Why do trainers swear by maps?

If you insist on continuing to use Google Maps for route planning, be prepared to be featured on the "Idiots of Trucking" forum.

Google Maps does NOT have truck specific routes. Either get a truck specific GPS, like Rand McNally or Garmin, or download a truck specific app. Either way ALWAYS be prepared for idiocy spewing from the app or GPS unit.

You STILL have to THINK.

 

Maps so you can find your way around when GPS is not working.

 

What happens when you’re in the Green Mountians, with no cell service? In the middle of Wyoming, and AT&T hasn’t had a tower in 200 miles?

Paper maps, for their flaws, work.


I wouldn’t leave my nagivation (spelling intentional) to a cellular mapping program solely. They’re awesome aids to maps. They’re not a replacement.

I’ve seen issues with GPS as well - telling you to take a road (in the Arizona mountians) that leads to....an intersection...that leads to...where....?


Yeah, no. Paper maps for me, thanks.

 

I'm not even going to get in on this one.,,,oh what the heck, the reason,,,SON, is you're GPS baloney is fine until it does't work, then you are out of luck.( you should have seen the panic in my daughter's eyes when her GPS went out,,,what do we do, dad?) I know you people think EVERYBODY has GPS, but some, like me, don't, and never will. Sure is different how we did it. It's amazing freight got delivered at all,,,for like 100 years. We're doomed.

 

What you do when you get your own truck is your own business but for now listen to your trainer and don't give him any grief.There's reasoning why he wants you to learn how to read paper maps.

 

The ability to read a map and plan a route is an important skill to have. The map in the atlas shows more detail and a better long-distance view to compare potential routes that the GPS might not even consider. Hell, if I'd followed the routing my GPS was trying to send me on yesterday, it would've taken me 30 miles out-of-route each way AND had me crossing the river on a toll ferry instead of a free bridge both ways...and yes, it's a trucking GPS. Point is, technology will only take you where it has been programmed to lead you, whether that is the best or most efficient route or not. It is a tool, and its suggestions ought to be taken with a grain of salt...otherwise you end up going out of the way, paying $80 to cross a river, or wedged under a low bridge somebody wasn't aware of. The other problem I've run into over the years is it'll attempt to route me down 10-ton roads to avoid a 40-ton culvert that was replaced 15 years ago and no longer has the weight restriction (even though 40 tons is the max around here without a permit). If you haven't looked at a map to see where you need to go and are simply following that stupid device, you'll get in trouble pretty quick.

Like any other tool, it isn't necessarily a BAD thing to have in your bag of tricks...as long as it isn't the only trick you know and you don't rely too heavily upon it.

 

You sound like you are doing thorough trip planning. It is wise of you to write down the streets you will be turning on.
Some folks are slower to adopt new technology.....that is the only reason some folks won’t use gps systems. They are called slow adopters by sociologists.

 

I call absolute bs on this, more than half the time the receiver thinks a "truck" is a 16 foot straight truck at largest, and gives car directions anyway, as for dispatch, they're only as good as the customer's information is, IF they bothered to give it in the first place

(Ignore this post only if you work for a huge company that only ships in and out of massive hubs)

 

While I use Google maps as an addition to my Atlas never rely fully on google maps or your GPS for that matter. My Rand McNally GPS has wanted me to make turns onto roads not fit for a car. When using GPS you have to use common sense. Don't just turn because the GPS told you so. Scan the area and if it doesn't look right then don't turn. I drove for nearly 20 years without a GPS . Technology fails. A good old Motor Carrier atlas, although not 100% perfect has information you can use. Unless you want to spend hours switching back and forth to use street view to see if that bridge is 13'6 or higher you can't always trust it. Plus some of the less traveled areas the pictures are years old or non existent. Use a combination of Technology, Old school map reading and a huge dose of COMMON SENSE. While your trainer may seem to be wasting your time,as a driver the skill to read a map is invaluable. He's teaching you a skill which you may never use but if you find yourself in a situation where a map is all you have then you'll be happy he did.

 

Don't need a map, just follow the gps, no common sense needed

Trucker gets stuck after following GPS onto New Jersey boardwalk

Semi truck jackknifes after driver follows GPS onto small dirt road