reading a map

I would never have done that when I was still training. I understand that some of these guys were still on mommy's tit when the left to be a big bad trucker and no they don't no ####. In my opinion that's half their fault and have their parents fault. Still as a trainer it was my job to teach these guys how to operate a CMV safely and within federal, state, local and company guidelines. If that's what I am paid for so be it. Part of that includes learning how to read a map effectively, thus being safer on the roads for various reasons.

 

I know I can thank my dad for being able to read a map and knowing directions well. He's a driver so the Rand McNally truck atlas has been a staple in the family car since I was a kid. I learned a lot from all the road trips we took. It's one thing to be able to read a map, but to actually travel places and see it visually helped so much in it all making sense together as a young kid. By the time I was 17 I'd been to 46 states.

When I first started driving my dad was off work due to cancer treatments. My mom told me he had the truck atlas sitting next to his recliner. Every time I called him he'd ask where I was and flip open the map and see where I was going. It was his little way of experiencing the road when he was stuck at home. It still makes me laugh because only a trucker would have a road atlas sitting next to his recliner.