Listen when given advice, avoid the headaches

Sometimes newbies don't even follow directions when they try to follow directions. I had a driver sitting at pilot outside of St Louis, someone tried to help a newbie which caused the truck to twist in a bad position where the driver had to move out and come back around but nope the driver thought he would be able to just back up, guy warned him to go back around but the trailer hit my truck and then hit the trailer in front of him when he realized he hit the truck and panicked.

It wasn't too bad, $3600 worth the damage, two days of downtime, and had to get someone to take the load.

 

Back in the 70s and 80s we used to go to the south water market and meat street,Fulton ave in Chicago.Both were sh** holes.
Parking/securiy cops would direct you to a spot and tell you to "look at me,don't look in the mirrors" and by gosh if they couldn't dock you within inches either side of another trailer or straight job.
Later doing concert tours you'd put 3 trailers into 2 spots, blind side, with just a spotter on a portable 2 way. If you hit something both got canned. Had to trust your guys.
Here it's all on you and they tell you never trust a spotter.

 

I was at a place like that in Chicago once.
Inches to spare, but no more, and the spotters helping me were the only reason I didn't crunch something.
They had all the experience, and the drivers that didn't follow their directions were the sorry ones.

 

Crazy!

 

Saw some kids at the squat rack at the gym. One of the kids when squatting was locking his knees while bending at the waist. Young guys can be extremely sensitive and fragile at the gym, but a back injury means an entire life in crippling pain. I warned him of an impending injury. The whole group got offended. Oh well…stupid hurts. That’s how we learn.

Is it a waste of time? No. Why not? After the disaster, Dummy just might say to himself, “Well, that hand DID come up to me and warn me…perhaps I should learn how to to L I S T E N..”

 

When I was OTR never turned a dead to advice. Especially from veteran truckers.

Had one guy in Oklahoma City call me to his truck after I struggled to get into a spot. He gave me a lot of great advice while he was cleaning out his truck. Had gotten a new tool set and he gave me his old one. I was so grateful for the advice and tools.

Had another guy in Florida give me advice when I was having issues getting a seal off. It was one of those wire ones. He could tell I was upset. He came over, had a tool to cut the seal and gave me advice too.

Even once took back advice from a lady trucker on my first solo load after spending 20 minutes chasing my trailer as I was backing in. She was a trainer and was there to help and I was glad she was.

 

I was given advice once on how to back into a door when I was struggling….

He told me when possible, back past the door a little bit then cut back in.

I’ve followed that advice for 20+ years now.

 

After driving a newer Cascadia recently I have litte to no sympathy for people in modern trucks that can't back a trailer. The amount of visibility, the short wheelbase and the insanely tight steering angle of these newer trucks make maneuvering a trailer a joke compared to driving an old w9 or 359.

People should drive an old battle wagon of a w9 and try looking past their stacks while cutting a trailer into a parking slip then they'd realize just how easy it is to drive that aero rig.

 

I've had some bad or 'suspect' advice given by random tricksters at truckstops, but aside from my trainer when I first started, there were 2 drivers who gave me a lot of useable, real-life advice; one was a driver in Quebec, who ran the winter roads to the Hydro-Quebec dam projects, and he gave me all the tricks of running in severe winter conditions. The other was this lady who drove a Large Car Kenworth and probably weighed in at all of 90 lbs. It was the first time I'd had to hang iron on the roadside, where it was 34°F in slushy snow on the shoulder of I90 at Snoqualmie. She actually took some time to show me how to orient the chains, stretch them out, where to put the s-hooks, the bungee cords, and how to turn the cams.