Had some tricky truck driving at work today lol

We?re picking up seed potatoes at work this week. We had
some heavy wet snow mixed with rain when I headed out this
afternoon with the tractor trailer. I drove about half the speed
limit and gave myself extra time to make it there safely. The
place I had to back into was a little tricky for a newly licensed
big truck driver. I had to park along side of a busy parking lot
and back through a busy 4 way intersection and up a steep
hill covered in snow and aim the trailer to have 20? of a stacker
boom go directly inside the trailer as I back up. I made a
couple of attempts as the warehouse owner helped direct me
in. I said ?I?m pretty new to driving trucks it?s really slippery
and if you don?t mind backing it in I won?t be insulted?. He said
sure ,he made 3 attempts before he got it close enough to
load. The third attempt he had it in the high reverse and he
was flying back and lined it up perfectly and spun out and got
it as close as it was going lol. I said thank you and I?d rather
ask for help when I need it than destroy something because I
was too stubborn. I don?t mind taking my time trying to get
backed in but at this point I?m not comfortable yet backing up
as fast as it?ll possibly go trying to line it up perfectly with only
2? on each side for error.

Philip, you made a wise decision. The backing skills will come with time. I drove semi for just long enough to appreciate those who have that incanny sense of knowing where the trailer is when they are backing blind sided. When I drive by some of the brand new hog confinements we have around here i shake my head at how stingy they are with their truck space for both the 53’ hog pots and the feed trucks. Then there are the hog sites that require the trucks to back in at a right angle off a fairly busy highway.

Thank you ,I told my boss my priority is driving safely and I?m
not above asking for help when I need it vs causing an
accident.

I am retired after 48 years and 4.5 million accident free miles over the road. The way you learn is experience. Keep trying and you were very wise to ask for help in slippery conditions. Keep it up and a short time down the road, you will get the hang of it.

You a smart young man

Well done, sir.

I never did drive commercially, but took me 2 tries to pass the parallel parking test with truck and 48' van. Flat pavement, no traffic, and sunny Texas skies helped a lot. Sure glad I never had to do it for real, especially in heavy traffic!!

I've seen videos of truck drivers going through areas that send chills down my spine. Yessir, I definitely have utmost respect for truck drivers.

Snow plow operators fall into this category as well due to the unknown obstacles and conditions (and stupid drivers!!) that they inevitably encounter, and especially when the road they're plowing simply vanishes without a trace under a perfectly level blanket of snow.

SAAAAA-LUTE!!

I always admired truck drivers, maybe because my grandfather was one for Time DC, I never got a cdl, if did I think I would like to drive a tandem dump truck! Sounds like you did good.

Owned my own truck and trailer for 42 years,was leased to TIME D-C back in the 80's.
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Neat!&#128077;

Sitting on a house site in my dozer once upon a time, & 2 concrete trucks came. I was to pull'em in if they needed it, up a muddy slope. First guy came in, spun a tire & let me pull'm in. Next driver "...didn't need no help". He spun, he gunned it, he threw mud & black smoke everywhere. Six times he refused help. Finally, all puffed up & red-faced, he hooked up my winch line. Some peoples kids! And he wasn't young either.

I almost offered to do the same thing last week, OTR driver just could not line up, let alone square up with the loading dock. Probably green, and as much as I hate being a hard@ss, a truck driver does need to be capable of lining up and squaring up to a loading dock. Everyone had to start somewhere, me included, just frustrating when you have to watch the driver take 1/2 hour and only get crooked and you are the one unloading with the forklift, hoping that plate is onto the truck enough. It was, but he was way off to one side. My job is a real hassle anyway, a mb thing that wastes my time really ticks me off, time to find another job or retire early, the latter would be so nice! I'm sure he will learn, driver was a very nice young man.

Why does the company not have chains for those purposes? They would have helped a lot for backing and getting around in general like that.
I drove for a guy long time ago had the attitude if you needed chains to get around the truck needed to set till it got better. Yet he was leased to an expedite company. Roberts Express they were a go when nobody else will thing. Never missed that job after being gone.
After that I leased to a couple companies then got my own Authority and ran under that for 15 years my truck and trailers best years of my life on the road. Would do it again if they got rid of that electronic hostage program. (logs deal)

You'll do well in life sir! No doubt you were challenged with the conditions you mentioned. Wow what a mess.

In my 50's I had a few years of free time so I bought a "rock bucket" and hauled sand and gravel to have something to do, fulfilled a childhood dream of playing in the sand with my trucks (don't guess any of you ever did that when a kid......grin). Sand pits had lots of old empty holes that had filled with water over the years. In the winter, first light, frosty breath, stacks all blowing white in a line of rigs, the ducks would do their thing, drivers standing around making small talk waiting for the pit to open...gorgeous memories.

Caught an ad in the Dallas paper from a guy who had a little 10 wheel Ford "combination" and it had "air brakes" that qualified for the Class A CDL. He knew the route and took me on it one morning and I took the test that afternoon. The Haz Mats was written. Piece of cake.

No way did I have your experiences but I did have my share of experiences like one day I was dumping at a site on a slope, adjacent to a building under construction (38' end dump, all the way up), sticky load, cranky at wanting to slide out. As it started sliding down, one side of the footing gave way and it started rocking back and forth.....just sat there staring it.....frozen in my tracks...... wondering will it or won't it. It didn't, but that happened more often than i liked.

At least you're trying to learn,I worked up the street from a produce company for years and they had tractor trailers come in and had to back up to the docks a little tight but no big deal.There were some drivers that pulled right in and backed up to the docks no problem,then some that were all over the place trying to back in there.Funny thing is the age of the driver had very to do with how good they were at it,some of the young guys were the best and there was one old guys that came there for years and was one of the worst.At livestock markets I see some of the worst backers in the world trying to back up to the unloading pens by some of the old farmers.Wonder how they ever get hooked up to something like a plow.(LOL)

If I read the news article correctly, since 2018 US autos had to have a backup camera as standard equipment. I see commercials to the effect that they work great in lining up a vehicle to a trailer tongue! I surely could use one.....most of the time takes 3-4 tweaks to get the ball in the socket.