It's a cloudy and cold November afternoon at a printing factory. I have a load of 40,000 lbs of scrap paper, and this is my very first attempt at backing a trailer into a dock. I am driving a mid-70's Mack tractor, and I really have no idea what I'm doing.
But I should step back. "L.T." was the driver of that tractor. He was an old guy from Louisiana, and I learned a lesson from him. "I like everybody", he told me, and that has gotten me a long way in my life. Taught me that there really aren't any barriers to relationships, only likes and dislikes.
"I like everybody". Good enough.
On that day, L.T. was sick, and the printing house was hot for their load of scrap paper, so that they could bring more porn to the masses. (I gotta tell ya, I had a lot of good reading material in those days.)
So I hooked the trailer up to the tractor, attached the air lines and the electrical, and off I went. (I had seen it done enough times to fake it successfully.)
Pulling out of the yard, I could barely figure out where the back of my trailer was, but I made my way to the hiway. Some 20 trembling minutes later, I made it to the delivery site.
The fun begins.
I knew the basics of backing in a trailer, I just had no idea of the scale, even with a moderately size trailer. All I know is that I frustrated a number of dock workers and wore out a bunch of clutch material that day.
Eventually, I had to drop (safely park) the trailer off to the side, and L.T. had to come and put it in the dock.
That was my motivation to get the technique perfect.
I believe I did.
Tune in next time!
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