After a long day behind the wheel, a trucker looks forward to getting off the road for the night. If he’s lucky, he’ll find a truck stop with ample parking and a decent place to eat. One would think that a trucker is safe once they make it to a truck stop and park for the night. Wrong! Check out this video from my friend Shane Rizzuto, whose dash cam caught a guy backing right into his truck while Shane was asleep. What a terrible way to wake up.
What can we do to prevent this? Not much, but here are some tips to help reduce the risk.
- Park in a corner spot. The best parking spots are the ones around the truck stop perimeter, not the ones at the end of a middle row that will see traffic going by all night long.
- Pull in a back row spot instead of back in. I would only do this if it’s easy to back out and it’ll be daylight when I leave. This protects my truck from being backed into. They may hit my trailer, but I’d rather that happen then damage my truck.
- Park in a spot between two trucks that are parked already. Maybe they’ll stay in place as long as you’re there so no one will try to park beside you overnight.
- Leave your parking lights on. I’m not sure this’ll work, but it can’t hurt.
- Park in the fuel island. Then put an orange cone behind your trailer and rest easy. JUST KIDDING!
I had a similar situation happen to me recently. I was asleep at a truck stop when all of a sudden I heard a truck near me blast the air horn. I peeked out of the curtain and saw a truck attempting to back beside me. If it wasn’t for the alert truck driver sitting in the driver’s seat a couple of trucks down, my truck would’ve been damaged. I got out and thanked him for stopping an accident.
Thanks to Shane Rizzuto for the use of this video.