Patience Pays Off

A couple weeks ago there were a couple posts that talked about feeling rushed. The big take away was most experienced drivers understand patience often makes our jobs much easier. Here's a prime example.

Today I was picking up from a place I've never been before but heard from other drivers it's a P.I.T.A. getting into. I decided to park on the wrong side of the street in the turn lane as shown by the red line drawn in this picture to not have the road blocked while checking in but also begin setting up to hit the dock . These 2 pics are from google as I was too focused on the task at hand.

Dock is white door beside the white SUV

Here I am in the dock

I had to wait maaaybe 3 minutes for the parking area to clear out along the street. I pulled my nose up just past the intersection and very smoothly put it in. The shipper had someone out there to block traffic from trying to squeeze in my blindside. He was super impressed, as was I, that I got it in there perfectly on my first shot with no pull ups. It's a great feeling when it goes so well. I attribute it to having been patient for the parking area to clear out so I was able to get my back end closer to the building before starting to back. As you can see others tore the grass up across the street. The pole across the street has also been hit. I didn't even get close to either. Slow down, assess the situation and be patient. Often times slowing down will actually save you time and frustration. The driveway was angled quite a bit and tandems all the way up so I turned on my power divider lock to keep it as smooth as possible.

Total time at this location for 1 pallet was 15 minutes from the time I parked on the street until I left loaded.

Six months ago I bent the gate at one of our stores because I was anxious about the traffic and getting out of the way and didn't do the maneuver correctly. Not a lot harm done luckily because it was one of our own stores but it was pretty embarrassing.

Even if it's somewhere you've been to dozens of times you still need to be cautious and have your head in the game.

Rob, does locking in the power divider give a smoother back? Do you use this technique very often? I have never used it, but maybe I should start.

Rob, does locking in the power divider give a smoother back? Do you use this technique very often? I have never used it, but maybe I should start.

No it's one of the first times I have. In the past when I've needed to it's been getting out of restraunt parking lots that have a steep slope getting out onto road. Also have during inclement weather when trying to start moving on snow/ice. The dock area sits up higher than the road and it isn't a very smooth transition. My tires weren't able to gain traction without doing it. I really don't think it'd make any difference in a normal backing situation. Had I not locked it in my tires would spin but I wouldn't move much. I didn't get out to look but I'm guessing atleast 1 tire wasn't making full contact with the road due to the height difference in tandems and my drive axle due to terrain.

It's difficult to tell in pictures, but the road is uneven as well. So when I was backing up my tandems were higher than my drive axle. As I continued to back and bring the front end around the drives went even lower while my steers and tandems stayed higher than drives. While backing my drives dipped lower due to the part of road just outside dock area sits lower than it does across the yellow line. Think of it like a bridge. At one point my drives wouldn't be making full contact with the ground because the tandems were up and my steers while lower than tandems were still higher than drives. By locking the power divider it allowed all tires to get power so the ones that did have contact could keep me moving while those that didn't just spun.

Again, it's one of the first times I've needed to do it while backing. I really don't think it would make a difference in most backing situations. Back at PFG we constantly disabled the hill assist switch while backing cuz the auto freightliner at that time was jumpy.