Just had to back onto a bay for the first time in about six months. By god did I make a mess of it, and I nearly wound up in the warehouse due to the speed I hit the buffers.
Does anyone else suffer from this?
No.
It’s one of the reasons i open the door and physically look out so i can can see and hear as much as possible and can judge better where my huge arse is 
Fast and sometimes surge reversing is one of the downsides of auto gearboxes, though mitigated somewhat if you find the lowest crawl/maneuvering gear possible which sometime stake several presses of the gear selector depending on make.
We all make ■■■■■■■■ up now and again, changing from one regular tractor unit to another make after several years always stumps me, i take reversing seriously and practice blind siding to as perfect as i can make it, but you’d think i passed me test 5 minutes ago when i get another make of tractor unit 
If i have another tank as well it’s any bugger’s guess where the thing’s going to end up 
If i had to use a curtain sider again all bets are off.
Yes all of the time, I hate reversing auto boxes for this reason. Just got a new to me truck with manual, it is a 12 speed, 3 over 3 scania V8 with a range splitter. Looked like I passed my test yesterday jumping into it today. Took me a few hours to get used to it, stopped it and couldn’t turn it off.
Yes, we don’t do much backing onto bays… Usually just pull curtains back and tip… we have a stupid tapoline on bungees which always gets a few backs up!
we have a stupid tapoline on bungees which always gets a few backs up!
Probably the best trailer in the world though 
Yorkielad:
we have a stupid tapoline on bungees which always gets a few backs up!Probably the best trailer in the world though
The trailer is good, the fight strapping it down isn’t…
I’ve only seen one with the bungees and sheet and it was a Carlsberg
UKtramp:
Yes all of the time, I hate reversing auto boxes for this reason. Just got a new to me truck with manual, it is a 12 speed, 3 over 3 scania V8 with a range splitter. Looked like I passed my test yesterday jumping into it today. Took me a few hours to get used to it, stopped it and couldn’t turn it off.
Err , this never happened
I was lucky I suppose, I had 8 years off of the lorries and no one was more surprised than me when I passed an assessment drive which included a regular 90° reverse as well as a blindside 90° reverse, both of which went perfectly and without needing a shunt. I suppose for some it sticks better than for others maybe?
Good job really as I then spent the next couple of months yard shunting on nights.
Reef:
I was lucky I suppose, I had 8 years off of the lorries and no one was more surprised than me when I passed an assessment drive which included a regular 90° reverse as well as a blindside 90° reverse, both of which went perfectly and without needing a shunt. I suppose for some it sticks better than for others maybe?Good job really as I then spent the next couple of months yard shunting on nights.
See if you’d have fudged the blindside you’d not have ended up shunting lol
I tend to find if there’s someone watching that’s when things won’t go to plan. If there’s nobody there it’ll go swimmingly.
Wincanton Grays you can’t help but tump it onto a bay. There’s a channel about a foot away from where your front wheels will be when you’re fully on, so you go back slowly and end up stopping and look in your mirrors and it looks like you’re on the bay so you give it a bit of courtesy welly to make sure only to find you’re not on the bay and your front wheels are stuck in a rut so off you go back onto the bay with a thud.
Job done. Keys out. Walk away like you meant it
You see nothing but damaged buffers, and smashed bars due to numptys slamming into the bays, then when there on, give it a big footfall of revs in reverse to push it back even further,then slam hand brake on, then they wonder why the buffer on trailer is bent.
My turn to have a bad reversing day today ! Hate it when it happens.
Most of my deliveries are to building sites these days, with a lot of complicated manoeuvering because I’m going in an artic and they often only allow enough space for a rigid or w&d.
Last week I had a site where they told me I could not reverse into a particular space, and should instead reverse the entirety offsite. I wasn’t prepared to do the latter, as I knew I could not get around the next corner in reverse. Surprisingly enough I know my vehicle better than the forklift driver does.
Other sites are also often mud pits and vex me so. But I have a heavy duty recovery strap now And I’m getting better at reversing, blindsiding, and quite frankly getting unstuck on my own.
But the large building sites don’t help themselves when they put the curb stones in early into the build, and don’t allow an appropriate place for offloading Artic’s.
We do def get those days!! Turned up “Bay 19 drive” Nearest trucks bay 11 and bay 26, nothing to worry about I think to myself , do you think I could get it straight? Now if the trucks had been on 18 and 20 probably would have got it on in one 
One thing that peees me off at night time is why do they have the yard light on the buildings in such a position that you can’t see SFA in your mirrors. I also hate it when you can’t see the lines on the run up to the bays because they’re faded.
It’s just one of those things mate. Everyone screws up now and then, it doesn’t mean you have lost the skill, another time you would have probably gone straight in with no problem. First day out with Foodliner, over 11 years ago and in Domino sugar’s loading area the trainer said I should get out and watch him reverse into the loading spot because the area is very congested and hard to get into.
“I have been driving these things since I was 21 years old mate, if you don’t think I am capable of reversing into the spot I may as well give up and go home” He said ok and I did it first time and no shunts needed.
“I have worked here for 8 years and never seen anyone do that in one go before” he said.
The fact is that even with 11 years doing the maneuver I still screw it up just as many times as I get it right, once you get slightly out of line you may as well pull completely out and start all over again. It doesn’t mean you have lost the skill in any way, don’t get disheartened.
Saratoga:
Most of my deliveries are to building sites these days, with a lot of complicated manoeuvering because I’m going in an artic and they often only allow enough space for a rigid or w&d.Last week I had a site where they told me I could not reverse into a particular space, and should instead reverse the entirety offsite. I wasn’t prepared to do the latter, as I knew I could not get around the next corner in reverse. Surprisingly enough I know my vehicle better than the forklift driver does.
Other sites are also often mud pits and vex me so. But I have a heavy duty recovery strap now And I’m getting better at reversing, blindsiding, and quite frankly getting unstuck on my own.
But the large building sites don’t help themselves when they put the curb stones in early into the build, and don’t allow an appropriate place for offloading Artic’s.
+1
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At this point I should mention that my regular drive is an 18T rigid, which (even though it is a MAN with a turning circle like the Torrey Canyon) is a POP to manouevre into all sorts of silly spaces provided you take it slowly.
However, from time to time (maybe once a week) they let me loose in a big lads’ lorry, which is nice and relaxing as the delivery points tend to be easy-peasy and there is no faffing about with tail lifts etc. Cue me arriving at Ferryspeed in Portsmouth. A couple of bays to choose from, so I decide to go for Bay 2 as it looks to be the easiest. Get the approach just right, reverse onto the bay and get it spot on in (almost) one manouvre. Except I’m on Bay 1…
In my defence, I have to say that although I passed my test on a normal tri-axle outfit, I then spent 5 years driving with a 10 metre rear-steer trailer which behaves nothing like a regular trailer when reversing…
Ah yes.The joys of reversing a rear steer tandem bogie controlled by crossed rods by means of a wedge in the 5th.wheel jaws.Hours of amusement for spectators.
Captain Caveman 76:
Just had to back onto a bay for the first time in about six months. By god did I make a mess of it, and I nearly wound up in the warehouse due to the speed I hit the buffers.Does anyone else suffer from this?
Maybe you never had them in the first place? Only joking but I always found most drivers including myself that had been reversing for years and years never really had a problem after leaving it for a while.
At one point I drove an 8 wheeler for 2 years, back to an artic and not a problem,just like I had never been away.
I don’t know how long you have been driving artics but maybe it’s not long enough.