Backing - Learning Something New Every Day

So a few hours ago I had to back into a ridiculous dock at a grocery distributor in LA. Narrow entrance, terrible headspace, no staging area, no turn around room.

Some spots one could maybe blind side into, but the best of the terrible options for most of the spots was to do a 90 from the street into their crummy little lot, then a tight 90 into the hole.

However, unless one got lucky enough to get a spot without a truck on the right, there just wasn't enough room to follow the trailer in. Every portion of the wall ahead and every pole in the place was colored with markings from bumpers and fenders. My truck doesn't have a scratch on it and I mean to keep it that way! But, I was struggling, until another driver gave me an idea:

Back up to the space. Slide the tandems fully rearward. Pull away at a 45 degree angle. Crank hard right and back up. After well into the hole, release the tandem pins again and slide 'em forward. Now, you've got room to make the turn. Once straight, slide 'em back again if necessary....line up and done. Beautiful....and none of my paint is on the wall!

Brilliant idea! But three tandem slides for one docking? Whew! Sometimes I've moved the tandems all the way back to increase precision in getting the tail of the trailer into the hole, but I left them there.

Can you get a screenshot of the place on the map Satellite View and post it?

The daily life of a local driver.

Sounds pretty rough there in Lower Alabama, Dave.

Sounds pretty rough there in Lower Alabama, Dave.

Does LA stand for Lower Alabama, Lower Arkansas, Louisiana, or Los Angeles?

Well, the third one was just to put the tandems rearward for loading. Really only the second move was remarkable...and that just due to lack of room. If they emptied the place out it would look easy, but there were a lot of extra objects all in the way of getting a proper setup to begin with, and I drew the worst spot.

Brilliant idea! But three tandem slides for one docking? Whew! Sometimes I've moved the tandems all the way back to increase precision in getting the tail of the trailer into the hole, but I left them there.

Can you get a screenshot of the place on the map Satellite View and post it?

Los Angeles

Sounds pretty rough there in Lower Alabama, Dave.

Does LA stand for Lower Alabama, Lower Arkansas, Louisiana, or Los Angeles?

Dave, I've actually been intending to practice such a setup just to see it in action. I'd love a diagram illustrating it, if anyone could post one.

This sounds like the Alberts in Vernon part of L.A. I had to help 3 other drivers back into their docks by stopping 4 lanes of traffic (two in each direction). Then having to keep them from hitting the others that were already there.

But Dave reminded me of a situation in TX that taught me a huge lesson. I was second in line at this receiver and was given an easy dock to pull into. But being a rookie & not being in any particular hurry, cost me big time.

That easy dock became a thread the needle type deal when the trucker behind me was given a dock ahead of mine. Had that driver waited, it would easy peezy for both of us. Instead I had to to an open area, make a u turn & do a blind side, pull up when I had enough room to squeeze between trailers in front of me & finish with an offset.

After all this, an older driver pulls into the lot. I offer to detach the tractor so that he could pull into his spot next to mine. He calmly declined $ waited for me to be unloaded. So I’m done, pull out to the right cause I don’t believe I fit trying to turn left. By the time I pulled to another open area, made my u turn & cane ariund, that driver had thread the needle between the truck that blocked me & the trailer I almost hit trying to do what he did. To this day I still wish I’d seen how he did it.

This is Alberts in Vernon, CA. The red line indicates a fence with yellow poles along it.

This is receiver in Denton, TX. Notice the trailers in the docks have no tractors attached.