Another on bites the dust..

You have any idea how long I have been around trucking? I am 60 years old and have been around truckers and this job going all the way back to when I was a kid in the 60s. I'm telling you I have been ALL OVER the United States. I have NEVER had a yard driver to mouth off at me even the first time when I asked them for help. Yes I have had a few to say they will be there in a minute, but never had one to mouth off. Then you are reporting that this was not your first time! I don't know you, but sometime you can say something and not even realize it that pisses someone off. Always remember these drivers are doing YOU A FAVOR. Honestly this job needs all the safe drivers they can get. I'm just trying to tell you that an attitude can set off a conflict, even if you don't see it. If you are ever in this situation again think about your words.

 

One thing that has not been mentioned is that the trailer was dropped by another driver that was too lazy to crank the dollies down. The yard jockey most likely had nothing to do with it.

 

In regard to trailers height there really is no blame. Yard drivers rarely mess with landing gears. Drivers just drop a trailer and pick them up. In my driving career maybe 1 or 2 trailers in 20 I had to either get help or raise the landing gears. It is just a thing in the world of dropping and hooking.

 

Not necessarily. I run into a situation all of the time where the trailer is dropped too high...whch is interesting, because I have the highest 5th wheel height in the fleet. What happens, though, is a driver drops the trailer in the drop yard where the landing gears are in a low spot. Then, the trailer gets loaded and dropped on the front line where the concrete isn't exactly level, and there's a crest right about where the landing gears are. Put them together, and you get loaded trailers that clear the 5th wheel by a couple inches or more. That works the other way, too. If a trailer is dropped by a driver on a high spot, then the yard dog moves it to a low spot, and now you can't get under it. We've got a customer that we drop a loaded trailer in a fairly level lot...then their yard dog drops the empty in a different lot and when I back under it I'll lift the legs 5-6" off the ground.

It's all well and good until you're trying to hook to an end dump with drop legs instead of the dolly legs that you can crank. I've had to get out my bottle jack and gather up some blocking to jack up the front of the trailer in order to get under it, unless I could find someone with a forklift to pick up the trailer to extend the legs a hole or two.

It's all part of the job. Either keep calm and figure out a solution, or throw a hissy fit and quit.

 

Some of us have been around the block more than a few times, and don't necessarily have to have been there to have a pretty good idea how things went down. There are those out here who take care of business, get the job done, and move on with their life...and then there are those who cause a scene and then run to the internet to vent about what an idiot the other guy was. That other guy's idiocy usually wasn't unprovoked...but that part is conveniently left out.

 

Dealing with everything with a smile gets you a lot further than a frown. I always try my best to be polite and reasonable and I can count on one hand problems that I've had in a year and a half. And none were more than just simple annoyance.

 

Treating the aholes you will encounter the way they treat you works best when you are an owner op and dont have a boss.

For company drivers it doesn't work so well. Plenty people piss me off, but i tend to forget all about them by the time my paycheck hits my account. I drive a truck to make money, not earn respect from those incapable of giving any.

 

Did you yard dog knock your teeth out before or after you stabbed him with your pen?

 

Get a year in with a clean record and move to LTL/linehaul. Linehaul is all drop and hook terminal to terminal only dealing with people from your own company so bs like this never arises. At least not at any of our terminals. Helps when you work with people who are all on the same “team”