Another day of a trucker in NYC!

Another day of a trucker in NYC!

Most of you know I’m an old truck driver. Been doing it for many years. I’ve been to every major and minor city in the USA. I would loved to have been able to drive on the rest of the worlds more challenging roads just for kicks! I have seen every kind of backing or turning challenge there could be and this is a story I think some of you might like!

I delivered in NYC and was making a really tight right with cars parked all the way to the stop signs on all four corners. The streets were 2 lanes only with cars parked on the sides as usual in Manhattans lower east side mixed residential business areas.

I had slid the tandems and the 5th wheel all the way forward and the unit was as short as I could get that 379 Pete with the 340” wheel base and 48' trailer and still had to do that right. I had a few cops there that made cars go back and I backed up and then got on the left side of my street and was making the turn and was real close to the car on the opposite corner that was parked illegally under the stop sign.

At the same time, my trailer tandems are sliding to the rear (I leave them unlocked in these circumstances so I don’t have to jump out and run back and pull the lock. This way when I pull the “trolley or hand brake) The tandems are already loose and when they slide to the back there is no tail swing which can eat the side out of a car. They were sliding making a loud clacking noise as one of the locking pins was hitting the holes in the rail as it slid past them. Needless to say I was getting a lot of attention. OH! Before you ask I had to go on this route to get to a building that was being remolded and I had 3 fire proof doors in that large trailer!

This woman came running out of a store screaming at me in some language I could not understand waving her arms and jumping up and down having the conniption fit of the century! I sweat I thought she was going to have a freaking heart attack!

I had the left side of the tractor next to her car about 2" from her mirror and the trailer was OVER her hood! The cops were standing there actually passing money on the bet which was a 2 way bet of weather I broke her windshield or didn’t make the turn which I got in by yelling at them to put $20 on the bet on me. This is when it got funny as hell!

The crowd that had been standing there watching started to laugh as I kept making my turn. The woman is still screaming and was now in the face of one of the cops still waving her arms like a dodo trying to take flight, the front left corner of the trailer got about an inch from her windshield and the cops were leaning over the hood watching this and elbowing each other but I made the turn, slid the tandems back to the front, got out and collected my $60 in winnings locked the tandems in place and watched the cops write the woman a parking ticket!

Hey! I love driving in NYC! The pay is good. I get to meet great people and scare the crap out of them!