Lines help a lot if they are in the right place. I think the driver was way out of line though. Backing into a dock with no guide lines is just something you have to deal with if your a driver.

ill throw in my .2cents if you all dont mind,
i am a new driver only 4 months in,
so, being a new driver i can kind of relate to this guys problem.
i have found that it is a lot easier to back in with some type of guidince. when no lines are painted on the ground, and i feel as tho i may have a problem backing into a dock, ill go and find something, anything at all. a stick, a soda can. a peice of trash. something, and ill set it on the ground and ill use that as my guide. however, i deliver to a lot of places that have docks, and the driveway is all stone, you can paint stone, it never works. i have done a lot of backing in my postion. and im not good at doing it, however, i am better then a lot of people that i see doing the same thing as me, and the reason is because i get out and look.
if it were to make any suggestion to anyone that has docks i would recomend paint a line, cause your always going to get new drivers such as myself. it really does help out big time
but i would never go flippin out, thats just wrong. cause after all, we are supposed to be able to preform our job function, which includes backing upto docks....

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Thanks for the laugh

I've never chewed on a customer. But I have told them..."Keys are in it, show me how."

Just wait till you get to some of the really "good" locations. It's not always a "dock", and it's not always a line. If you ever do mom and pop furniture delivery, you will see some of the most insane set ups in the world.

One of my personal favorites...the alley No dock, no backing, just pull up to the back door. Then they tell you how to get to the back door

Mirrors damn near scraping the walls on each side (if you didn't have to fold them in to begin with), after you used the sidewalk on the left side of the street, to make a right turn, with your tandems slide all the way up, and maybe a inch of clearance on your trailer coming around the corner...same going out too. You keep your fingers crossed that some dumb### hasn't parked right at the corner of the alley going out.

Or...that left hand turn. Made from the far right lane of a 4 lane that includes a turn lane, downtown. But because you didn't think the guy was serious. Your first attempt was from the turn lane. You got it right...after they stopped all the traffic, and let your stubborn ### back out into the road to "do it right this time" LOL

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I'm gonna kill the next SOB who tells me I look stressed out.

--Unknown

For my part, I really like to have lines. There are always those days when nothing seems to be square in the world, even after doing this for a while. Proper lines (a very good point) are a big help.

danc694u reminds me of my first big "oh ####" backing chore. Delivering to a Navy facility in Bremerton, WA or there-abouts. With military driver as ride-along escort I was advised to simply make a u-turn around the qauanset hut at the end of the pier. Three quarters around the turn, the trailer touches the quanset just in front of the rear wheels. Reverse u-turn, no rails, thirty feet over the water and puckered so much I couldn't have gotten out of the seat if I had fallen off the edge.

I must have survived though, I am still here.

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Once I was young,
And went alone,
And wandering lost my way.

When a friend I found I felt me rich;
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circa 950 AD

Lines help a lot. But if he had plenty of room then it shouldn't be to hard. The hardest dock I have ever hit in my life was MAC Paper in Houston. Man Screw that place.

would some one look silly if they pulled out a peice of chalk and drew a line ? I think thats something I might do lol but then again I still dont have my CDL. But I like the cone Idea too

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Chalk sounds like a good idea Besides all it comes down to being able to get my ramp in so i can get ya unloaded. As a matter of fact I might just use chalk until i figure out exactly where I want to paint my lines

Quick tip.. you aren't going to make everybody happy with a line LOL

Some like the line under the tire edge...some like the line outside the tire edge. Personally, I don't care as long as its a line I can see.

Just use carpenters square against the wall. Then use a plumb line(?) to mark the line. It's a line with blue powder chaulk on it, not sure I have the name right. Use a co-worker to help, you'll be able to tell when it's straight (with the square)...snap the line and go. About 45 seconds total to mark a single line

Of course, then you have to actually paint it

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I'm gonna kill the next SOB who tells me I look stressed out.

--Unknown

Chalk Line. The guy probably has an excuse for every dock he bumps about why he cant get it in. Some people just deal with the fact that they cant back up that good and work with it. Others have to blame the whole world.

Thats very true LOL I had a co-driver struggled for 20 minutes one day...with lines. No other trucks in a HUGE parking lot.

He comes out of the truck..over to me says " #### it, you back it in"

He couldn't back a truck to save his life.

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I'm gonna kill the next SOB who tells me I look stressed out.

--Unknown