The other drivers do it all the time...

Regarding city driving... some days it just works and other days I just want to tear my hair out.
Once nice thing I have noticed since Monday when we had a nasty snowfall and temperatures below -40F... all the truckers out on the road found their waving at other drivers again, and it was so nice and cosy... but today, the plows, graders and sanders have been out... and its back to the same surly driving again! It was nice while it lasted.

 

"Other drivers do it"This goes on the front!

"This one Don't" of course this on the back!

 

If it wasn't for the bad days, I wouldn't know what the good days looked like.
This winter has been waaaaay too entertaining. Only thing you can do is practice patience and good driving technique. As for those places that are hellholes to get into "but all the other driver get in there", I just tell them to hop up in the cab and show me how its done. I've backed into the damnedest places but I know the difference between tough and impossible with a 53 footer.

 

I did long haul,regional and now local.I recently left a company after being told to use a 48 foot trailer to to do local deliveries.I used a 28 foot trailer for the most part and I could access most busines's with that trailer.48 foot,no way.Superviser said do it or I will suspend you.He did .Terminal manager said you can't go against a superviser.13 years of good service,safe driving.I resigned.I have worked for different company's over the years but where safety is concerned,it's my record,my license.Whether it's interstate or instrate ,make the right call.

 

witchway, I am sorry to hear that your company did that to you. I am assuming that you work non-union, because you could have taken that issue to the union. Your company cant expect you to do something that is unsafe for you or their equipment!

Our dispatch is pretty clear on which companies you can access with a 53' and which ones you cant. Only on one occasion so far have they told me to go somewhere with a 53' that is a real nasty place even with a pup. There were 3 regular skids in the nose of a multiple stop LTL 53'. I delivered the rest of the freight and brought the freight back. I can almost guarantee that they sent those skids out for delivery on a pup with the next driver.

 

I can put a 53 footer in just about anyplace...providing that there's room for the trailer and truck.

I've been in the situation where those famous words were used on me as well.

I've actually taken the customer to the lot and paced off the length of the truck and trailer and proved my point that it just won't go where he wanted it...unless of course he wanted to loose his fence, ruin his landscape or move the trailer next to the space intended.

Hauling a bulk tanker has problems associated with it too, but it rarely has to do with a dock of any kind...tight spaces to blow off the load..YES...hoses too short...YOU BET...but I've never been asked to put one into a dock of any kind. That may be next...but not yet.

You did the right thing to say NO.

It's a simple word to say really, and as long as you take the time to explain the reason for saying NO...it rarely comes back on you...the driver.

 

The oldesst line in the book, "But everyone else does it", i.e. "You must not be nearly as good a driver as everyone else." Had a receiver in Anaheim that if I had dropped my trailer I could have not gotten in the dock. She proceeded to use the "But everyone else..."Politely told her I could not get in the dock, was there another way ?. She proceeded to ask me if I could not drive what was I doing delivering her product. I told her I could drive just fine to the nearest cold storage where her product would be under her name. Should have seen her face as I drove by her on the way there. There is nothing worth having an accident or tearing up equipment because "Everyone else does it."

 

"everyone else" doesn't pay my repair bills!

 

I have refused loads before for that reason, when you pay $130,000 for a truck, and another $6000 in custom made stainless you don't want to damage it. I refused a load at a customer because their yard was mud and they wanted to tow my truck into their yard, I also refused a load because I could not get onto the dock without tearing the bumper off my truck. My dispatcher gets mad but he doesn't pay for my repairs,