. I gotcha! The apology is mine.

Phox says,

Sorry if you took my post the wrong way and it offended you or upset you, I didn't mean for it to be taken that way.

Phox, this is one of the problems with written conversation, instead of talking over come coffee. You miss all the other expression and it's easy to misunderstand. I gotcha! The apology is mine.

I'm sure a couple more generations from now and they'll learn how to interpret emotion in text without emoticons... i mean look how much stuff has changed since i was a kid and don't get me started on when you were a kid... back in your day you had brick phones for a mobile phone... and pagers... actually we had pagers when i was a kid i don't think i'm going back far enough... I think in your childhood they used smoke signals to communicate hahahaha

Phox imagined the "old days":

i mean look how much stuff has changed since i was a kid and don't get me started on when you were a kid... back in your day you had brick phones for a mobile phone... and pagers... actually we had pagers when i was a kid i don't think i'm going back far enough

Phones were wired to the wall and stayed in the living room.

"Pagers" were the kids who turned the pages of the music for a piano player.

There were four channels on the TV, which had a black and white picture.

Cars had carburetors. And everybody drive stick shift.

Phox imagined the "old days":

i mean look how much stuff has changed since i was a kid and don't get me started on when you were a kid... back in your day you had brick phones for a mobile phone... and pagers... actually we had pagers when i was a kid i don't think i'm going back far enough

Phones were wired to the wall and stayed in the living room.

"Pagers" were the kids who turned the pages of the music for a piano player.

There were four channels on the TV, which had a black and white picture.

Cars had carburetors. And everybody drive stick shift.

Ahh the good ole days lol

Phox imagined the "old days":

i mean look how much stuff has changed since i was a kid and don't get me started on when you were a kid... back in your day you had brick phones for a mobile phone... and pagers... actually we had pagers when i was a kid i don't think i'm going back far enough

Phones were wired to the wall and stayed in the living room.

"Pagers" were the kids who turned the pages of the music for a piano player.

There were four channels on the TV, which had a black and white picture.

Cars had carburetors. And everybody drive stick shift.

And the spoken word was our primary form of communication...

Great thread Guys.

Here's the tight alley dock I had to do today. It's s lot like the "horror story" an instructor told us about.

The black area is a warehouse. My truck comes from the left, along the side (bottom edge) of the warehouse. I'm supposed to back into the spot where the left blue trailer is, next to the blue dot.

The only extra space I have is the small square of asphalt the other side of the alley road, good for pulling up. I'm backing right next to a wall, so there's no grace on the right side.

Yes, after a bit I get it in.

There's even instructions on how to get out. (You can't simply turn right, there's a warehouse there!)

Personally, I would have gone out into the big open area to the left of the docks (right side looking at it in the picture) and backed in as a driver side back, but that's just me.

Good job backing in and not hitting anything. I always try for a driver side back whenever I can, even if I have to go to the end of an alley/row/etc to turn around to make that happen. I feel like I have better control of the situation doing a driver side back. Have always hated doing blind side backs and avoid whenever possible.

Ernie

Ernie explains himself:

Personally, I would have gone out into the big open area to the left of the docks (right side looking at it in the picture) and backed in as a driver side back, but that's just me.

That's exactly right. Here's a few more details: medium grey is asphalt, the "white" is concrete - the driveable areas. The little square "pull up" area is surrounded by yellow posts and beyond that is grass - a "no - no" in an area used by trucks. Entry and exit is on the road coming in from the left. That little angle thing pointing to "4 o'clock" is a walkway - yellow posted so no trucks get on it.

Your description is what even the guard says to do: on the alley road, pull past the dock, then it is a driver side 90. The pull up area just takes the pressure off for getting in the dock on the first try.

As I said before, after a bit of experience, this is not much of a problem to get into. But for students working on their CDL skills test, this is the worst of it! Come to think of it, a student driver who has tried the range alley dock, with those tiny cones and painted lines, just may find this one much easier to do!