Google maps... what IS it good for?

Did pretty good for me, locally in chicago

 

I'm bummed hearing that.. Well, happy for you, bummed for me..lol.. I wanted it to work.. I couldn't even get the darn thing to stay open on my iPhone 6 plus.. To the company's credit they were VERY accommodating- even gave me a couple free weeks to try to fix the issue.. Maybe it was a problem on my phone..

 

Op --
How did you get from 97 to Coburg? 58?

 

I had it for Android, no real problems. I dindnt renew this year, because I pretty well know the truck routes in chicago without it now

 

Yes, you left 5 for 97 at Weed, in California. Understood. How did you get back to 5 from 97 in Oregon?

 

I'm going out on a limb here to say this. But I'm betting that they routed him on the interstate rather than other types of highways, because they believe the interstates are always "safer."
I worked for an outfit like that. They'd route you 100 miles (give or take,) out of the way, to keep you off two lane highways. And this was back in the '90's.

I'm not arguing your point here. But if he sees something on his routing that makes him think the company's directions are not as, (pick one, or all safe, quickest, shortest, then it would be a darn good idea to run it upstairs, rather than just taking it on himself to ignore policy. Once he has dispatch or safety give him the green light, then his back side is covered. Just how far out do you think his company would hang him if, God forbid, he was "out of route," and had a crash. Or even an incident. Or a breakdown.

Speaking of breakdown, it might well be a lot quicker and cheaper for his company to have a hook drag him into a nearby shop off an interstate, rather than a less traveled route.

FWIW, one of the very few things I did like about Knight when I was there, was that they gave you a destination and an appointment time, then left it up to you how you wanted to run it!

 

The company is so cheap they use Google Maps instead of something like PC Miler? That's hilarious. And grotesquely negligent on their part. Not only does Google not account for trucks, it literally finds the fastest route from A to B. Like in your example, it will give them a time based on what a car takes to get through it.

From my experience, on flat land, with Canadian weights (gross around 88-94K) major highway routes are about 15-20 minutes slower in a truck. Through somewhere like Ontario, it can be as much as 30 minutes slower in a truck. If they are basing not only their routing off this, but time commitments to customers, they are going to start having some seriously unhappy drivers AND customers in their future.

In an ideal world, all companies would be paying miles driven and be judging the driver's ability to plan their own route and give them suggestions to improve. But with dispatchers these days having zero experience behind the wheel and relying on a computer to tell them the best course of action, it's just going to get worse.

 

I think also, Don, that if they routed him up 5, then, well, that's the route. Like you said, ask/discuss before going out of route unless you own the truck or have been given routing discretion.
It's pretty much a wash on miles in this case, but 97 (and 58, if that's what he used to get back down to 5) aren't faster than 5. And headed south on 5 EMPTY, he'd just fly over the passes.