Ask a Yard Dog

Hey guys and gals,

Figured I'd throw this out there for anyone who might have a queston or two. Been doing the yard dog
/shuttle gig for about two years now at a major DC in Ohio.

Dealt will all kinds of stuff and pulled tons of different trailers.

So if you got any questions, thoughts, or just want to yell at me, throw her on here. Just wanted to give everyone a chance to ask the other side of the fence.

 

Least at my work we try to 'gently' hook up to the trailers because hitting it hard like that really beats up the fifth wheel. It does happen now and again during winter though because sometimes we need to get a running start to get under trailers if theirs a lot of ice around.

We don't have many owner op trailers around here anymore, mostly the big companies, but when they do come in we tend to take as much care of them as possible.

Good way to stop that though is when you drop the trailer, drop it at height with the fifth wheel so the driver doesn't have to try as hard to get under it.

 

I'm sure the yard dogs being jerks will come up a lot. So I'll take a second and address that first. Yes, some of them are just quite pricks like any job. But things to think about, while we deal with plenty of cool drivers and get along fine with them. Theirs also plenty them come in with attitudes and I can do whatever I want attitude. So giving we see the worst sides of some drivers, we can have a tendency to come out more harsh then actually intended.

As for your actual question. We do have a quota usually of trailers to move per hour and sometimes are just plain busy. It can be hard to stop and do something like that when we don't have the time. I try to help drivers out whenever I got a chance, but if theirs a trailer that needs put in the door ASAP, I'm gonna do that. My only other thought is the guys just a jerk.

One of the buildings I run at has very tight spots like that. Usually I'll try to leave an open space in between loaded trailers to save the trouble. That way you ain't fighting to crank the gear and I don't have to run over and help.

 

Just giving an example on why they might refuse. When we have a move in our computer (a move being putting a trailer in a door or pulling one out) it has to be done immediately. That's our job after all.

As I stated, if I'm not busy, I got no problem doing it. Another common thing be lifting trailers up that are too low to the ground. Same deal there.

Just like in any job, some people are just plain pricks or lazy. I think the difference with my company is all our yard guys are CDL holders and have driven a big truck. So we've been there. Some places don't require cdls at all for their yard guys.

 

Haha. We actually refer to ourselves as Yard drivers. I just used yard dog for this because most people know the slang term over what we actually use.

Yard dog does fit pretty well though, we are very protective of our lot.

Do like the sound of field fox though...