yard jockey questions

I did some yard hostling on our Macy's account. This account my company would only hire spotters that have experience on account of how tight the backing maneuvers are. On one side of the concourse the doors are angled 45 degrees towards the street. Across from them the doors are head on. 28',48' and 53' trailers across from each other. Some doors you need sharp pin point moves to get the trailers in and out. Others, you had to move a trailer out to get another trailer out. Such a waste of time the way they had it set. I have used both single axle and tandem axle yard dogs. Ottawa and Capacity are the two main manufactures of yard trucks. Macys has 4 Ottawa's, older units that make you sweat in the summer with the A/C full blast and a extra fan going. and one Capacity, brand new that broke down alot. The Tandem my company owns is on our Clorox account. Street legal for that one. 45,000lbs of bleach to moved from the shipping doors down the street to a holding yard for OTR drivers to pick up. Fun times. 102" wide trailers in doors meant for 96" wide roll up doors. Most yard dog positions only open up when someone quits or retires. Good luck finding one.

 

^truth. Want to sharpen your maneuvering skills and go bald that's the job for you. As in any yard/mill/pit,ect. your on the dogs turf. Respect it goes along ways.

 

aka yard switcher

 

someone misled you when they said you could start out as a yard jockey. most companies would want a minimum of 2 years experience. depending on the size of the yard and how busy it is you really need to be on your game to do hundreds of moves a shift.

i found lazer spot off a craigslist ad, as an example.

 

I have never seen anyone hire a new CDL holder to be a yard jockey. The majority of them want driving experience. Also, there are some employers that won't hire for that position solely. They will hire you as a driver, and you bid on certain runs -- to include yard jockeys. Runs will be awarded based on seniority.

 

I find myself more commonly saying "######... Crazy ####### slow down"

 

You're not gonna get a yard job with no experience. You will spend more (a lot more) time in reverse than forward. You've got to get trailers very literally inches from each other, ALL DAY, without dinging them. You have to back in that 53' with swing doors around the front of a crooked longnose OTR rig, without hitting his truck, the trailer, or anything else. Oh, and there's a row of dropped trailers opposite. You may have to make and break sets for doubles, or move their dollies around (fun with only a front pintle hook). You're sitting on the motor, in a cab with tons of glass, a marginal or nonexistant air conditioner, and quite possibly no heat either. You have to pull trailers out, drop them, put fresh trailers in shipping and receiving doors, keeping hundreds of trailers straight in your head if you don't have a computer system in the truck. You're probably the one out in the yard with bolt cutters, trying to snap that stubborn bolt or cable seal. And this in any weather...snow, ice, fog, rain, sun, you name it, you're out there. You're going to be in and out of your seat, hooking air lines, opening/shutting doors, etc. You won't gain weight here.

And, the best part? You're almost solely responsible for keeping lines moving, crews on schedule, and freight going in/out. How's that you say? Ever been reamed out because your delay getting a trailer to a receiving door idled an entire dock crew for 20 minutes? And you wonder why they go 40 miles an hour across the yard...

 

There's one particular Yard Hostler at Miller/Coors in Irwindale, CA I've gotten to know. He always pulls my pre-loaded trailers out of the parked spot, it's so tight I can hardly squeeze in between the trailers. Plus, the landing gear is usually left up too high so that it's very hard to get started lowering with 45k of beer in the trailer, so, he pulls it out and leaves the trailer up and I can start lowering the landing gear before he drops it.

I ALWAYS give him a cold bottle of water to show my appreciation.

 

Lawn jockies AKA yard gnomes are something different lol