The sygma in Charlotte always have dropped trailers across from the dock that they somehow always forget to move.
Hard docks.......what was the worst docks you had to back into??
Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by dirtjersey, Mar 5, 2013.
Page 3 of 12
-
-
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
-
-
dirtjersey Thanks this.
-
I have too many to list and most I've forgotten the names of. When I was a Pumpkin Pilot, a 45 degree alley dock with plenty of room was a rare treat and probably meant you were delivering to a Mclane(not a treat at all).
There were so many places we went to that I'd have to go to neighboring businesses and ask them to move their cars so I could back in. Frequently, getting into a dock was impossible and they'd have to fork a pallet jack up to me and unload me in the street. That's assuming they even had a dock. I delivered to one of those seasonal mom n pop ice cream stands in the middle of nowhere Indiana one time. Blind side off a residential street into their teeny tiny parking lot. And there were plenty more just like it in not-so-nice places like NYC, Pilly, Boston, etc. with all the accompanying traffic blowing by you while you've trying not to hit anything. Ugh.
I'm rambling. Here's a couple that still haunt my truckin' nightmares.
Any of you vets ever been to Dearborn Wholesale in Chicago? I was in the neighborhood a few months ago delivering produce (to someone else) and I noticed a Dearborn Wholesale sign across the way on a shiny new building. Did they move? Used to go to the old building on Western Ave and I think 67th or 68th. Been nearly a decade since I've been there. Anyway, that's about the worst I've been to. It was impossible to get a trailer in every door. You had to stagger every other door and then bobtail around back and park. We were lucky enough that they put those loads on 48 footers. I felt really bad for the guys trying to wrestle a 53' in there and if they had a long nose....a couple bucks to the yard goat might've gotten them into their door.
KC Caves. Ah yes. That one was a blind side too. If you were lucky enough, one of the local route drivers would be around and come out and tell you exactly when and where to cut the wheel. At that point, you ignore everything else but him. Saw several guys bang the top corners of their trailers in there. I don't miss that place at all.
Now that I think about it, I used to be pretty dang good at driving backwards. (toot toot)dirtjersey Thanks this. -
Google. In Sunnyvale. 2 entrances to the parking lot. 1 for cars. 1 for trucks, but it was not posted. Of course, I entered in the one for cars. There I am driving around between mostly little hybrid cars parked in a parking lot looking for a dock. Found it! there it was. One dock. Blind side, curved entrance downhill. I tried for the longest time. Must have gotten out and looked 50 times. I did not really back all the way. Too frustrating. Feel bad about it. I bailed. A real nightmare. The company should have never sent me there with a 53' trailer. Of course, I should have figured that out before entering the parking lot, but there was nowhere to stop or park.
dirtjersey Thanks this. -
Don't really have any horror stories of docks. Wanco in Arvada, CO was a little bit of a PiTA, but nothing too serious. Now talk about some construction sites, and I've got my fair share of those.
dirtjersey Thanks this. -
My worst wasn't a dock so to speak. It was a National Guard armory in Pennsylvania. Had to back around about an 80 degree turn, between 2 buildings, and the way was lined with Hummers, and Deuce and a halfs'. It was about my 10th week out of training with Roehl.
I made it. But it was absolutely nerve wracking.
No bits were harmed in the posting of this message.dirtjersey Thanks this. -
Opps, wrong thread
-
-
It seems like there is always a dock that makes you say, "what were they thinking?". Every tight dock I go to, I take a pict after I'm in it, I got an album now. It's a way to show my hard work. It's not often I have to bust my ##### at work but when I do, I want to remember it. Besides, I never know what the next dock that I have to back into will look like, so this is a way of saving my victories so I can look back and say, " I backed into here and here and dog gone it, I'm gonna be able to back into the next obsticle!"
NavigatorWife and RAGE 18 Thank this. -
dirtjersey Thanks this.
Trucking Jobs in 30 seconds
Every month 400 people find a job with the help of TruckersReport.
Page 3 of 12