Pull that #### GPS out of your Arse and drive!!!

Wa...wa....wait...you mean you're NOT supposed to fold an atlas? Where else can I hide my fingerless gloves?

 

Many of the "New School" drivers out there today could't find their way out of the truck stop parking lot if they didn't have a GPS. They are a good tool, however you need your atlas and some comon sence. I do understand that common sence is rare these days, however tech. is only as good as the person useing it.

 

A little off topic, but does fit. I am leased to a company so I pay for my fuel. Their fuel routing gets me their best price on fuel. I have had times that it saved me as much as $100 on a fillup. I still go the route I feel is best, but knowing I get the carrier's fuel price influences my decision also.

 

Google Maps has replaced the paper maps, thankfully! But it'd take a screen the size of an atlas to get the big picture/detail that an atlas offers for trip planning. I love having GPS as a tool, it's just not my brain!

 

hey preacher man--can you get the cheaper fuel anywhere on the chain??--or odes it have to follow their routing??
ok better question--do you have a fuel card that be used anytime at one of the participating vendors?

 

Absolute Truth, right there^^^^^

The rest of your post was dead-on as well, BigJohn!

 

Will never own one. Theres not one city/state in this country that i can not look at my atlas and figure out how to get to where i'am going and then call the shipper/reciever for exact directions to there facility. My friend relies on his gps and it screws him up more than helps him. I can not count the times he's called asking if the way the gps was sending him was a good way and 9 times out of 10 it was the worst way to possibly go.

 

Today, mine saved me from driving 60 extra miles with a bad battery...I was awakened by a thump on my door at 4:30am, looked outside to see 3 guys standing there, first thing I said was, "####, there are so ugly lot lizards here, sorry, not interested", one of them then said my batteries were smoking!...I shut down engine, jumped out, pulled off battery cover, sho nuff, one of them was swollen, leaking and smoking...Waited 2hrs for it to cool down, called shop, after checking the local shops(I was in Sidney, NE) and found none could help me, who told me to head 80 miles west to the T/A in Cheyenne...I get there and the whole locale was under a power failure, no help there...The next place they sent me was to Laramie but I didn't want to run another 60 miles if I didn't have to so I pulled up all the TSs along the route and started calling...The Love's in Cheyenne had a shop next to them, Art's Truck Repair, I called them and only had to run another 10 miles, instead of 60 more to get a new battery...Was back on the road in less than an hour!!...It was nice to have them listed on the GPS in order of proximity with phone numbers so I could find the closest shop tht could help me!...

 

I can fuel wherever but the deals are by individual stores. I can fuel at say loves in Williamsville IL and the discount may be about $20 then fill at the one in North Little Rock and the discount might be $70. I don't have to follow their route plan, but it usually gives me the best deal. I will get a discount at any of the major chains though.

What they do is negotiate a price for so many gallons of fuel. They get that price until the fuel amount has been purchased and then they have to negotiate a new deal. I will give my company credit that they pass their entire discount on to their o/o fleet.

To not get too far off topic, their q'comm routing is truck specific, but even at that you can't go "brain-dead." It doesn't give you door to door directions and sometimes it takes you to the wrong place. An example is their drop yard in E. Stl. Their routing takes you north on US 67. If you know anything about the area you know that 67 goes north of St. Louis and ends up through Alton. In other words if you can't use your brain or a map you will never get to the drop yard.

 

I have one that is configured for a truck but it still doesn't know to stay outside I-285 and various other "no go" areas around the country. I agree that it's a tool to augment the updated atlas. That's my opinion. Take it or leave it. I'm just a truck driver.