Living On The Road ..,.,.,..

I have found a good deal of those GPS to be sufficient. Its kind of like choosing a company!

Just keep in mind they are only one part of your "socket set" and need to be used with other pieces to get the job done correctly!

You get your general routing and directions usually on your qualcomm. You enter those in your GPS. Your GPS spits out your route and you double check every last little road in your Road Atlas! Failure to do so could result in an accident, hefty fine, low bridge etc... Now if you really want to enhance those directions you can also check "Google Earth"! This is an excellent tool for checking to see if your destination is in the country, down a farm road, in the a bad city neighborhood, it also allows you to see what the docks are like and if you will be able to park near the facility.

Lastly if you really want a good fail-safe (well almost, nothing is completely guaranteed when following directions) call your destination and get directions. They should match your already given directions. If they do not someone has given you false information. This is good to correct now then 10 minutes after you were supposed to have arrived! Keep in mind when getting directions from others than your dispatcher, they are not truck drivers! They did not drive a tractor trailer to their work this morning! They may take a common route their that is only for four wheelers or horse and buggy! (amish joke if you ever pick up fireplace's in PA!)

The more tools you use the better prepared and the more smoothly your trip will go!!! Besides programming your GPS I also highly recommend you write your directions on the window, either in the center in front of you or side, whatever, you can also plug your fuel stops and such in their too! This way when your GPS goes haywire (which will happen once a trip!) you will have your back-up right in front of you without fumbling for a piece of paper in the dark driving down the road!

Guys, I am no genius by any means but this is as fail-safe as you can get when planning and following your route. The only other thing that is better than this is if you have a co-driver hanging out the window with a Q-beam lighting up warehouse addresses and street signs! Oh yeah, a good maglite is handy to have in case you do need to do this!

 

Thanks man!

It works so good especially if there aren't any truck stops nearby. You can check out the place and surrounding area and usually tell if there is a spot to park or how crowded the place is. You can get spot some landmarks to so when you are approaching at night or something you kind of know when its coming up. I posted this on a another thread but we used to go to Salinas, Ca all the time for produce and on occasion would have to wait for them to finish picking the product,sometimes taking a few hours. I knew we weren't but a few miles from the beach so I checked it out on Google Earth and found a few different places I could park a big truck beach side. Made for a better waiting time!

 

After being local for 1 1/2 years, I'm going back OTR(albeit with a regional company) and am looking forward to the savings. I figure it all in with my paycheck, so instead of my weekly paycheck being all that goes into my bank account, I know there is much more.
In 1 week, there is: $60 gas commuting to work and about $50 for groceries(single). Also, I'll have an electric bill that will be reduced by 95% most likely. The cheapest power bill I had while OTR was $9. There is alot of money that will be saved right there and I mentally figure that into my weekly paycheck. Though, Im single with no strings attached so these results will obviously vary.

 

A positive attitude will get you far. Don't listen to all the whiners...they just don't know how to deal with the stress. Keep your chin up, your nose clean, and a level head and you will already be ahead of many. Good luck!

 

Excellent advise longbed! Couldn't have said it better! If you have a goal, stay focused and are positive there will be nothing you can't accomplish!

We used to listen to Dave Ramsey every day on the satellite not because we didn't know what we were doing but as a constant reminder of why we were doing it. Kept us on that positive track! We also had a bit of an addiction as far as saving money. It really started becoming a game and we would see actually how cheap we could be! We had plenty of money. We were making well over $200,000 a year and yet we would go to the "Goodwill" to get clothing and jackets and such. Just couldn't see buying new clothing to drive around in. We always found pretty nice stuff so we didn't look like shlubs, we just weren't spending any money on it.

So hey make a game of it! What ever you need to do to enjoy yourself out there and save money!

 

When they laugh because your eating sandwiches made from your cooler and filling jugs with water to drink just reach down and Pat your wallet once or twice...then smile.

 

I agree! There are plenty of millionaires out there today that live like they make 30K a year and guess what? That is why they are wealthy!