hey vyx trappers a lot of the truck accidents today occur right in the truck stops this is for a number of reasons a lot of the truck stops were built in the 70s the truck stops themselves were smaller and there were fewer trucks these days there are a lot more trucks and the trucks are a lot bigger when I started driving in the 70s trailers were 40 feet long and 96 wide today they're 13 feet longer and six inches wider so the trucks are bigger they're harder to maneuver the parking spots are the same size so and you've got the biggest factor of all is you've got a whole lot of rookie drivers out here now that we never used to have years ago and I'm sorry to say for the most part that's where the damage is coming from so as a seasoned owner operator I've developed a few things to help me protect my truck when I go into a truck stop my deductible my insurance deductible on this truck here is $5,000 and some guys some owner operators their deductible is $10,000 well it doesn't take a whole lot for a guy to back into you and cause $5,000 worth of damage or more it happens pretty easily so I developed a few strategies that I practice on my own to help protect my truck because downtime is expensive not only the downtime but the cost of the repair the cost of the hotel and the tow truck if you've got that involved if you get hit badly enough so you want to you can't prevent completely being not hit in a truck stop or being hit in two trucks up but there are ways to to lower your odds and I've developed a few strategies for that over the years the first thing I do is when I landed it truck stop I go right to the very back of the lot and I park right at the very back on the lot they try to nose into a spot at the back of the lot and that way after some rookie guy backhand in beside me if he screws up he'll hit the trailer rather than hit the nose of the truck and it's better just to sustain damage on the trailer and have some guy clean out your your grill your radiator in your hood because if he takes out your red you're not going anywhere so I try to I try to nose in just to protect the the vital parts of the truck that help it run like the engine and the rad and the fan and all that something else I do is I find a spot where on one side I can maybe block off someone parking beside me often I'll park beside a light pole or something like that so at least I haven't got some guy trying to try to back in beside me on that side so I've kind of cut my odds of being hit by about 50% this is this is kind of sad science but it's true another thing I do is I park away from heavily trafficked areas and the truck stops like I try not to land near the shop or close to the building because I find there's a whole lot more in and out traffic as the guys want to park close to the restaurant or something like that another reason to go to the back there's less traffic back there most of the traffic and the truck stops occurs in the in the top third of the closest third did it to the restaurant so I avoid that area like the plague I I try to find a couple of trucks to park in between that don't look like they're going anywhere it looks like the guys have landed for the night or maybe they're gone home for a day or two as well if I can find a couple like that and slide in between them and know that neither guy on either side of me is going to move through the night well I feel a little better about dot too when I do park beside somebody it might sound like a foolish step but I record their license-plate numbers their unit numbers and the companies of the trucks that way if I if I come out after dinner and I see damage on my truck I know who was parked beside me so a little helpful tip for tracing down the guy that hits you but I've noticed that some of these some of these big mega carriers like swift and Snyder and those guys their driver trainers will bring the rookies to the truck stops and let them practice they're backing up skills in between the trucks at the truck stop and that irritates the hell outta me these super carriers have big yards with big trailer drop yards there's all sorts of room for those guys to practice they're backing up skills in their own yard so if they hit something they hit one of their own trailers but I have a real problem with those guys practicing their skills around my truck because frankly I don't want one of those guys ricocheting off of me and I wish those guys would just do their training in their yards rather note in the truck stops a lot of the driver trainers for these big fleets don't understand that because they've never owned a truck so they don't understand the investment you've got there and they don't understand that the financial ramifications of the damage and the downtime but you know it doesn't hurt to explain it to them and most of them are smart enough that they'll get it most of them are anyway so yep I don't like to see driver trainers practicing with their trainees and the truck stops I don't park and stay at truck stops with really small limited parking areas pilots for the most part are famous for this and and they'll be set up like like fueling stations but they'll only have a few spots to park and generally these places are like tight into town so while a truck stop like that might be hand and close to your delivery the next morning you're not going to be able to deliver your load of some fools punched in your rad so I try to stay at the bigger truck stops outside of town and reduce the odds of getting hit that way because usually there's less traffic in those big truck stops as compared to like a pilot right in the city where trucks are coming and going all the time best 100 dollars or so in one of these dash cams and leave it running when you go in for a shower for dinner or something like that because these these dash cams will record what's going on in front of your truck so if you haven't been able to know to nose in if you've got to back in at least this dash cam is recording the guys moving out around in front of you and oftentimes if some guy hits you and then takes off the dash cam will capture enough information that you'll see that see at least who the carrier is you can note the time that you were in and you got hit and you can contact the carrier even if you don't get the unit number they'll know the unit number because you can tell them hey at 4:10 p.m. and in Charlotte North Carolina at the truck stop this truck hit me I don't know what the unit was did get the unit number but this is one of your guys hit me this it may record the trailer number and they'll know who had what trailer so you can trace down who hit you if need be there a handy tool for a hundred bucks or so well worth the investment is I try to land early for the night and that way I can get a good parking spot a safer parking spot then leaving it till 11:00 or 12:00 at night and you know having to take whatever's left over as a parking spot so I'll land early specifically to get a good parking lot because if the truck gets hit I've lost money it's as simple as that so a few of these little steps to help protect your truck and reduce your downtime take pride in your ride don't let some fool ricochet off it that's the name of the game the name of the game is keep your truck working and make some money