This Was A Pain In The Booty

Spend a lil time in nyc pittsburgh or chicago and these situations become much less stressfull and more like a puzzle you figure in your head then apply in person

I got the joy of a nasty little dock today in Benton Harbor MI. They tried to tell me that "Truck drivers nose into the corner by the fence to get in the dock". Really ? What am I? I spun the truck around and blindsided into it. Very nice but not real bright people. No way would a sleeper truck be able to nose into that corner.

The dock is in the largest door which isn't that big and contains 2 very narrow docks.

Oh and in situations like yours backing in off the Street. . I take control of the Street and just say eff them. They'll have to wait and I'll take as long as I need to do it safely. One scrap place I literally had to pull up onto the sidewalk on the side opposite the docks. City busses had to wait too. I just don't care. They can sit.

Theres Walmart store on the Maine route that has a sign:

"Yes, we know it is tight. No we are not going to help you. Yes others have done it."

And they used to out new drivers on that account

Funny. Not nice, but funny!

Raptor, thanks for sharing. I am still trying to get my son on here just to read, but I screen shot your post. He did his first trip from Springfield to Bakersville CA.... it was a ice cream load. I guess he was having issues but kept trying and goal’n. It was like 2 am and the guy next to him got out of his truck and ground guided him in. I try to relay everything I read here. He also scraped a trailer in training. But he is headed to to Wil-Trans HQ to drop the ice cream for a relay and get his truck looked at. His check engine light came on within 2 hours of getting it last week.

Thanks for sharing.

Wil-Trans:

Darrel Wilson bought his first tractor in 1980 at age 20, but, being too young to meet OTR age requirements, he leased the truck out and hired a driver.

Through growth and acquisition, Wil-Trans now employs over 200 drivers, and has a long-standing partnership with Prime, Inc. to haul their refrigerated freight. The family of businesses also includes Jim Palmer Trucking and O & S Trucking.

While I was OTR I posted about twenty Backing Practice™ situations that drivers may get into. Not as tough has the ones mentioned here, but I'll just say "thought provoking". Check them out.

This is a link to a Spreadsheet that is actually a list of links to Trucking Truth posts.

Well, I went to a shipper in Wisconsin yesterday, and 2 of the company drivers said to me we don't see many sleeper trucks in here and the other guy said it took him 45 minutes to get it in. So of course I wanted to turn the truck around and park it on the street. You want this product there it is..... But of course I didn't do that but I did turn the truck around so I didn't have to blindside in. I got turned around and I started to back, then G.O.A.L.ED. Moved my truck 5 ft up to get a better grip on the situation, now I'm looking at a trailer in front of me so I can't make my full turn. Back up again at an angle and looks like it may go, but goal again. Too close on the other side. Finally the yard dog moved 2 trailers so I get more room to maneuver. I get in there then a string load of company trucks go behind me as I'm backing. By this time I'm not in a good mood. And I wasn't thinking clearly, I started to back into the dock. Now my DL calls, we have been playing phone tag for awhile. I kept backing and didn't goal this time and hit the trailer on my blind side with my hinges, but put 2 scrapes on the trailer next to me. Luckily no one was in it or wasn't a truck hooked up to it. So I filled out some paperwork, took pics for the company and for Swift and sent the info to claims. So far I haven't heard anything about it.

Moral of the story, if you have to goal a thousand times, then do it. And never get distracted when backing. If your DL calls, ignore them and call back after you are safely backed into your dock.

I have never answered the phone before and I don't know why I did it this time. So it was a lousy day.

Real Diel,

Sorry if I high jacked your thread. But I now know why they should not send a sleeper to small space places to load or unload.

I've seen some of 3 company drivers struggling to get in to their docks because there isn't any room to put trailers elsewhere.

Hope this helps the next person who has a small space to back up and dock.

Raptor

No worries, Raptor. Any contribution that might help a fellow driver in a difficult situation is welcome. I'm sorry to hear about your incident. I have made a similar mistake and felt horrible about it.

Real Diehl, you think you have it bad? I have a 10 cubic foot wagon to haul behind my Cub Cadet and it's like I never backed anything up in my life. Constant GOALs and course corrections. I almost ran over my dog yesterday.

I've seen pictures of your nice, new tractor. I hope you're using 3 points of contact while you're getting in and out of it while GOALing.

Dang man you were just down the way from me too. I was table sawing some bevels in my new dunnage wood (other stuff issued had dry rot pretty bad) and hustling to re equip my box. I picked up in rancho Cucamonga like every prime flatbedder visiting so cal.

I always took Chula Vista as pretty industrial, thought that'd be easier but shows what I know.

In my vast experience of two weeks solo I can say I haven't been even close to backing issues like you box trolleys deal with.

Bruce, try spray painting some lines on your yard then you can practice your backing and mowing at the same time