Overnight Parking Etiquette At Customer.

Been flat bed and specialized for over 2 years, but have recently been getting a few dry van loads. For flatbed, if your parked at a customer overnight you tend to just park out of the way somewhere overnight. With these dry van loads thete tends to be less space. I was wondering about dry van deliveries if it is acceptable practice to pre-stage the night before and back up to an open dock for the night? I understand this is more a customer preference, but at the same time I want to make sure I am not violating some well known dock etiquette before I get yelled at in the morning.

Any other input would be welcome here too.

That would depend on the size of the customer, appointment time and number of docks. When a customer has only one dock, it's usually ok. In larger places, I have parked by a gate or some out of the way place. When I park at a customer, I make sure I'm up and ready to go before they open. Hope that helps.

Safest bet is to just call, or have CS contact, the customer to find out. Typically though, if a customer does allow overnight parking on their property, it's not allowed on a door, but in a separate section of the lot like outside the guard shack. As long as you're not one of the scumbags who keep ruining Wal-Marts for us (leaving trash and waste everywhere), you'd be fine.

Yeah, I just got chased out of a Walmart that used to allow a few trucks to park....unfortunate, since it is the only place within 2 miles of the DC that has 24 hour bathrooms....I have a female student with me so cannot park the other place i've parked around here before - beside a movie theater.

everyone - please don't throw trash or any nasty stuff anywhere but proper receptables.

to the OP - most distribution center don't have any parking and if they do rarely do they allow parking in a dock without advance authorization. a tiny fraction of places do allow this, more often at direct shippers of products that they mfg or end user receivers. best bet is to call ahead and ask, as other poster mentioned

Safest bet is to just call, or have CS contact, the customer to find out. Typically though, if a customer does allow overnight parking on their property, it's not allowed on a door, but in a separate section of the lot like outside the guard shack. As long as you're not one of the scumbags who keep ruining Wal-Marts for us (leaving trash and waste everywhere), you'd be fine.

Thanks for the info. Customer ended up apologizing to me, lol. Parked in front of only open door for the night. Got woken up an hour before my appointment and had to move one door over. Seems someone took the keys for the truck that was parked infront of the only door I could unload at home with them. Had the rear doors open and paperwork waiting too. They told me I would have been unloaded an hour early if not for their truck being parked in the wrong place. Trucking moments lol.

Thanks for the info. Customer ended up apologizing to me, lol. Parked in front of only open door for the night. Got woken up an hour before my appointment and had to move one door over. Seems someone took the keys for the truck that was parked infront of the only door I could unload at home with them. Had the rear doors open and paperwork waiting too. They told me I would have been unloaded an hour early if not for their truck being parked in the wrong place. Trucking moments lol.

This morning, a guy broke down right in front of my dock. It was really a tight squeeze getting in there, at a place that should have been easy. The guy was on the CB asking someone to come get his trailer and dock it for him...but he couldn't move out from under it, so I don't know how he thought anyone was going to do that, unless he expected a guy to chain to him and pull him as well. Later, I saw a tow truck arrive...the solution needed.