In no particular order, I am just rambling off the top of my head. I’ve begun to assemble a number of mental notes I’ve collected over the years which I think will be of some assistance to newbies just getting started. Some of these are fact, some are opinion. Please take them all with a grin of salt. You may find that what has worked for me may not be suitable for you or your circumstances.
With that said, let’s begin:
You’ll want to try to maintain your truck as well as you can. If you do nothing else, if you never do another pre-trip, at least look underneath once a day or leaks. Ignore water dripping from the AC unit in the summer months, but heed any other puddle you notice. Noticing and fixing a small leak now can save you an enormous amount of headache later.
Here’s what’s going to happen if you notice something and fail to get it fixed: It’s going to do one of two things: a) It’s going to cause a breakdown on the road, requiring you to sit idle for hours or days at a time while it gets serviced and parts ordered and installed, or b) it’s going to get noticed the next time you pull in for maintenance. There, too, you’ll sit idle for three or four days, if not 10 - 12 hours, waiting for parts, or for maintenance to get to it. As a newbie, maintenance is not going to know you from Adam. Maintenance is going to take care of their favorites first, meaning the drivers they see regularly. You? You’ll be a nobody. Why should maintenance worry about you? You’ll get your truck fixed when they get to it. Four days of sitting idle, at a loss of $150 a day in lost income = $600 in lost income. On top of that, you didn’t get to finish your 1100 mile run because your dispatcher or fleet manager handed off your trailer to another driver in order to get it delivered on time. Ideally, you'll notice problems and make a list, then, when it's time to park your truck for a few days of hometime, hopefully that's when maintenance can be taking care of the things you found wrong.
But back to looking for leaks, by no means limit your scrutiny to just liquid leaks. Also listen for air leaks. Air lines and brake chambers have a definite lifespan, and will rot and go bad after a while, resulting in leaks here and there. Do I need to tell you what can happen if you have an air leak, and your truck is relying on air brakes to stop?
Check your tires. Make sure they’re not bald, cracking, missing chunks of rubber, and are otherwise in good condition.
You never know when a State Trooper is going to signal you to pull over for a random DOT inspection. I had one done on me within six months of starting my OTR career. I managed to get a 100% on it, but by no means did I manage that on my own. The company maintenance crew did a good job maintaining my truck, and other drivers who had pulled the trailer I had then at least periodically looked it over as well, and turned it over to maintenance for repairs now and then.
Try to keep your dash board neat and orderly. Your dashboard will be the first thing seen as you pull across the scales, an believe me, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to pass over scales. You at least want to appear organized, and a messy dash board screams disorganization. Give the DOT at the scales a reason to flag you on and to ask the next driver whose truck is an utter mess to pull off to the side for a random.
Know before you go. Know precisely where you are going even before you pull away from the dock, if possible. Know what route you will take. Know where your turnoffs are. Know what towns you expect to pass through. Know the operating hours of the receiving dept where you’re headed. Find out where the closest scale is from where you are being loaded right now. Know the phone number of where you’re going, and a contact person to the place you’re headed.
Use your downtime efficiently. Clean your truck. Finish paperwork. Take a nap. Fax in some paperwork. Review your maps so you are absolutely sure where it is you are going. Be absolutely certain Route 219 through Maryland isn’t on your no-trucks list in your truck road atlas because it has a low clearance bridge on it at some point. Take a walk around your truck and look at the tires, look for leaks, check the lights and fluid levels. Grab a snack. Get online and pay some bills, or get online and check the weather between where you are now and where you‘re headed. Is a major snowstorm headed your way? Plan for it. Know where the truck stops an rest areas are. Plan where you think you will be when your hours run out, or when you plan to shut down for the night. Run your numbers and make sure you can safely deliver the load you’re under in the timeframe you have to get there. There is plenty you can be doing with your downtime while waiting to be loaded or unloaded besides twiddling your thumbs.
With respect to truck stops and rest areas, if you can manage it, I’d go with the rest areas. Truck stops were always my last choice of a place to stay overnight for lots of reasons. First, they’re dirty. On hot summer nights, the entire blacktop lot will smell like piss. That’s because of the lazy truckers who will either piss on the tires of the truck next to them, or piss in a cup and pour it out the window. The smell at truck stops can be nauseous. Second, they tend to be crowded. Some of the bigger ones can accommodate a couple hundred trucks. Of course, at rest areas, you generally don’t have restaurants. So keep that in mind. Turnpikes are a different story. Since turnpikes are limited access highways, they most likely will have restaurants at rest stops. And truck stops generally always have both showers and fuel.
Truck stops ten to start filling up early in the evening, particularly on the east coast. I would always try to plan my daily shut-down at 2 or 3 in the afternoon. This was so I would have a better chance at fining a good spot at a rest area or truck stop. You don’t want to spend two hours going from one truck stop to the next, circling, looking for a spot to shut down. And, at truck stops, just because all the marked spaces might be taken doesn’t necessarily mean there is no more room. If you can find a spot out-of-the-way which technically isn’t a spot, I’d say go for it. You can easily find these unofficial parking spots because of all the oil stains on the ground from all the other trucks which have parked there prior to you. I seriously doubt the truck stop manager is going to run out and ask you to move- unless you’re clearly blocking someone else in, or clearly blocking a necessary passage.
Since truck stops can often be quite confusing in terms of layout, you can do one of two things: simply follow the truck in front of you, or, my favorite, use the Maps feature on your smart phone and look for a satellite image of the truck stop. You’ll easily be able to see where the common entrances and exits are, as well as the general layout.
Backing in to dock doors seems to be every newbie’s biggest trouble spot. YouTube is full of videos, recorded by other seasoned truckers of all people, all showing hapless newbies struggling to get their trucks in to dock doors and such. I’ve made some videos on YouTube showing some of my techniques, and I’ll link to them here and here. Almost every place you go to will be different- a different layout, a different set-up. No two back ups are the same.
One of my most unusual back-ups to a dock door occurred at an underground storage facility near Independence, Missouri. The entire facility was underground. Trucks came and went via large tunnels carved out of the hillsides. My fleet manager sent me to these undergrounds as a relative newbie with just six months of experience, but I didn’t fret it. I simply asked the other truckers how they normally made the seemingly impossible corners in the tighter-than-tight confines.
I didn’t record any of my back-ups in there, but did record me exiting the two underground facilities. You can see them here and here. Definitely my two most unusual CDL driving encounters.
Each time you go in to a place to pick up a load, there is certain information you will want to walk in the door with. Bring your driver’s license. Some places make a photocopy of it. When you received your load information, you likely received what’s called a pick-up number. You’ll need that as well. You’ll also likely need to know the trailer number you brought with you, and you may also need to know the consignee name and address. You don’t want to make half a dozen trips to and from your truck, wasting time, getting all the pertinent information. Ok, so walk in with all the information you have, plus your cell phone, and a pen. You’ll likely have to sign something every single time you pick up and drop off a load, so you might as well start carrying pens everywhere you go.
If by chance you are missing a piece of information, call your fleet manager or dispatcher, right there, at the office window. This is especially important if there is a line of truckers after you waiting to talk to the office staff. If you step out of line to make a call, you’ll have to wait through the entire line of other truckers, because they won’t let you back up to the window, even if they saw you leave for a moment and come back. Just the way it is. Step to the side and make your call, but remain at the window or desk, or in the vicinity. When you get off the phone with your fleet manager or dispatcher with the needed info, you’ll be right there at the counter where you need to be, and simply clear your throat and say, “I have the information you requested,” before he or she proceeds to the next trucker in line.
When you are handed your paperwork, examine it closely. Is all the paperwork there? Is any of the material hazardous? This is extremely important, because in some cases you’ll be required to placard your trailer. Now, look at the consignee address on your paperwork. This is also extremely important. Sometimes the consignee (the place you are delivering to) is not necessarily the same place as what’s shown on your paperwork. Sometimes the loading and unloading dock is at an address across the street, or two blocks away, or whatever. Look at the address on your paperwork, and compare it to the address that your fleet manager told you to go to. If they are not the same, call your fleet manager and find out which one is correct. Nothing is worse than finding out you drove to the wrong address, when the correct address is two miles away. Two miles may not seem like a big problem, but it can amount to an hour or two when backing in and out of docks, finding the new address, finding the loading docks, fighting traffic, turning around if you have to (because you missed it the first time), and so on. It’s possible all this delay can add up to you arriving at the correct address at 5:15 pm, two hours late, and all the employees clocked out at 5pm. Guess what? You’re stuck there until they come back to work tomorrow at 8 am. Guess what? That little error on your part cost you $75 - $100 in lost mileage because now you had to sit and wait for 16 hours to get unloaded.
There are so many things that can go wrong in the trucking business. You need to make sure that the things you have control over (making sure your routing is correct, making sure you know the exact address where you are headed, and so on) is 100% perfect, to the “t”. The more in-control you are of the things you can control, the better shape you’ll be in, the less frustrated you’ll get, and the more money you’ll make. Trust me on this!
An speaking addresses, why not punch in the address on the map function on your smart phone? You’ll easily be able to see a satellite image of the facility to where you are headed, and you will have a real good handle on where the facility entrance and exits are, whether there is a gate you have to pass through, a guard shack where you’ll have to register with upon arrival, and so on. You will also likely be able to discern where the loading area(s) are, and where you will have room to maneuver and turn around.
One thing that really helped me when I was looking at these satellite maps on my cell phone was to find the one or two streets before the entrance to the facility I was looking for. For example, if, on the satellite image, I could clearly see that there is a Shelby Street and a Corbly Street, both on the right, immediately followed by the entrance to the Johnson & Johnson Company on the right, then when I got close, all I knew that I had to look for was Shelby and Corbly Streets on the right. The next entrance would be the one I needed to pull in to with 99% certainty.
Use technology to your advantage! Trucker GPS systems, smart phones…. All of it can make your job so much easier! Of course, I couldn’t totally rely on technology 100% of the time. In some cases the images might be old or outdated, but they certainly gave me a better understanding of where I needed to be, where I was headed, and what I was looking for once I arrived.
A couple points about backing to a dock door to consider:
First, before you do ANY backing, newbies should get out and scope the landscape. You are looking for obvious obstacles that are so easy to miss inside the cab of a truck. Any obstacle qualifies: a curb, telephone pole, light post, vehicles nearby, fire hydrants, other buildings, trees, stop signs. Getting out first and getting a mental picture of just where all your obstacles are situated will greatly simplify putting all those things in to your 3-D mental mapping system.
Second, if your trailer has swing doors (doors that have hinges and open just like your front door at home), don’t forget to open them before backing in to a dock. You don’t want to spend half an hour getting in to a dock to only to discover you forgot to open your swings. Then you have to pull forward at least five feet to open them, and maybe all the way out, if you need to clear the trailers on either side of yours.
Third, if you have room in front of a dock door to straighten out somewhat, do so as you slowly creep forward. It’s much, much easier to straighten out your semi moving forward than it is trying to wiggle it back and forth, trying to straighten it out in reverse. Once you get the truck lined up straight in front of your dock door, then all you need to do is straight line back, making only tiny, tiny adjustments to maintain the straight path to the door.
Forth, remember, if you are having trouble, ask someone- preferably another trucker, to spot you. Have him or her yell if you are going to hit something. Roll your windows down, and have your spotter walk alongside you, close to your cab, so he or she can shout directions to you over the truck engine. Lots of people put their spotter at the back of their trailer, which can work, but sometimes only if you can see your spotter in your mirror. If your spotter stands thirty feet from the right door of your cab, he should easily be able to see you and anything behind you, which will leave just one side for you to watch (the side easiest to see from the driver’s seat: the left side of the truck).
One pair of newbies had a neat system arranged: they bought a pair of walkie-talkies, and one stood outside and directed the other wirelessly. The same could be done with cell phones, of course. Anything works.
An important point about backing under a trailer: It is extremely important that you do so VERY slowly. I see a lot of experienced drivers who get in a hurry and try to speed through this process, which can be a very bad mistake. You see, it’s entirely possible for the shank of the trailer to miss its target. It’s possible for the shank of the trailer to literally glide up the slippery greasy slope of the fifth wheel. Obviously, you want to aim the fifth wheel towards the center of the trailer such that the shank lines up with the slot in the fifth wheel. Just be aware that if you’re off by a few inches, and if the trailer is raised just high enough, it’s possible for the tractor to go completely UNDER the trailer. The shank will have completely missed the fifth wheel. If your truck is still going in reverse when this happens, where do you think the trailer is going to end up? It’s going to end up coming at you through the back of the cab! It’s almost happened to me! The front of the trailer was mere inches from the rear window of my day cab. A few more inches and the front of the trailer would clearly have slammed in to the rear of the cab, shattering the rear window. Chances are it wouldn’t come through the cab, but I certainly didn’t want to find out!
When I got out of the truck to see what had happened, I could see the shank of the trailer now in front of the fifth wheel. Took me a while to get that straightened out. Just be aware that it can happen- it happened to me. Nothing got damaged, but it was a tense moment.
With that said, let’s begin:
You’ll want to try to maintain your truck as well as you can. If you do nothing else, if you never do another pre-trip, at least look underneath once a day or leaks. Ignore water dripping from the AC unit in the summer months, but heed any other puddle you notice. Noticing and fixing a small leak now can save you an enormous amount of headache later.
Here’s what’s going to happen if you notice something and fail to get it fixed: It’s going to do one of two things: a) It’s going to cause a breakdown on the road, requiring you to sit idle for hours or days at a time while it gets serviced and parts ordered and installed, or b) it’s going to get noticed the next time you pull in for maintenance. There, too, you’ll sit idle for three or four days, if not 10 - 12 hours, waiting for parts, or for maintenance to get to it. As a newbie, maintenance is not going to know you from Adam. Maintenance is going to take care of their favorites first, meaning the drivers they see regularly. You? You’ll be a nobody. Why should maintenance worry about you? You’ll get your truck fixed when they get to it. Four days of sitting idle, at a loss of $150 a day in lost income = $600 in lost income. On top of that, you didn’t get to finish your 1100 mile run because your dispatcher or fleet manager handed off your trailer to another driver in order to get it delivered on time. Ideally, you'll notice problems and make a list, then, when it's time to park your truck for a few days of hometime, hopefully that's when maintenance can be taking care of the things you found wrong.
But back to looking for leaks, by no means limit your scrutiny to just liquid leaks. Also listen for air leaks. Air lines and brake chambers have a definite lifespan, and will rot and go bad after a while, resulting in leaks here and there. Do I need to tell you what can happen if you have an air leak, and your truck is relying on air brakes to stop?
Check your tires. Make sure they’re not bald, cracking, missing chunks of rubber, and are otherwise in good condition.
You never know when a State Trooper is going to signal you to pull over for a random DOT inspection. I had one done on me within six months of starting my OTR career. I managed to get a 100% on it, but by no means did I manage that on my own. The company maintenance crew did a good job maintaining my truck, and other drivers who had pulled the trailer I had then at least periodically looked it over as well, and turned it over to maintenance for repairs now and then.
Try to keep your dash board neat and orderly. Your dashboard will be the first thing seen as you pull across the scales, an believe me, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to pass over scales. You at least want to appear organized, and a messy dash board screams disorganization. Give the DOT at the scales a reason to flag you on and to ask the next driver whose truck is an utter mess to pull off to the side for a random.
Know before you go. Know precisely where you are going even before you pull away from the dock, if possible. Know what route you will take. Know where your turnoffs are. Know what towns you expect to pass through. Know the operating hours of the receiving dept where you’re headed. Find out where the closest scale is from where you are being loaded right now. Know the phone number of where you’re going, and a contact person to the place you’re headed.
Use your downtime efficiently. Clean your truck. Finish paperwork. Take a nap. Fax in some paperwork. Review your maps so you are absolutely sure where it is you are going. Be absolutely certain Route 219 through Maryland isn’t on your no-trucks list in your truck road atlas because it has a low clearance bridge on it at some point. Take a walk around your truck and look at the tires, look for leaks, check the lights and fluid levels. Grab a snack. Get online and pay some bills, or get online and check the weather between where you are now and where you‘re headed. Is a major snowstorm headed your way? Plan for it. Know where the truck stops an rest areas are. Plan where you think you will be when your hours run out, or when you plan to shut down for the night. Run your numbers and make sure you can safely deliver the load you’re under in the timeframe you have to get there. There is plenty you can be doing with your downtime while waiting to be loaded or unloaded besides twiddling your thumbs.
With respect to truck stops and rest areas, if you can manage it, I’d go with the rest areas. Truck stops were always my last choice of a place to stay overnight for lots of reasons. First, they’re dirty. On hot summer nights, the entire blacktop lot will smell like piss. That’s because of the lazy truckers who will either piss on the tires of the truck next to them, or piss in a cup and pour it out the window. The smell at truck stops can be nauseous. Second, they tend to be crowded. Some of the bigger ones can accommodate a couple hundred trucks. Of course, at rest areas, you generally don’t have restaurants. So keep that in mind. Turnpikes are a different story. Since turnpikes are limited access highways, they most likely will have restaurants at rest stops. And truck stops generally always have both showers and fuel.
Truck stops ten to start filling up early in the evening, particularly on the east coast. I would always try to plan my daily shut-down at 2 or 3 in the afternoon. This was so I would have a better chance at fining a good spot at a rest area or truck stop. You don’t want to spend two hours going from one truck stop to the next, circling, looking for a spot to shut down. And, at truck stops, just because all the marked spaces might be taken doesn’t necessarily mean there is no more room. If you can find a spot out-of-the-way which technically isn’t a spot, I’d say go for it. You can easily find these unofficial parking spots because of all the oil stains on the ground from all the other trucks which have parked there prior to you. I seriously doubt the truck stop manager is going to run out and ask you to move- unless you’re clearly blocking someone else in, or clearly blocking a necessary passage.
Since truck stops can often be quite confusing in terms of layout, you can do one of two things: simply follow the truck in front of you, or, my favorite, use the Maps feature on your smart phone and look for a satellite image of the truck stop. You’ll easily be able to see where the common entrances and exits are, as well as the general layout.
Backing in to dock doors seems to be every newbie’s biggest trouble spot. YouTube is full of videos, recorded by other seasoned truckers of all people, all showing hapless newbies struggling to get their trucks in to dock doors and such. I’ve made some videos on YouTube showing some of my techniques, and I’ll link to them here and here. Almost every place you go to will be different- a different layout, a different set-up. No two back ups are the same.
One of my most unusual back-ups to a dock door occurred at an underground storage facility near Independence, Missouri. The entire facility was underground. Trucks came and went via large tunnels carved out of the hillsides. My fleet manager sent me to these undergrounds as a relative newbie with just six months of experience, but I didn’t fret it. I simply asked the other truckers how they normally made the seemingly impossible corners in the tighter-than-tight confines.
I didn’t record any of my back-ups in there, but did record me exiting the two underground facilities. You can see them here and here. Definitely my two most unusual CDL driving encounters.
Each time you go in to a place to pick up a load, there is certain information you will want to walk in the door with. Bring your driver’s license. Some places make a photocopy of it. When you received your load information, you likely received what’s called a pick-up number. You’ll need that as well. You’ll also likely need to know the trailer number you brought with you, and you may also need to know the consignee name and address. You don’t want to make half a dozen trips to and from your truck, wasting time, getting all the pertinent information. Ok, so walk in with all the information you have, plus your cell phone, and a pen. You’ll likely have to sign something every single time you pick up and drop off a load, so you might as well start carrying pens everywhere you go.
If by chance you are missing a piece of information, call your fleet manager or dispatcher, right there, at the office window. This is especially important if there is a line of truckers after you waiting to talk to the office staff. If you step out of line to make a call, you’ll have to wait through the entire line of other truckers, because they won’t let you back up to the window, even if they saw you leave for a moment and come back. Just the way it is. Step to the side and make your call, but remain at the window or desk, or in the vicinity. When you get off the phone with your fleet manager or dispatcher with the needed info, you’ll be right there at the counter where you need to be, and simply clear your throat and say, “I have the information you requested,” before he or she proceeds to the next trucker in line.
When you are handed your paperwork, examine it closely. Is all the paperwork there? Is any of the material hazardous? This is extremely important, because in some cases you’ll be required to placard your trailer. Now, look at the consignee address on your paperwork. This is also extremely important. Sometimes the consignee (the place you are delivering to) is not necessarily the same place as what’s shown on your paperwork. Sometimes the loading and unloading dock is at an address across the street, or two blocks away, or whatever. Look at the address on your paperwork, and compare it to the address that your fleet manager told you to go to. If they are not the same, call your fleet manager and find out which one is correct. Nothing is worse than finding out you drove to the wrong address, when the correct address is two miles away. Two miles may not seem like a big problem, but it can amount to an hour or two when backing in and out of docks, finding the new address, finding the loading docks, fighting traffic, turning around if you have to (because you missed it the first time), and so on. It’s possible all this delay can add up to you arriving at the correct address at 5:15 pm, two hours late, and all the employees clocked out at 5pm. Guess what? You’re stuck there until they come back to work tomorrow at 8 am. Guess what? That little error on your part cost you $75 - $100 in lost mileage because now you had to sit and wait for 16 hours to get unloaded.
There are so many things that can go wrong in the trucking business. You need to make sure that the things you have control over (making sure your routing is correct, making sure you know the exact address where you are headed, and so on) is 100% perfect, to the “t”. The more in-control you are of the things you can control, the better shape you’ll be in, the less frustrated you’ll get, and the more money you’ll make. Trust me on this!
An speaking addresses, why not punch in the address on the map function on your smart phone? You’ll easily be able to see a satellite image of the facility to where you are headed, and you will have a real good handle on where the facility entrance and exits are, whether there is a gate you have to pass through, a guard shack where you’ll have to register with upon arrival, and so on. You will also likely be able to discern where the loading area(s) are, and where you will have room to maneuver and turn around.
One thing that really helped me when I was looking at these satellite maps on my cell phone was to find the one or two streets before the entrance to the facility I was looking for. For example, if, on the satellite image, I could clearly see that there is a Shelby Street and a Corbly Street, both on the right, immediately followed by the entrance to the Johnson & Johnson Company on the right, then when I got close, all I knew that I had to look for was Shelby and Corbly Streets on the right. The next entrance would be the one I needed to pull in to with 99% certainty.
Use technology to your advantage! Trucker GPS systems, smart phones…. All of it can make your job so much easier! Of course, I couldn’t totally rely on technology 100% of the time. In some cases the images might be old or outdated, but they certainly gave me a better understanding of where I needed to be, where I was headed, and what I was looking for once I arrived.
A couple points about backing to a dock door to consider:
First, before you do ANY backing, newbies should get out and scope the landscape. You are looking for obvious obstacles that are so easy to miss inside the cab of a truck. Any obstacle qualifies: a curb, telephone pole, light post, vehicles nearby, fire hydrants, other buildings, trees, stop signs. Getting out first and getting a mental picture of just where all your obstacles are situated will greatly simplify putting all those things in to your 3-D mental mapping system.
Second, if your trailer has swing doors (doors that have hinges and open just like your front door at home), don’t forget to open them before backing in to a dock. You don’t want to spend half an hour getting in to a dock to only to discover you forgot to open your swings. Then you have to pull forward at least five feet to open them, and maybe all the way out, if you need to clear the trailers on either side of yours.
Third, if you have room in front of a dock door to straighten out somewhat, do so as you slowly creep forward. It’s much, much easier to straighten out your semi moving forward than it is trying to wiggle it back and forth, trying to straighten it out in reverse. Once you get the truck lined up straight in front of your dock door, then all you need to do is straight line back, making only tiny, tiny adjustments to maintain the straight path to the door.
Forth, remember, if you are having trouble, ask someone- preferably another trucker, to spot you. Have him or her yell if you are going to hit something. Roll your windows down, and have your spotter walk alongside you, close to your cab, so he or she can shout directions to you over the truck engine. Lots of people put their spotter at the back of their trailer, which can work, but sometimes only if you can see your spotter in your mirror. If your spotter stands thirty feet from the right door of your cab, he should easily be able to see you and anything behind you, which will leave just one side for you to watch (the side easiest to see from the driver’s seat: the left side of the truck).
One pair of newbies had a neat system arranged: they bought a pair of walkie-talkies, and one stood outside and directed the other wirelessly. The same could be done with cell phones, of course. Anything works.
An important point about backing under a trailer: It is extremely important that you do so VERY slowly. I see a lot of experienced drivers who get in a hurry and try to speed through this process, which can be a very bad mistake. You see, it’s entirely possible for the shank of the trailer to miss its target. It’s possible for the shank of the trailer to literally glide up the slippery greasy slope of the fifth wheel. Obviously, you want to aim the fifth wheel towards the center of the trailer such that the shank lines up with the slot in the fifth wheel. Just be aware that if you’re off by a few inches, and if the trailer is raised just high enough, it’s possible for the tractor to go completely UNDER the trailer. The shank will have completely missed the fifth wheel. If your truck is still going in reverse when this happens, where do you think the trailer is going to end up? It’s going to end up coming at you through the back of the cab! It’s almost happened to me! The front of the trailer was mere inches from the rear window of my day cab. A few more inches and the front of the trailer would clearly have slammed in to the rear of the cab, shattering the rear window. Chances are it wouldn’t come through the cab, but I certainly didn’t want to find out!
When I got out of the truck to see what had happened, I could see the shank of the trailer now in front of the fifth wheel. Took me a while to get that straightened out. Just be aware that it can happen- it happened to me. Nothing got damaged, but it was a tense moment.
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