Feeling Discouraged - Afraid To Park At Crowded Truck Stops

Btw... there is no shame in paid parking. I called ahead for the TA in Jessup MD outside baltimore. .. the Flying J in West memphis ar.. and others. Knowing there is a space for you might reduce your stress level. Often the spaces are wider and are easier to get into. It can get costly ao you can't so it every night... but if you have an evening Appt and already paid for parking the. You have a plan. As a woman I can say that men are more likely to help guide you than they are to help other men. Guys have jumped out of the teuck to help me at 3am... yet laughed at men on the CB for not backing well :(

The Truck Smart app for TA/Petro has reserve-a-space built in. You can also get your shower pass on your smartphone.

I generally park at rest areas, which is where I am now. Not nearly as crowded, right back on the road and easy access spots. Cuts down on spending as well. If I need a shower I try to get a midday one or stop early for the day.

I always look for the easiest parking spot, often that means a spot on a corner or by a traffic lane

F.Y.I. - These are the parking spaces where the most accidents occur as well.

An excellent point. Which means I need to clarify my statement. I never park on an outside edge or corner. As mentioned, these are the spots where most accidents occur. Even though they are easy to get in/out of, they are trouble waiting to happen.

When I say a corner or traffic lane what I really mean is an inside corner. For example, if the lot is just a square with parking around the edges and something occupying the center of the square (the truck stop building, fuel island, or pull through parking) then the spots at the corners face an open travel lane. In order to back into the majority of the spaces in the middle of the sides you would need to do a 45 degree backing maneuver. However, to pull into those few spaces on the edges you simply turn the corner and as soon as your trailer is inline you can straight back into them.

I hope this makes things more clear and not less so.

Oh, heck, I avoid truck stops as much as possible. Like a few previous commenters, I stop during the day for a shower, then find somewhere else to shut down. Too much craziness going on.

I went through stages in my first 4 months solo. These days I can hit most spots reasonably well, but sometimes I just look at a spot and keep rolling.

The first thing I'll suggest is not to back unless you have to. You are going to be required to back into docks. If you are able to get into docks with a bit of work, your skills will improve over time. For my first month on the road solo, I almost never backed except at docks, or REALLY easy spots in truck stops.

When I started, I didn't park inside any metro area truck stop. If I couldn't avoid it, I tried to time my arrival so I would arrive at the truck stop at noon-2PM. Even the most crowded truck stops generally have a few open spots that time of day.

If you have the skills to back without banging things together, with a bit of work, you will improve over time.

For me, the hardest basic backing maneuver is STILL straight line backing more than 30-50 feet. I'm a little bit crooked every single time I park or dock. The nose of my truck will be about 3-4 inches off center in the hole. I have faith that one day I'll finally figure out what's going on and be able to back and park straight.

Funny, I thought of this thread tonight when I parked for the night. I decided to park at the TA in Gary, IN. I knew I was going to be coming in after 21:30 so I picked this stop because it has a ton of parking. I found a decent spot with two guys standing close by. I'd had a long day and honestly hoped they would just leave me alone. As I started backing in, one of them started yelling at me that I was gonna hit his truck. I knew I wasn't lined up right and would have to do a couple pullups, but I wasn't even close to hitting his truck. After using a few choice words I went and found another spot, which I backed into with zero problems. That dude irritated me so much...so frickin disrespectful and rude.

Not really sure how much this contributes to the thread, other than to reinforce what just about everyone else has said about avoiding the crowded truck stops if you can. I'm sure I could've avoided this one, but I wanted a free shower lol. And whoever said truck stops are worse than docks is 100% correct.

Funny, I thought of this thread tonight when I parked for the night. I decided to park at the TA in Gary, IN. I knew I was going to be coming in after 21:30 so I picked this stop because it has a ton of parking. I found a decent spot with two guys standing close by. I'd had a long day and honestly hoped they would just leave me alone. As I started backing in, one of them started yelling at me that I was gonna hit his truck. I knew I wasn't lined up right and would have to do a couple pullups, but I wasn't even close to hitting his truck. After using a few choice words I went and found another spot, which I backed into with zero problems. That dude irritated me so much...so frickin disrespectful and rude.

Not really sure how much this contributes to the thread, other than to reinforce what just about everyone else has said about avoiding the crowded truck stops if you can. I'm sure I could've avoided this one, but I wanted a free shower lol. And whoever said truck stops are worse than docks is 100% correct.

One guy yelled at me "how l9ng have u had your license?". Me being th e witch I am replied "a week.. so be thankful I didn't run your ass over when you got out your truck" hahaha

Hahaha

I think that other people were a huge part of my nervousness about the backing. I'd be at customers taking 20 min or more and guys would honk or fly around me. Yell. Some got out to help me only cause they couldn't get to their door with me blocking. Others were truly nice.

Once i got into the "I'm from NJ and they are just going to have to wait cause I'm soecial" attitude I concentrated on the backing. Lol Yesterday I blocked two lanes of street traffic backing into a dock. The cars had a choice... wait for me or turn around cause they certainly couldn't go through me. The local people know trucks block that road so it is their dumb fault to driving it while I'm backing.

At truck stops if they blare their horn or yell I just pull my brakes and say "now what?" Screw em.... I want the spot I can get into

Try to go for spots that have three or more open in a row. You might not get into the one you want... but getting in any is good