Narrative:

We were taxiing into the gate and were basically on an extended center line as we approached the sterile area and noticed the access road on the left with the catering truck parked in the center of the road outside of our red line and sterile area. We both commented on the closeness of the access road and that the truck was safely on the other side of the red line. I was diverting my attention to the docking system as the catering truck disappeared from my view to the left; still across [behind] the red line. As we were continuing slowly inbound on center line; according to the dgs; I noticed some commotion below and to my left of the dgs [visual docking guidance system]. I looked down and saw a ramp person running out and giving me the stop signal. I immediately applied brakes and almost simultaneously felt the impact with the catering truck. I stopped the aircraft completely and set the parking brake and told the passengers to remain seated. The catering truck proceeded forward away from the impact site and the ramp personnel gave me the ok to continue our taxi. I then proceeded to park via the dgs. The brakes were parked at the gate and a call to maintenance was given with an appropriate logbook write-up after the check list. Don't rely on automation and the trust of humans always doing the safe and correct thing. Marshallers at critical gates could have prevented this incident and prevent future incidents.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier flight crew reports contact with a catering truck by the left wing during parking using an automatic parking guidance system. The catering truck had been noticed to be parked clear of the safety zone as the aircraft passed but the wing did not clear the truck.

Narrative: We were taxiing into the gate and were basically on an extended center line as we approached the sterile area and noticed the access road on the left with the catering truck parked in the center of the road outside of our red line and sterile area. We both commented on the closeness of the access road and that the truck was safely on the other side of the red line. I was diverting my attention to the docking system as the catering truck disappeared from my view to the left; still across [behind] the red line. As we were continuing slowly inbound on center line; according to the DGS; I noticed some commotion below and to my left of the DGS [Visual Docking Guidance System]. I looked down and saw a ramp person running out and giving me the stop signal. I immediately applied brakes and almost simultaneously felt the impact with the catering truck. I stopped the aircraft completely and set the parking brake and told the passengers to remain seated. The catering truck proceeded forward away from the impact site and the ramp personnel gave me the OK to continue our taxi. I then proceeded to park via the DGS. The brakes were parked at the gate and a call to maintenance was given with an appropriate Logbook write-up after the check list. Don't rely on automation and the trust of humans always doing the safe and correct thing. Marshallers at critical gates could have prevented this incident and prevent future incidents.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.