Why is it OK to send drivers to unsafe places not meant for trucks

Talk about places with no room to manuever. I got my start in trucking pulling a 50 ton lowboy, hauling heavy equipment, in the Houston and gulf coast region. This included all the pickups and deliveries in many of the chemical plants and oil refineries on the gulf coast. I don't know how many of you have been in these facilities, but the employees gets around on bicycles and golf carts, and the roads reflect this, yet we still have to take in loads that don't even fit ona trailer, with every turn being a challenge with obstacles that your life might just depend on you not bumping that object that is in the way. lol This was for a construction, no actual dispatcher involved, but whining to the owner would just get you replaced. lol
One of the things I always liked about trucking and it is also a major draw, is the fact that you get a certain amount of independence, and getting it done is not only on you, but is part of what is expected.
Things have changed over the years and expectations of a driver has been seriously lowered over the years, while modern equipment has made it seriously easier to get the job done. Me thinks it has also made sissys out of a lot of us.

 

If you drove in you can always use the reverse gear and the mirrors

 

Usually, but hook up to a set of doubles and things change. I can tell you too that when you spin out on an icy mountain, backing back down is not always an option either. lol

 

"I love tire chains"
But the law says we can't use them east of the Rockies.

 

I never heard that, but never needed them east of the rockies there. I have only ever chained up once in the lower 48 and wouldn't have then, if it wasn't the law.

 

That's called "break a set, make a set" and you learn quick not to take the pups where you can't see...lol

 

LOL More than one driver has broke a set and got back and found his trailer at the bottom of the mountain. lol

 

You're not kidding. You definitely don't want to bump anything in a chemical plant. I hauled totes out of all those chemical plants and warehouses around Baytown, Deer Park, La Porte, and Texas City during my last year at Swift. It was a dedicated account. The account rep told me one day that she had had several drivers refuse to go back to some of those plants. The Dow plant in Deer Park was particularly bad. They used to make us blind side around a corner into a dock made for 48 footers. Just not the kind of thing you want to do in a Chemical plant.

 

LOL, my old stomping grounds. I lived in LaPorte for years.