Hitting a wide open dock...

Yes it's pretty much happens to all of us.

It is worse when there are no lines and you have no real reference point to get yourself in right.

It's always nice when you go in to make a delivery and they open the door and they're waiting for you... Except in this situation.

Can be kind of embarrassing.

 

Been there,done that.

 

I feel like I’m drunk trying to park after running 800 miles.

 

It takes a lot for me to get embarrassed usually, but I was never a fan of backing in such situations and looking in my mirror and 3 or 4 warehouse minions are standing there looking at you in disgust as you're backing in, which requires them to work. The couple of times I had a mishap backing due to a scenario such as this or just general fatigue, any chatter ball busting that might have been occurring on the dock, usually subsided the second I stepped out of the truck and stood face to face with any of them. I usually just chuckle to myself the few times it happened. Like "are you serious Dave?" I try not to take myself, or anything that occurs on the daily grind too seriously. Unless of course, it's a legitimate concern.

 

That's our very own @JReding voice your hearing on the phone there.

 

It is. Pulling flatbed there are times where I have to back into a dark loading area. Usually (not always) it's a fairly wide open area inside where there is a wide margin of where I can be and still leave room for the forklift to load from both sides if needed.

But for the life of me I can't get people to understand that I can't see them when they stand inside the building waving me back or motioning to stop. Especially when they use small hand movements that are sometimes hard to see anyway rather than large arm movements.

 

I have never had all that much trouble backing in open spaces with no lines marked in the DAYTIME. However it is much different at night. I have used the military wand type flashlights laid on their sides. One thing that causes trouble at night is as a driver you can't see those dang back tandems. This is why I always tried on those dark featureless deserted docks to get marker lights set up in such a way that I was not A blinded by the light beams. B aware of my target and C aware of where my wheels were. Thankfully as an OTR reefer/dryvan driver I was very rarely called to do this.

 

I like to turn off all my lights and let my eyes adjust.
Sometime when you are driving in a remote area and the moon is shining turn off all your lights and you will see farther because there is not that dark spot at he end of the light beam.
Why do pirate wear a patch?
Or try this ,when you go to bed at night notice how dark it is when turning off the lights and how well you can see after a few minutes in the dark.
the worst is when the driver adjacent to you thinks his headlights are helping you see behind your truck and he is just blinding you.