Parking when bobtail.

I drive "local", so I have only been to a few truck stops and of those there are dedicated bobtail parking spaces. I do not know if that is standard practice or not. Once when I stopped to get a refill of DEF at a Flying J, I asked permission to park in a TT only spot, before going in to pay. More direct to the point of your question, I am sure those bobtail drivers were far more important than anyone else on the planet.

 

It's called being inconsiderate A holes !!

What I really like is these guys who pull head first into an end spot, leaving their back end sticking out so far they block 1 or 2 other spaces.

... or guys who park in 2 different spots and don't even realize it. They back up so deep into the space that they over shoot their space and take up 4 or 6 feet of the space behind them.

It's supposedly illegal in Indiana for RV's to park in truck parking at truck stops. That's at least what a sign used to (and maybe still does) say at Flying J on I-70, east of Indy (exit 137 ??)

 

Relative to most drivers, I bobtail alot. Like maybe 20,000 miles per year. I will do everything possible to use a space that a tractor with trailer could not use. And I am successful almost all of the time. And I don't "invent" spaces. It isn't difficult. But it isn't just bobtails using full spaces that are inconsiderate jerks. I play a little game sometimes. While taking a 15 or 30 minute break, say walking into the truckstop and back out I count how many stupid parking or dangerous maneuvers I see. There are so many I lose track.

 

How do you know that they weren't before you got there?
I've backed in behind bt's and straight trucks and get up later and they are gone.
I always try and park in the car lot when bt, but there's a lot a of stops that don't allow it. Bt's gotta park too.

 

They're just ######## man. Bobtails get a pass when inventing a spot to make sure they don't take a real spot. But most of them don't even think about it.

Even at Schneider yards (who I drive for) we have a hundred or so bobtail spots at every terminal, but some on them jist go straight for a pull through spot right up front and shut down.

So like I said, they just don't give a ####.

 

There’s truckstops where bobtailed could park along the curbs, but the big hooded trucks are already parked there, so the bobtails have to go over and take up one of the many full size spots.

And when I bobtail I’m not going to park in the small car section and risk getting told to move, or park at a mall.

 

One time I bobtailed into the car section at the Petro south of Milwaukee. I decided to double check at the fuel counter if that was okay so no one bugged me or woke me up. They said no, I had to move and park in the trucking area. I started to say I didn't want to use up a spot someone with a trailer could use and they seemed oblivious to what the issue was. To them, a truck is a truck.

I think I managed to find weird short spot that was next the scale or the Trucker Chapel.

 

They don't want blocked by another bobtail, or bothered by another bobtail driver they are blocking.

Never inconvenience the mighty bobtail driver!

 

If I'm bobtail, the truckstop is my last choice place to park.