For anyone that goes to these huge distribution centers with rows and rows of tightly dropped trailers i tip my hat to you. Dropped a trailer at a wal mart DC yesterday, took me 10 mins lol and 4 getting out and looking maybe more. Today the spotter caught me on my first attempt and he said drop it in the aisle and he will take it. Definitely hurt my pride a little I’m still thinking about it haha. The yard spotters definitely have it down, 1 shot each time.
Oh trust me I been doing this a while, I know it’s all in the set up. I haven’t been to a place like that in a long time. Tight, spotters zipping around, etc. made me realize I need to brush up on my backing skills. I can back a 12’6” wide load thru a 13’ gate, cant back a 53’ van into a tight spot at a distribution center lol.
Still? I dealt with those guys 20 years ago and most were okay. The deplorable conditions of some of those container yards would make anyone crabby. I asked one guy why they had such big holes, he said, many years ago, they used to bury the guts from the slaughter yards, and no amount of gravel can fill them. Some guys were just downright jerks. This guy in the Neenah( Wis.,,is there another Neenah?) found out the hard way. Our company had mostly older large cars, this guy would purposely drop wagons in a puddle an inch apart. Good friend of mine asked if he could give more space, he just laughed, my friend turned around, and roundhoused the guy to the ground. Needless to say, he was banned, did the guy learn a lesson? Probably not. I can say with all honesty, I thought the folks in Chicago were okay.
Don’t feel bad, I couldn’t back for anything when I first leased on to Tralo. All my years pulling flatbed and getting around tight farm yards with a cow trailer and long truck didn’t mean a thing.
definelty helps when you do it often. When i started on my own I was leased to an outfit pulling vans, I did pretty good I’d back in anywhere. Been a good while since I back a 53’ van in steadily, I definitely was rusty and lost that skill.
