My brother Marc is backing up his mixer at a construction site in Palm Desert. In the lower-right is a ditch in the sand; this is a footing for a wall that Marc is about to fill with cement. He is positioning the mixer so the chute in the back can reach the footing.

A worker from the site will signal for Marc to release cement. They will also signal when he should inch the truck forward, so the next part of the footing can be filled. The chute is swiveled by hand to keep it over the footing as the truck advances forward. This is a technique called "tailgating".