Rookie mistakes

I'm new to this also. 5 months now after 5 years of just driving a straight truck. Was in NYC area 3 weeks ago and backed into a space not meant for a sleeper cab. Struggled. Took 5 tries. Got it and another trucker from my home area showed up and we chatted for a while. He's been trucking for years and thought the area was they gave was terrible. I finished up and moved so he could back into the same spot. Finished my bookwork 10 mins later and he was still trying to get it backed in.
There will be hard ones to back into. Nature of the beast

 

Drive for a moving company for 6 months starting out. Youll have more backing experience in 6 months than most drivers get there entire driving career! I was backing 53 foot drop boxes attached to a super sleeper in residential and military residential spaces , with low trees, power lines, etc etc most of you couldnt pull a pup trailer straight forward in to.... Then hand carrying everything onto the trailer and palletizing piece by piece... Putting in 15 hour days of physical work then driving 14 hours sleeping for 5 and doing it all over again. Most of you will never see anything but an ally dock. Theres no real drivers any more. Just a few. We know who we are....

 

I saw a place once where it was a big skyscraper with a dock on the bottom floor. You actually drove off the street and into the building. Right in front of the dock was a big steel circle in the floor. I asked somebody what the steel circle was, it was a turntable. It wasn't big enough for a tractor/trailer but a straight truck would head in, the turntable would turn it around, he would then back into the dock, and drive straight out when he was done.

Then you have the places that were designed by somebody who obviously has no idea how much room it takes for a truck to back in. Or it's a really old place that was built when all trailers were 20'.

 

Man I have had my CDL for going on 2 years, I drove TT for about 4 months and for the rest of the time been driving a 10wheeler straight body and I still have my days where I miss my mark on backing up and have to pull forward just to get straight, and that's in a straight body lol. Don't feel ashamed man, not a single person out there has been flawless. Stay safe out there man and keep them wheels turning

 

IMO sometimes I just don't have the energy to back due to stressful days or sometimes just driving at an hour I'm not used to; there's several ways your focus can be affected and to be frank retard a backing process.

 

There are days I swear I could back into a shoebox. There are days I couldn't hit a hole 5 spaces wide even if it was a straight back.

We have all had those days.

 

The questions you should be asking is did you get paid today, did you hit anything? If the answer is yes and no. Then it's all good.

 

In the same day, two days ago I : 1) set up to site side in between a trailer and parked cars- got out and asked for the cars to be moved, pulled up and pulled up and pulled up again to get in.

2) sited in off a 5 lane heavy trafficked street in one shot

3) blinded into a tight ### spot in one try and the yard jockey got out to tell me I'm the man.

Guess which one still haunts me?

 

Don't break your arm or hurt your back