A bone to pick w/ Bobtails

If you are all familiar with the Flying J in Albuquerque, you might remember on the back row there is a half space thats behind the parking lot floodlights on the backrow. When two trucks are parked on either end of the lamp base, that spot is unusable. But the last time I was there, an oversized load driver had dropped his gooseneck trailer in the spot to the right of the lightpole and parked his bobtail behind pole. He did that because when he backed in, the nose of his Pete shot a good 8 feet into the parking lot. Not wanting the hood of his truck taken off, he dropped the trailer and backed the bobtail in there. There were actually drivers complaining about that over the CB about how he was taking up 2 spaces. Apparently they couldn't grasp that the space behind the pole is basically UNUSABLE when two trucks with trailers are parked on either side.

 

If they had a trailer, they'd need the full size spot. If they're driving an oversize SUV that takes up not even half the spot, they don't. I've never not found a place to park bobtail at a truck stop that didnt waste a full spot. sometimes you can even park right next to the terminal. Seems like a pretty courteous thing to do.

 

Or just a whiney little thing to complain about. All any one ever does anymore is either complain or try to tell other people how things should be. It doesn't matter how well you're doing for yourself, someone will take it upon themselves to tell you how you're wrong and can do it better. If you've got 25 years experience, someone's got 26 years and knows better. If you think driving 3000 miles is easy and reasonable, someone else will complain that you're working too hard. If you're happy at .37 CPM, someone else will tell you you're an idiot for not demanding more.

Truck drivers are just a bunch of complainers who will never be happy or mutually respect each others decisions.

 

LOL. You got that right!

 

Nah, this clearly comes down to either being courteous or being a douche. You come into a parking lot pulling a trailer, you've got a problem if there isn't a 70 ft spot available to put the thing in. If you come into a parking lot bobtail, you don't have a parking problem. You can park that anywhere. Why not be a nice guy and let the other guy with the real problem off the hook?

 

Couple of simple rules I try to follow when parking bobtail:

1. Try the car area first.
2. If that isn't available, try to find what would be either impossible or very difficult for a full rig to get into.
3. If all else fails, take a full spot. However, don't park at the very front of the spot. Park back a bit...at least make it easier for someone to get either in or out.

 

I want to complain about that statement, lol.

 

More like "lovely area but hate the truck stops" would be more accurate. I mean just trying to pull out into traffic from the Loves or TA onto that frontage road in Troutdale is enough to cause a rage attack. Jubitz...that place is an overpacked circus. The T/A in Wilsonville is the only one that didn't seem totally awful.

 

You can't. Someone might complain about it.

 

Uh... NOT!