It's a Team's Life

Time to boot trucks….

This past day I circled the parking lot at a truck stop and found the perfect truck!  This truck was parked in a nice area with room behind for Texas to exercise and the trailer was not a reefer.  The sun was starting to set and this was going to be the perfect shade. 

Nope as I was backing in I noticed that the driver was taking down the shades in the front window.  NOOOOOO, I wanted to jump out and tell them they could not move they were in a great location.  I turned to Bob and said we need to carry a “boot” to stop this behavior!  Can you imagine this driver seeing a straight truck driver jump out and boot the truck because of shade?  Probably would not go over well so we will wait till the next truck backs in beside us to provide shade.

Over the years we have parked next to all manner of trucks and we have used them to our advantage.  Even when in a tractor trailer we used other trucks to our advantage especially when the wind was blowing.  Now as a straight truck we really use them when parked for protections.  Not very often do we have to park on the end of a row but when we do we back further in to protect the nose of our truck and park basically towards the middle of the parked tractor-trailer. 

There is a lot of thoughts about pulling a straight truck into a parking spot, backing into the spot, and how far to back in.  We usually back in and back until we have the sleeper behind the nose of the trailer.  This works for us in a couple ways, first when the other truck pulls out to leave they should miss the fenders on the truck, second if the truck is a reefer the noise is lessened as the reefer starts and stops.

Greg Huggins had an interesting blog about pulling into a parking spot or backing in. 

We will continue to search for that perfect truck to provide us shade and protect us from the elements, and when they move we will patiently wait for the next truck to back in beside us. I am of course kidding about booting trucks … sort of…. just kidding you are safe to park next to us.

Bob & Linda Caffee

TeamCaffee

Saint Louis MO

Expediters since January 2005

[email protected]

 

Expediting isn't just trucking, it's a lifestyle;

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