The longest delivery
If there is a dock in this country that a big truck will fit into, I can hit that dock. The truth is that once they’ve been driving for a while, any driver can do the same. It may take a newer driver longer to hit the dock but the bottom line is if you are slow and careful you can hit it. Period. Well… unless it’s an impossible dock. Speaking of impossible docks…
Fancy-pants receiver facility in Springfield
One delivery to go in Springfield and then we were headed home. We had found our receiver the night before but they had a chain link fence and locked gates. I’m not sure why they locked their gates at night since they were such a crap hole I can’t imagine anyone stealing anything from them, but we couldn’t get in so we headed to a nearby Waffle House to sleep for a few hours.
Woke up bright and early and headed over to deliver our last load before going home. WooHoo! Checked in with the shipping guys and they told me to go back around the side of the building and hit the dock so they could get us unloaded. No problem… around the building we went.
Big problem. As soon as we rounded the building and I saw the dock they wanted me to hit, I thought it was probably impossible. It looked like there just wasn’t enough space between the two trailers. But I’m never one to quit without a good try so I spent about thirty minutes trying to hit the dock. Finally, after much maneuvering, I got myself perfectly lined up between the two trailers. I backed slowly to the point that there was about an inch between each of my doors and the trailers on either side. Problem was that I still had about two feet to go before I actually hit the dock and the trailer on the right was so crooked there was simply no way to manage it.
Utterly impossible dock with crooked trailer
Finally I was satisfied that it simply wasn’t possible to hit that dock. I went to find the dock guy to tell him it wasn’t going to work. He said, “Huh… we do have trucks that get in there… maybe you can hit that other one?” And he said it with that “I doubt you can hit either dock if you can’t get in this one… what do you only have like three weeks experience or what… women drivers…” snarky attitude that always drives me crazy.
Now… seriously… this always burns me up. I just can’t help myself. Even though I know it’s stupid to care what some inbred backwards dock guy at a shit-hole tire joint thinks about my driving ability… well… it still pisses me off. It makes me want to try for thirty more minutes or until I cram that trailer into the dock no matter what it takes. Which is utterly silly because at that point I knew it was impossible. Damn it. I ended up just having to suck it up and let the whole thing go and move on with my life. Lord that goes against the grain for me sometimes.
Ultra classy second choice dock
I hit the other dock with relative ease and we waited to get unloaded. About an hour after we hit the dock, I watched an Old Dominion truck drive up and slam right into the impossible dock between the two trailers. Well of course he could hit it — he had a roll-door trailer. We have a swing-door trailer. That means we were probably ten inches wider than he was at the doors. Ugh. It was really hard to resist going up on that dock and pointing out to the snarky dock guy how much wider we were than Old Dominion. Oh well. Let it go. Let it go.
And miraculously I did. Let it go… that is. We just sat there quietly waiting to get unloaded and trying to contain our excitement at going home. Seemed like it took them forever but eventually they were done and we started the longest trip of the month. Finally heading home.
I am so proud of you, as a woman you have learned to be able to control and pick your battles, unlike us men who never know when to shut up. If it makes you feel any better at all, I get the same crap sometimes when I say what were you thinkging when you made this place. So a gold star for you and you go to the head of the class. Have a great time off at home, we are going home for Bunny day.
Anonymous,
Thanks. It was SO HARD to keep my mouth shut! I admit that it goes against my nature. But I guess I’m glad I did since nothing would have been gained by causing a scene.
So far having a great time at home.
Some shit just isn’t worth the fight, eh? Good for you. God knows I’ve wasted massive amounts of time trying to PROVE something to someone. Key words – wasted & time.
What a high class joint. That fool is about par for such a low rent operation.
I once took 40 minutes to get into a dock in central LA while about 40 illegals watched and hooted and chattered in Spanglish. I had an inch on each side with the trailer doors open. Man it was tight. Then it took awhile to get them to sign my bills because “we will only sign the bills for the driver.” Of course I couldn’t be the driver because I am female. Huh, imagine that.
And there was another dock in Seattle I never did hit. they had a big old dock plate there – made them use that because I couldn’t line up my trailer and wore out my clutch leg. The street was at about a 38 degree angle, and the dock at another angle. Id been driving all day…it just wasn’t going to happen. And once I spied that dock plate I knew I was not the first, and that I wouldn’t be the last. I just told the oh-so-smug guy to “use the plate and wake me when you are finished.”
YIKES!
And I have to laugh, when I was first reading this, I *thought* you wrote, ‘the dork they wanted me to hit. lol.
Now that would have been an interesting post. ha ha
The tenacity in parking is admirable, but I read this thinking “if that was me (were I a truck driver!), I would probably hear a crunch while trying to impress some galoot who couldn’t even recognize the difference in trailer size.” He would not be around to witness the feat of successfully parking, but would sure notice anything that went wrong.
Enjoy the home stay! Hope your part of the world looks like beautiful early spring. (In DC area, our cherry blossoms near the Mall allegedly peaked yesterday, but am not sure as have not personally seen them.)
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Sent you an email a few days ago. Cheers!
Enjoy your time off, you’ve earned it.
Oh, and to Belledog… the Cherry Blossoms were beautiful, was there all day Saturday.
limericc; good to hear re blossoms. Glad you got to see them; it’s a unique experience. STILL haven’t ventured downtown. Maybe tomorrow.
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suffering from Hags withdrawal. Are you fishing? Enjoying life online? Is it a Fernando sighting?
Anyway, enjoy your spring and non-driving time, whatever you and Maggie are doing with it.