How Long Did It Take You To Get Good At Backing?

Been driving for about 20mo now and I still consider myself a s****y backer. Some days are good, other days are just God awful, like it's my first day on the job again! To be honest, I tend to avoid crowded truck stops if there's not 2 adjacent spots or a straight back; I get overly nervous about that truck on the blindside.

Take a lesson from me: Don't be afraid of the blindside, GOAL as many times as you need, ask for eyes on the ground. If you're tired and your brain feels fuzzy, probably a good idea to hit the rest area or the wide open mom n pop down the road if you don't need a chain truck stop (free shower, fuel, etc).

I've been driving for 11 months now and even though I only have to back up 28 foot trailers now at company terminals I struggle at times especially at our Chicago terminal because it is so tight trailers are literally touching each other. Today I couldn't line up my lead trailer and rear tohook them even though I had plenty of room, I was all over the place it looked my first day. I still cant seem to get trailers straight for some reason I guess my eyes are crooked the nose is always pushed to the right is seems.

I agree with what everyone said, it takes time and practice. I've been driving about 2 1/2 years and I had the benefit of working as a yard jockey for 3 months of it, and I'm still not as good as I'd like to be. But I did have someone teach me something once that kind of clicked with me and made me better. I don't even remember all tbe details, but in a nutshell, if you're coming in too close on the left (driver's side or sight side), then pull up to the left. That might seem wrong or counterintuitive, but what you're doing is angling the trailer more with respect to the space, and so when you start backing to align it with the space, it will go farther right before it gets parallel with the space. Similarly, if you're too far right, pull up straight, or straight away from the space. Anyway, I hope that makes some sense.