Backing Practice Dallas,TX Style

I delivered at Desoto Janitorial Supply on the south side of Dallas, TX.

The street on the right side of the pic is a one way street with the flow of traffic heading towards the bottom of the screen. The side street on the bottom left of the pic is a 2 way street.

The dock is on the right side of the bldg (front) near the bottom (side) of the bldg. btw, there is a 'telephone' pole at the corner of the parking lot and is in line with the right side of the dock.

I smell a challenge-- challenge excepted, no not really, man I probably would taken an hour or more to get the trailer in.

I delivered at Desoto Janitorial Supply on the south side of Dallas, TX.

The street on the right side of the pic is a one way street with the flow of traffic heading towards the bottom of the screen. The side street on the bottom left of the pic is a 2 way street.

The dock is on the right side of the bldg (front) near the bottom (side) of the bldg. btw, there is a 'telephone' pole at the corner of the parking lot and is in line with the right side of the dock.

Patrick, you have set up a good backing practice challenge. I hope several newbies can chime in with possible solutions. I had a big set of Backing Practice™ but PhotoBucket changed policies and the photos don't show anymore. I wish I could update them here.

Using Google Earth Street View, I see you cannot make use of the upper driveway to avoid the telephone pole. Want to stop traffic and back around the pole? Come from "the back" on the side street? Name your poison!

I came in off the side street. Blocked traffic on the one way and did a sort of 45ish degree back. I did on purpose leave my tractor at an angle to avoid getting close to the pole. There was enough evidence that others have whittling it away.

Look closely at the pole. You can see chunks taken out of it.

Just in case anyone thinks to ask, that back of my trailer IS flush with the dock. I learned that little trick from picking up a little recycling center, named C T Recycling, in Atlanta, GA. The parking area at C T is too small to be straight and flush with the dock. I got creative.

I've been to a few places where if I hadn't backed in with the tractor at an angle like that, people wouldn't be able to get around.

If you look at pics of old grocery warehouse in the NE (I'm talking 70s), you'll see that ALL the trucks are parked like that. If you were to get straight, you'd block everyone else.

So it's a good trick to have in the toolbox. I've done it enough accidentally that I figured out how to do it on purpose. And it's saved my butt a few times, otherwise I'd have made more than a few people mad!

And that pole is nothing. I dropped at a place in Conway, AR where you could see where people had been hitting the BUILDING in order to get in the door. Yeah, that place sucked.