route directions ?

Depends on the company, if they like newbies they route everything. The company I work for expects the driver to know the best route for the time of year and run accordingly. We know the fuel stops they prefer, and use them. Its not like a car with a short range. I can run for 2 days almost on full fuel tanks. And when in doubt you can always request routing for a load. I think most of the big carriers use set routing.

It is still your responsibility to double check the routing if theres any doubt, your the one thats going to get hung if they put you on a route that does not allow your weight or load. SIze, Hazmats changes routing.

 

my understanding of some of the big carriers is they might provide directions over the qualcomm, however i never worked for one of them. i always did my own directions, but then again i have loved maps since i was a kid. it's a talent not everyone has so it pays to develop your own.

 

this depends on the carrier as someone else mentioned. but never accept those directions to be 100% dead on accurate. a company i worked for had directions to the shipper/receiver from the main highway, but it was up to me to get from point A to where the directions to the place took over.
then too, many company directions send you through small towns and all over the place "as the birds fly" i guess is what they say........i'd rather not be following those directions.

 

Boy are you right! Swift twice routed me through 45 minutes of surface streets (Portland area) that could have been avoided with 5 minutes on freeway. Luckily, I'd cross checked them with my atlas and mapping program.

 

I enjoyed being leased to Key Line Freight in the 1970s. They were authorized for "to and from Michigan". We were required to sign through their check point at New Buffalo if it was on our route. Otherwise, we were required to phone central control near the state line. Life was simple then, and I enjoyed the freedom. I collected city maps. Chicago was a challenge, but we took pride in our ability to plan a route.

 

The OTR company I worked for years ago used "Opti-Stop". It was part of the Quall-comm dispatch and would tell you where to fuel and how much fuel to add. Pain in the butt.. I was lucky in that I almost always was able to fill it at a terminal and one fuel stop since I always ran into the Northeast but that thing was a headache when I went elsewhere.

I have a pretty good fueling system now - I pull into our fuel island after dropping my set and fuel away on the clock after punching my employee number into the computer. What a fantastic idea - getting paid hourly to fuel the truck since I'm certainly not on mileage at that time..lol..

 

We get a message with the highway routing, something like:

I 10 W
CA 57 N
I 210 W
FUEL
I 210 W
I 5 N
LOCAL

And then you get a second message with actual directions to a shipper/consignee, something like:

CA 99 N EXIT 62 E ON RAMP LT AT STOP GO PAST THE OLD TRACTOR TURN LEFT AT THE GRAZING COW THEN GO A WAYS DOWN UNTIL YOU GET TO THE PILE OF DIRT AND TURN RIGHT

Sometimes the directions are spot on because someone in the office or wherever took the time to call the place directly and get solid directions, sometimes they might tell you to turn left off the offramp instead of right or something like that though, which can mess you up if you're not paying attention. I swear by having a laptop/phone with some sort of mapping to check. Being able to look up the address on something with a satellite view can be very helpful, then you can at least have a good idea of where the truck entrance might be, etc.

A message also comes along with the load info that gives your fuel solution for the trip. Same idea as the "Opti-Stop" mentioned. Something like:

PILOT #372 I 5 EX: 123 QTY: 50
FLYING J I 80 EX: 321 QTY: FILL

This is based on how much fuel the solution program "thinks" you have, which I believe is based on the remaining fuel that you report in your empty message on the QC. Sometimes these can be bad as well so make sure your fuel stops are actually on the route they give you (or the route you're going to take).

 

10-4 on goofy directions from dispatch, sometimes. I worked for an outfit that used ALK's PCMiler software, and it always routed any approach from the north into Alcoa'a Cressona plant in PA through old downtown Pottsville. LOL!

If you haven't been through oldtown Pottsville, it's a hillside town, and one of those places where you'd have to find the owners of parked cars to move them before you could turn a big truck. Not turn around, understand, just do a 90 degree turn at a regular intersection.

ALWAYS check your maps before you drive, and assume what you were told was wrong until you OK it with your own eyes. If you don't it's a lock that one day you will get burned.