How to Screen Yard Jockeys and Yard Spotters: 9 Questions and What to Listen For Screening Interview Template

Which yard trucks have you actually run on the job (Ottawa or Kalmar, Capacity, Autocar, or a road tractor used in the yard), at what kind of site, and for how long? Roughly how many dock doors and trailer spots did that yard have, and did your moves ever go out on a public road?

What this assesses: Seat time on a terminal tractor is what you are buying, and it does not transfer automatically from road driving or forklift work. A road driver knows how to back a trailer but may never have used an elevating fifth wheel or made dozens of hooks in one shift. A forklift operator knows the dock but may never have coupled anything. Strong answers name the truck, the site type (distribution center, cross-dock, manufacturing plant, carrier terminal, port or rail ramp), a tenure in months or years, and a rough size for the yard. They also say plainly whether they stayed on private property or shuttled between buildings on a public road, since that changes what license you need them to hold. Be cautious with a candidate who says they have driven everything, who cannot name the truck they drove, or whose yard experience turns out to be a few weeks covering for the regular spotter. That is not disqualifying for an entry-level opening you plan to train, but it is a different hire at a different pay rate, and you want to know before the yard test.

Do you hold a CDL, and if so, what class and in what state? Is your DOT medical card current, and when does it expire? In the last three years, have you had any license suspensions, moving violations, or a failed or refused drug test?

What this assesses: Decide your own requirement first, because the law does not settle it for you. A yard truck that never leaves private property often does not require a CDL, but many shippers, carriers, and their insurers require one anyway, along with a current DOT medical card, and any spotter who shuttles on a public road needs the right license for it. Once you have a rule, this question is a filter, not a conversation. Strong answers give a class, a state, a medical card expiration month, and a direct account of their record, including anything that will show up on a motor vehicle report. For CDL holders, a failed or refused test means an FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse record and a return-to-duty process, and a candidate who explains where they are in that process is being more honest than one who hopes you will not check. Be cautious with a vague answer about when a medical card expires, a license that is 'getting sorted out,' or a record described only as nothing serious. Those are the answers that turn into a withdrawn offer after the background check.

Walk me through what you check at the start of a shift, both on your yard truck and on a trailer before you move it. What would make you refuse to move a trailer or write the truck up as out of service?

What this assesses: The pre-shift check tells you whether someone treats the yard as a place where accidents happen. Strong answers are specific and in order: walk around the truck for air leaks, tires, lights, and hydraulic fluid, confirm the fifth wheel is greased and the boom raises and lowers cleanly, and test the brakes before the first move. On trailers they look for flat or missing tires, bent landing gear, a damaged floor or nose, and a missing or mismatched seal. On reefers they check the fuel level, whether the unit is running, and whether the set point matches the load. Their refusal list should be real: a trailer with a bent landing gear leg, a truck with an air leak they can hear, a reefer that is off with product inside. Be cautious with a candidate who says they check everything and names nothing, or who has never written up a truck. Yard equipment breaks constantly, and someone who never reports it is either not looking or not telling.

Describe exactly how you hook a trailer, from pulling up to it until you start moving it. How do you know the trailer is actually locked on?

What this assesses: This is the most important question in the template. A high hook, where the fifth wheel jaws close above the kingpin instead of around it, lets the trailer ride on the plate until it slides off and drops its nose, and it happens to rushed spotters who skip one step. Strong answers line up square, check the trailer height against the fifth wheel before backing under, back until they feel the lock, and do a tug test against the trailer brakes. Then they get out and visually confirm the jaws are closed around the kingpin with the release handle locked, before connecting the air lines and electrical, raising the fifth wheel until the landing gear clears, and releasing the trailer brakes. Some will mention a flashlight for night hooks, which is a good sign. Be cautious with a candidate who skips the tug test, who says they can feel whether it locked, or who never gets out of the cab to look. Speed on this step is exactly what you do not want to reward, and a candidate who is proud of never leaving the cab has told you how they will drop their first trailer.

You are called on the radio to pull a trailer off door 14. The dock light is not clear, you cannot tell if the loader is finished, and your lead says the next truck is waiting. What do you do? Then walk me through how you drop a trailer at a door.

What this assesses: Early departure, pulling a trailer away while a forklift is still in it, is one of the worst accidents that happens at a dock, and it usually starts with exactly this kind of pressure. OSHA's [powered industrial truck standard](https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.178) requires a trailer to be secured against rolling before a forklift drives into it, which is why docks use chocks, restraints, and light systems in the first place. Strong answers do not move. They confirm with the dock directly, walk up and look if they have to, and tell the lead the truck will wait, without drama. On the drop, they back in square, lower the fifth wheel until the landing gear takes the weight on a solid surface, set the trailer brakes, disconnect the lines, and make sure the restraint engages or the wheels are chocked before they leave. Be cautious with any answer that starts with 'if they told me to pull it,' anyone who describes the dock light as the dock's problem, and anyone who has never had to tell a supervisor no. That candidate will pull the trailer the first night someone is impatient.

How were your moves assigned at your last yard: by radio, on a tablet or yard management system, or from a paper move list? How many moves did you typically make in a shift, how did you decide what to move first, and what did you do when a trailer was not where the system said it was?

What this assesses: Pace matters, but a spotter's real job is keeping the yard accurate, and a bad one creates the missing trailers the next shift spends an hour hunting for. Strong answers name how work arrived, give a real move count they were held to, and describe putting hot loads, live unloads with a driver waiting, and reefers ahead of empties. They update the system or the board after every move rather than at the end of the shift. On the missing trailer, they check the nearby rows, call the gate and the last person to move it, and report it rather than guessing. Be cautious with a candidate who has no idea how many moves they made, who describes updating locations as someone else's job, or who treats a lost trailer as normal. A yard management system is trainable in a shift. Writing down where you put things is a habit.

Tell me about the last time you hit something, dropped a trailer, or had a close call in a yard or on the road. What happened, how did you report it, and what do you do differently now?

What this assesses: Almost everyone who has spotted trailers for more than a few months has clipped a mirror, rubbed a dock bumper, or had a near miss with a pedestrian. Strong answers name a specific incident, own their part of it, say they reported it the same shift, and describe a concrete change: getting out to look on tight backs, waiting for a spotter at a blind door, slowing down in the pedestrian lane by the guard shack. Be cautious with a candidate who claims no incident of any kind in years of yard work, which is rarely true, or one who describes the incident entirely as someone else's fault. Unreported damage costs you more than reported damage, and this question tells you which kind of employee you are about to hire. Ask it the same way to every candidate so the honest ones are not penalized against the ones who deny everything.

This job means climbing up behind the cab to connect air lines dozens of times a shift, working outside in heat, cold, rain, and snow, and shifts of ten to twelve hours. Can you do that, with or without reasonable accommodation? Tell me about the hardest conditions you have worked in.

What this assesses: Yard work is harder on the body than it looks from the dock office. Climbing on and off the deck all night is where the falls happen, and the weather is the reason people quit in the first month. Strong answers describe real conditions they worked through, like a winter night yard or a summer afternoon on hot asphalt, and mention three points of contact getting on and off the truck without being prompted. Keep the question about the essential functions of the job, ask it the same way for everyone, and leave medical specifics out of the screen. Be cautious with a candidate whose only experience is inside a climate-controlled warehouse and who waves off the weather question, because the gap between saying it and doing it shows up in January.

What shifts can you commit to? Our yard runs nights, weekends, and holidays. What pay range are you looking for, how will you get to the site, and what made you leave your last yard job?

What this assesses: Nights and weekends are where the spotter openings are, and most distribution centers sit off a highway exit with no transit, so availability and transportation decide retention more than skill does. Strong answers give specific shifts, say plainly whether they can work a holiday rotation, name a reliable way to get to a site that may be twenty miles out, and give a pay range consistent with their seat time. The reason they left is the useful answer. Spotters who leave usually name mandatory overtime with no notice, being rushed off doors, or broken equipment nobody fixed, and a candidate who names something specific is telling you what will keep them. Confirm hard constraints like a second job or childcare here rather than after the offer. Ask every applicant the same nine questions and score them on one [structured interview](/glossary/structured-interview) rubric so hook habits and dock judgment decide the shortlist instead of who picked up the phone, and use [asynchronous screening](/glossary/asynchronous-screening) so a spotter finishing a night shift somewhere else can answer at seven in the morning. Some [candidate drop-off](/glossary/candidate-drop-off) once nights and weather are spelled out is the point. You want it before the yard test, not in week two.