Believe me when I say that I have found myself in a few 'pickles' during my first eight months driving. My worst was my first weeks with CFI and going into a long residential driveway (consignee on phone told me take the first right from the road I was on. Yeah, uhh...no) at night and having to blind back out onto a county road. I have gotten out of these situations usually by taking the time to analyze the situation and my surroundings. Some have been resolved with patience and some by plain luck. Regarding backing, I always take backing as a challenge to test and improve my skills. There have been some tight situations, especially places in Cleveland or Buffalo. I get a satisfaction after I am docked, that I did so cleanly and without smacking anything. Time out here has improved my backing skills to where I rarely have any anxiety.
During my rookie tour, I've made several mistakes. Okay, more than "several", no surprise to the experienced drivers. Turning into the wrong entrance. Wrong way at truck stops. Going into the shipping office when I needed the receiving office. As a result, I've gotten quite a bit of "bonus" backing experience. (Well, might as well look at the positive aspect). For those who are in school or just beginning, it took me 3 weeks on my own to become fairly good at backing. I say fairly good because I still need to get much better. After 4 weeks, I no longer fear backing, even in tight situations. Twice now I've messed up and got on rural roads not designed for trucks and I've had to turn around. Now it's hard to reverse directions on a two lane rural road. You can't turn into a normal farm driveway or a field road. It may be miles before you can find a good spot. Here is what I've done. Go to the first crossroad. Turn left onto the crossroad and get straightened out. Stop. Most of these rural roads are lightly traveled so make sure there is no one coming from either direction. Back straight up across the road until you are behind the intersection. Then it's another left turn and you can go back and get on your route. What are other techniques to get out of self imposed trouble?
The customer the freight is being delivered to. Also referred to as "the receiver". The shipper is the customer that is shipping the goods, the consignee is the customer receiving the goods.
Truck drivers who regularly pick up from or deliver to the shipping ports will often be required to carry a TWIC card.
Your TWIC is a tamper-resistant biometric card which acts as both your identification in secure areas, as well as an indicator of you having passed the necessary security clearance. TWIC cards are valid for five years. The issuance of TWIC cards is overseen by the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
Your technique could be, or could seem to be, the only option....but one must be extraordinarily careful. It takes lot longer to get our 70'ish vehicle clear of the intersection then we think it will, and the entire time we are putting other potential motorists at risk.
If I had to do that, I would put on the 4 ways, set the brake, walk to the back and check all around, return to the seat while keeping an eye that no one is getting behind me, blast the horn, carefully back up to the corner far enough for no one to be able to turn in behind me, check every which way again, blast the horn, slowly back into the intersection checking left/right/both mirrors constantly and watching to be sure nothing small is sneaking up behind me, then once blocking the intersection I'd speed up and back out of the intersection....very carefully. However, this is truly a last resort and only for if out in the middle of nowhere. If there is any way to enlist help of others, that would be better.
Probably any company safety official or really any sane person would tell us NOT to do this though....If we hit something doing this or if someone else hits us....goodbye career and pray no one is hurt. If there is no other way, the standard advice is to call the police and enlist their assistance.
What I would do first is stop away from an intersection, put on the 4 ways, and pull up Google Maps in sat view and look around and try and find a path to safety without having to back up. Usually there is a way. If we have to drive an extra 10 or 20 miles to accomplish it, that is better than putting others, and our career, at great risk.
Here is what I've done. Go to the first crossroad. Turn left onto the crossroad and get straightened out. Stop. Most of these rural roads are lightly traveled so make sure there is no one coming from either direction. Back straight up across the road until you are behind the intersection. Then it's another left turn and you can go back and get on your route. What are other techniques to get out of self imposed trouble?
Thanks Dave, you are spot on. I was fortunate enough to have made my two mistakes of this type on wide open and flat landscape. If there had been hills it would have eliminated that option. And I did use extreme caution even then, like you said. Hopefully, I won't get in that situation again. Now if I have uncertainty about my route, I try to stop in a safe spot and do a more thorough navigation search. I've found that it takes a lot less time from my schedule to do that than it does to re-route out of a mistake. We were taught at school that if we make a mistake and get off route to STOP and figure out the solution without panic. I would say that if a driver is uncertain, it would be better to stop safely BEFORE the mistake if possible.
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During my rookie tour, I've made several mistakes. Okay, more than "several", no surprise to the experienced drivers. Turning into the wrong entrance. Wrong way at truck stops. Going into the shipping office when I needed the receiving office. As a result, I've gotten quite a bit of "bonus" backing experience. (Well, might as well look at the positive aspect). For those who are in school or just beginning, it took me 3 weeks on my own to become fairly good at backing. I say fairly good because I still need to get much better. After 4 weeks, I no longer fear backing, even in tight situations. Twice now I've messed up and got on rural roads not designed for trucks and I've had to turn around. Now it's hard to reverse directions on a two lane rural road. You can't turn into a normal farm driveway or a field road. It may be miles before you can find a good spot. Here is what I've done. Go to the first crossroad. Turn left onto the crossroad and get straightened out. Stop. Most of these rural roads are lightly traveled so make sure there is no one coming from either direction. Back straight up across the road until you are behind the intersection. Then it's another left turn and you can go back and get on your route. What are other techniques to get out of self imposed trouble?
TWIC:
Transportation Worker Identification Credential
Truck drivers who regularly pick up from or deliver to the shipping ports will often be required to carry a TWIC card.
Your TWIC is a tamper-resistant biometric card which acts as both your identification in secure areas, as well as an indicator of you having passed the necessary security clearance. TWIC cards are valid for five years. The issuance of TWIC cards is overseen by the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.