Why Do Drivers Do This?

Something I cannot figure out, but maybe someone can explain, is why a driver will, instead of opening their doors before starting to back-in, they will struggle to get their truck lined up with the door first, AND THEN STOP, slowly walk to the back of the trailer, open the doors, fool around with the door ties a bit, then slowly walk back to the cab, and then back straight in, ALL THE WHILE THE WHOLE YARD IS AT A STAND STILL WAITING FOR THIS DRIVER TO FINISH. There is no valid reason to do this.

Instead, open your doors in a spot that doesn't block the traffic flow, if there is a problem with your door tie, deal with it (bungie, etc). THEN back in and let everyone go on their merry way.

Thank you very much

Mike, I do that because I CAN, and it aggravates the other drivers waiting.

My best dock work is to get lined up with 3-4 Get Out And Looks, then slide the tandems to the back and finally open the doors. Should take maybe 7-10 minutes of YOUR TIME for all this. Thank you for your patience.

Or you could have the issue of a shifted load. One of these times, they might open it where you think they should and then voila, cargo blocking the entire parking lot instead of just the lane they're backing into. Me personally, I'm more like Errol and did it because I can and because I recognized someone being impatient. Like he said, it's 7, maybe 10 minutes tops.

You could sit and listen to Freebird, there's 13 minutes and 12 seconds you'll never get back.

If you're in a bumpy parking lot with a lot of potholes some of the less secure chaining mechanisms will come unlatched and your doors will start swinging in the breeze. If I had one of the types that would tend to pop loose I would often wait until I was almost at the door or almost at the nose of the trucks I was backing alongside before opening them.

Be careful not to let the small stuff drive you nuts out there.

It is easier to get your trailer lined up to the dock with the doors closed.

I usually won't hold up traffic for this, but I don't like my doors being open while I'm moving. As someone else said, the last thing I wanna do is pick up boxes from the lot. If I'm empty different story.

I know a driver who backed in with his trailer doors already pinned back, and then at a certain point decided that he needed to pull up and reposition to get in the dock correctly. During the process of pulling up, he caught the hood mounted mirror of the tractor sitting in the dock next to him with the open door on his passenger side, and tore the guys hood half off.

Later on, once he got about a year and a half in with that company, he lost his dedicated run. When he couldn't get another dedicated account that got him home every weekend, he started looking for another job. He told me that the accident mentioned above cost him more than one job opportunity, and that it would take 3 years for it to drop off his record.

He told me that no matter how many scowls he is issued by other drivers, he will never open his doors again until he can straight line back into the dock.

This type experience isn't as bad as divorce, but like divorce it can be educational.

This is why you shouldn't back with your door open.

(It won't let me add the link... Keeps saying it's an invalid page.) You gotta Copy+Paste to watch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SBH1ivoEjw&sns=em

You could sit and listen to Freebird, there's 13 minutes and 12 seconds you'll never get back.

Thank you for making me genuinely lol!

You could sit and listen to Freebird, there's 13 minutes and 12 seconds you'll never get back.

Thank you for making me genuinely lol!

Anytime !!!! I may not have the best veteran info to pass along but I can definitely get people to laugh on occasion.