Failed first time at road test hit curb on Parallel Park

Yep,the ones on 80 in NE.I have'nt seen any rest areas other then that.

 

Safety Director here:

Yes, I agree with others here....get your foot off the brake and the fuel petal; allow the s-l-o-w movement of the truck in reverse do all the work and when in doubt...get out. I rather have one of my drivers get out 10 times to make sure they aren't going to hit anyone or anything then just "assume" everything is fine and find out it wasn't. As in the road test...you aren't being graded on time spent to do the manuver, your graded on if you "can" do the manuver safely.

My suggestions are:

breathe
stop and get out and look and imagine what you need to do and when
put it in gear and keep your foot off the pedals till you need them
slow as slow as the vehicle will allow itself to go
get out and look numerous times

when you do all of this...you will find its MUCH simpler than trying to impress the examiner on one time wonder movement. Good luck too and welcome to the club driver.

 

Where I drop my trailer at when I go home off duty parallel parking is the only way to get the trailer in the spot I keep it... three doors two are used on a regular basis the one dock door I use is just a common door that's never used becuause the backwall of the wharehouse runs all the way up the passenger side of the truck...you have no other way to get a 53'trailer in there but to blindside it in...GOAL 5 to 6 times is normal for me to get it in...takes me abiut a half hour to 40minutes to get it in tight...

 

I don't care if the pope himself says stay in the truck, if I'm not sure what I'm backing into, I'm getting out and looking.

And while not catestrophic, rubbing curbs is expensive and unacceptable. I figure each rub costs $10, because after the 50th or so time that tire is no good... If you must hit a curb (and you will on occassion), go slow and hit it square so the tire quickly rolls up and over rather than dragging the sidewall. This has nothing to do with OP, just a mini rant after having 4 $uper$ingles replaced prematurely this week on various trailers I hooked to.

 

Here's the best advise I can give.... it may sound cheesy...corny but trust me...it helped me....my backing skills were horendous.....buy a toy matchbox semi and practice with it...try to visaulize which way you need to position the steers and how to put the tractor in position to put the trailer in position....get a big piece of paper....a sharpi pen...draw parking lines on it and see how you put the truck in those spots....then try to apply that to the big truck...it worked for me.

 

Yea, i was implying when he was out of training and parallel is really not a big deal. In Roadmaster, they dint allow to get out and look also but they did give you two pull ups opportunity. All it is is follow the instructor pattern of how to set yourself up! then back up to the desired area and once your tractor starts jacknifing the trailer, pull up, then look at your rear mirror and back up using an imaginary straight line between your rear drives and the trailer tires and back up straight to the spot. Thats what i did and still do today.

 

I'll never understand why you can't GOAL on your test. Isn't that what they would prefer you do in real life? Would they rather you just "wing it" out there?

 

Here in CA we're allowed 2 free GOALS per maneuver (I think?), after that they begin adding points. I bet if they replaced those cones with the tester's cars they'd probably give you all the GOAL's you needed! Maybe their mentality is along the lines of: "Oh, if you get out of the truck, you risk getting ran over by another vehicle" or something along those lines. Either that or they're just hardasses.

 

gotta agree with windsmith I pull a tanke rand parallel park a minimum of 3 times a week sometimes way more..depends on what your hauling. tanker work its fairly common to get into unusual places that are not designed to have a truck in..

 

Yeah, here in Southern California real estate can be very limited and a lot of gas station are VERY small even for cars and light trucks sometimes. I have much respect for the drivers who have to refuel those pumps. Not to mention the dickish people who have absolutely no patience for trucks and just honk and swerve around you.