I don't need help backing unless I ask for it. Depending on circumstances, usually like backing across a busy road, I will ask for it. I will say that I know for a fact I don't know everything about trucking, not by a long shot but backing, yeah, that's the least of my worries. I do know there are other truckers that are better than me at backing but not many. Here's a trick an old timer taught me. He saw me back in perfectly straight at a dock. He complemented me on how straight it was. Then he said too bad you had to pull up twice before you did it though.

I said so what, that's no big deal. And he said he never pulls up he backs it in straight the first go every time. I thought he was joking at the time but I started watching him, he wasn't lying. Every time I saw him back to a dock he put it in straight in one shot. This made me wonder if I could do that too so I made an effort to try. I learned that if I didn't rush and took my time I could get straighter and straighter just by paying attention and not being sloppy. I was slower backing but I had fewer need for corrections. Eventually in a rather short time I could put it in perfectly straight with one shot first try every time. Then later I could do it even faster and smoother because I was getting used to using my new backing technique and it was becoming second nature to me. My thinking was that if you can pull a trailer out of a dock in one move you can put it into a dock in one move. It's all geometry. Once you make an effort to learn to do it then it's like playing an instrument, you just get better and better with practice.

Next I took the yard jockey job spotting trailers and someone told me they knew a guy who could back doubles up to the dock. I taught myself how to do that by practicing out in the lot when work was slow at night until I could do it at an empty dock and eventually got to where I could back them up between trailers. We had an old linehaul driver come in one day and cut a rear pup up to the dock like it was just another day in between two 53's! Yeah I was good but I wasn't that good. I was good enough for what I needed I didn't see a need to fuss around with all of that. But my thinking is if he could do it then if I put my mind to it then I could do it too. Same with anything.