Driver can't back up!

I haul Rolls of paper, Weight seems to dictate a lot on my loads

 

Everyone has there bad days but some folks just don't think. I watched Knight with his shiny new pete 389 try for 45 mins at the flying J on 99 and Merced Ave in Bakersfield the other day. I tried to tell him that there was a pull-through spot two spaces to his blind side and he just wouldn't listen. Kept trying to correct himself the same way expecting a different result. Good thing there wasn't a truck on his blind side ether or he would have took it apart.

 

Wow you guys go to school ??? Got a learners permit and went out with a friend for a look see at this truck driving, cab over Kenworth 18 speed crash box and two trailers, once out of town he asked me if I wanted to drive, mmmm ok should be pretty easy in a straight line, talked me through the gear shifts, what rpm yuda yuda, and I got it after coming up through the bottom box. Down shift same same, showed me how to hook and unhook trailers, stood back let me do it all with words of advise the next time I went out with him, told the boss I'd be ok and that was how I started driving. I think it all depends on aptitude, you either got it or you haven't got it and if you have it comes easy, can't dump on someone for having a go. Who knows it may all fall in to place and he becomes a great driver. One thing I have learned in this industry is that you are as good as your last mistake, last week you may have pulled 10 kids out of a burning bus but you are remembered as the guy who pulled the back door off yesterday. Cut him some slack guys everyone makes a mistake -- that means your human.

 

The one thing I wish I could say clearly enough for drivers to understand is that they should back into a parking spot every chance they get. Instead, almost every driver I ever see stop a truck avoids backing into a spot unless there is no other option. That is a recipe for disaster and being an old-timer with almost no experience with backing the truck with skill.

My first trainer required me to back the truck into a parking spot every time we stopped the truck while I was driving during training. It didn't mater if there were 8 pull-thru spots near the front door and it was raining hard, It didn't matter if there were 100 unoccupied fuel pumps and a half-empty parking lot.

Backing is hard, schools do the bare minimum to train students to pass the test and get the license. However, it's your responsibility to improve your skills and backing is the most important skill.

The ideal condition for backing practice is two empty spots side by side at the truck stop or a customer. However you practice backing into one of the empty spots as if an imaginary truck was parked in one of the empty spots, so you won't cheat and put the tandems across the line between spaces just because the space is empty.

You kow what new airplane pilots do more than anything, they practice landing. Some days all of their flying is nothing but practicing landings. What do experienced pilots practice the most, approaches and landings.

You will not become better at backing the truck, no matter how many years your drive OTR, if you don't practice. It's not a coincidence that many of the problem areas in the industry just happen to align with drivers being lazy. You are going to back the truck into close quarters, prepare for that by practicing every day.

The procedure I'd suggest is to first be consistent, even if that means you consistenly make the same msitake during practice and then concentrate on reducing the sixe of your consistent mistake, and then turn that into consistent proper execution of the backing. Most drivers, especially the new drivers, seem to just make random steering inputs, and try and pull forward over and over without thinking what maneuver they need to make while pulling forward and the corresponding backing maneuver to move the truck toward the correct direction.

I once watched a driver for El Dorado use most all of the 100 yards in front of a dock door wrong. He pulled in, turned in front of the dock door to line up for a straight back up, was only slightly too far left, backed 5 feet, correcting in the wrong direction, pulled forward a bunch, correcting in right direction, rinse and repeat. He did this so many times he eventually ran out of all of the space in front of the door, was nearly in a ditch, and was further out of proper position at the end then when he started.

Just use your own truck and practice. Then note what you need to do to move your trailer toward the driver-side while backing, and when pulling forward, and then work out your procedure for moving the trailer toward the passenger-side while backing and pulling up. You can try and remember 40 different drivers' suggestion about hold the steering wheel at the top or bottom and push or pull left/right to make the trailer go right/left. I think it's better to work that out on your own when you have the time and space and no pressure.

This industry has more than its share of drivers that don't think there is anything to learn from anyone else, think just sitting in the seat long enough will magically impart all relevant skills to them, or avoid working on skill improvement like its a disease. Nobody gets better by not practicing, not even super-truckers that have seen every trukcing movie ever made and have their half-gloves on 24 hours per day.

 

That must have been painful to watch. But like you say, eventually you learn to do it right if you keep doing it. If you force yourself to learn when you're starting out, you'll be thankful later on when you pull into an almost full truck stop late at night and you're able to back it into a space and get some sleep.

 

Just for the benefit of other newbs to clarify, on the CDL exam it will ask you under what circumstances you back the truck. The answer they are looking for is "Only when there is no other alternative".

 

My opinion backing up when it is not necessary is a bad idea. If someone needs practice go somewhere other than a truckstop.

 

I agree, Truckstops are what i like to call a high pressure place for a new driver to back up at, if you do at all, practice during the day when it is empty.