Scientific backing 90 & 45 explained in two pages

A question for all and any Werner drivers presently. Does Werner still carry those yellow pamphlet : that teaches how to scientifically back up at a 90 or 45 alley dock? I attended Werner in 2005 and was struggling very hard with backing. In 2001 at the local truck driver school,i asked the head instructor for some sort of scientific pointers. He laughed and said " there is no such thing. You either get it or you don't! Have you ever heard the horrible stories of newbies paying other people to back their trucks into docks for them? Yes that was me! I was so scared ; i tried to escape backing and, i signed on with a flatbed company. My God, i wonder how many people quit trucking because they don't get it. I nearly did, even after driving a side loader delivering soda for three yrs. These have one fixed trailer axle and no overhangs to account for. However, give me a trailer with a tandem axle and overhang : i would be in no man's land. There were no Youtube at that time. The books only explained so much and even on truckers forum's the explanations were sparse. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then how much is a video worth? A company called Halvor Lines had a driver who made some vcr tapes . These tapes cost over $500 back then to ship. I did the free trial thing ;got all the tapes ;copied the one for backing and sent them back. The things i learned were (1) If a small or big angle is created between tractor and trailer -very important- with steer tires straight ; trailer will continue in the direction of jack without any further input from steering wheel.(2) If backing off a street into an entrance the set up should end with the tractor facing 90 degree from the entrance or straight ahead and the steer tires straight. The passenger side mirror should now eliminate the blind spots where cars are overtaking on your right.(3) If said position is held , it should prevent crushing of the fins on the side of the tractor. (4) This is the best position to chase the trailer or straighten the tractor and trailer. + This video did not mention the trailer tandems or overhang .It did not speak about measured distances or a target on the ground to rotate the tandems on. It did not mention that the real aim of backing was to square the trailer in front of the space, pullup and the straight back into the space. STOP! The greatest rookie mistake i made was to believe that the aim of backing is to put the trailer in the space without a pull up. How utterly wrong i was. 90% of all backing should follow this process(A) Square the trailer with the entrance of the space(B)Pull up(C) Check both flat mirrors that the space can be seen equally on both sides(D)Now do straight back and put trailer in space. The other 10% trying to put the the trailer into the space rather than squaring the trailer to the entrance of the space. This should only be done ,if there is not enough forward room to rotate the trailer square to the space or dock or the forward room is less than the length of your tractor and trailer straight.

Yes that little Werner pamphlet would lead me into a world of discovery. Please, i must now clarify the phrase "scientific" backing. Most drivers would say scientific my a!! Now i was told in high school that the concept of science can be equated to one word measurable or quantifiable. Also, there is another little qualifier: repeatable. Thus if the principles espoused by this pamphlet are measurable and can be repeated. Then it can be inferred that they are scientific. If some thing is measurable then we must have measurements. What measurements did this pamphlet give in regards to backing.

If a 90 degree or 45 alley dock is to be attempted say at a dock between two trucks . A certain distance must be accounted for. Now as we discussed before; the aim of backing is to rotate the trailer around a point and square it with the entrance of the space. How do we decide where this point is? How near or far? After rotation the back of the trailer will be the nearest point towards the space and the parked trucks.The point of rotation is at the tandems and it is further away from the parked trucks or the parking space. This distance from the back of the trailer to the point of rotation is called trailer swing or overhang. How do we measure this distance? You pace off from front tire on tandem to the ICC bumper. We now have our measurement . Let us satisfy the second qualifier; repeatability. Wherever the tandems are on the trailer pace off the distance to the ICC bumper. Set up tractor and trailer at 45 degree to space. Walk to the tractor to the left of the space;position your self at the tractors right head lamp;pace off the same distance straight out from the headlamp. Place a marker on the ground. Get back inside your truck; rotate your tandems around this marker on the ground. After trailer is square with space;pull up and straight back in the space. This how i learned scientific backing from that Werner pamphlet!