I had an epiphany about backing up a tractor-trailer on a city street

Yes, I have seen those signs on the back of trailers saying "If you can't see my mirrors, I cannot see you." But I just did not think about that blind spot in terms of straight line backing on a public street before. I would go years at a time without straight line backing on a public street. So I did not think about the implications of the existence of a blind spot behind the trailer in terms of straight line backing until that incident about two weeks ago.

 

I am so hung up on it being a public street because the implications of this blind spot are most significant to me on a public street. The only vehicles that are supposed to be in the truck parking lots of truckstops and at the loading docks of shipper/receivers are other semi-trucks. I can see the mirrors of other semi-trucks if they are parked three feet behind the back bumper of my trailer. If I am alleydock at a shipper/receiver or at a truckstop, there are not supposed to be cars or motorcycles in the area that I am backing into anyway. So the blind spot does not matter to me much at truckstops or shippers/receivers. The blind spot really matters to me in terms of the rare occasions where I have done straight line backing on public streets. That's where I could have crashed into cars or motorcycles: Public streets.

The big epiphany is the significance of the blind spot in terms of straight line backing on public streets.

 

Do you have a person standing outside the truck watching your blind spot for you whenever you back a trailer into a parking spot at a truck stop?

I took the Smith System course at Covenant many times. That didn't teach me about the implications of a blind spot behind the trailer when straight line backing on a public street.