New York City - Driving

My experience with the area is
Limited parking
Confusing roads
Heavy traffic
Expensive tolls

Always call to get directions LOL
The thing about this is your going to be lucky if you can get somebody who can speak english on the phone... Even then they act like it no problem to get you there and tell you the way they come to work in a car.....

I don't mind going really now that I have Copilot.... (I still would go if I had proper directions for a big truck)
Copilot has done me pretty good so far in NY
But I don't rely 100% on Coplilot I still have other mapping software plus Internet and even then you still need to get directions from the customer just to make sure....

 

steer clear of the east coast.....period !! unless you're in it for the sightseeing. but then again, there's nothing to see but a pile of s***. especially N.Y.C, Philly, Baltimore - Washington, Boston, etc. nothing but headaches !!

 

I used to work for Georgia Pacific from 2000-2004. We delivered in NYC everyday. You got used to it after awhile but I remember the first few times going there, I was scared like there was no tommorow.

 

I drove dedicated to the five boroughs every day for about five years. As stated, make ###### sure that you have good directions BEFORE you go in - don't be the guy on the CB asking for local info while wandering aimlessly around the back streets. Break down and buy a detailed street map, and if you get lost, STOP, try to check your map and get your bearings, and even ask your local NYPD if they are around. Do not drive down the way hoping for a way out. I loved driving there - at least something is going on, instead of looking at the same flat stretch of road for 10 hours. If you want a real challenge, try downtown Philly - personally, I think the one way maze of streets is far more challenging .

 

Just like any other large metro city,NYC is no different.Traffic,congestion and bad neighborhoods.I did have the pleasure of delivering in the metro area for a few years,if you could call it pleasure.I call it patience.Plan your route.Remember if you encounter a sign that says" parkway",it's for cars only.Stay off them.The bridge clearance's can get as low as nine feet.Most deliveries can be made with a 53' foot trailer but there are restrictions.In the city they are not allowed.North of I-95 should not be a problem.Just remember, stay off of anything that says parkway.Also,any tunnels leading into NYC are low clearance,the holland,the lincoln tunnels.The GW bridge or the verrazano bridge are safe routes.The island,Long Island was never a problem and it does run one hundred miles out to the east end.Queens,Nassau and Suffolk county never a problem.Traffic,yes.Patience most important.Be proud of yourself if you have made it in and out of this metro area.It's tough,but it can be done.Hope this helps.

 

I imagine, as with most cities, once you've been there a few times and pickup/deliver to the same place a few times, it ain't so bad... but NYC? Nope, no thanks, never again.

My first (and last) trip to NYC was in the Bedford Sty area of Brooklyn, pulling a 53' van, exactly one week after the Rodney King riots. I had a sidewalk pickup at some place that made particle board furniture. Getting there wasn't too bad, but leaving was another story.

Like you MXH, I exited the highway onto Atlantic Ave and thought, "Hey this ain't so bad." That is, until a few blocks down the road... The further I went, the worse it got; trash everywhere; broken windows; a guy staggering and vomiting on the sidewalk while others walked around him apparently oblivious to his condition; the place was like one giant landfill there was so much trash everywhere.

I managed to make it in to the shipper ok... well almost ok... I did have to do a U-turn and travel the wrong way down one-way street.

Now for the bad part--getting out. Atlantic avenue, at least when I went there, had an elevated railway dividing the east and west lanes. It was not possible to get a 13'6" trailer underneath. In fact everywhere I went... low bridges. You can't get back out the same way you came in.

I remember sitting on Flatbush/Fulton??? Don't really recall now... anyhow, I was staring at the Brooklyn Bridge and saw the entrance ramp for 278. I flipped on my right turn signal and then I saw the sign--12'6"... CRAP!! Soooooo close yet so far.

There was a guy sitting on a bus-stop bench wearing an orange vest who hollered out, "Hey PST, you ain't goin' under that bridge are ya?"

"Of course not," I replied.

He came over, jumped up on the side of the truck and said he made his living directing truck drivers out of the city. I'm sure he did!

He just hung on the side of the truck saying, "turn left, turn right, turn right, turn left..." At one point he directed me to turn left onto a street that dead-ended at a brick wall. I thought, "Here we go, I'm gonna get robbed and they'll find my body floating in the Upper Cadaver Bay."

As luck would have it, there was a street that went right at the end... and there it was, the entrance to 278. I'd never been so glad to see an entrance ramp in my life. I flipped him a ten and was on my way--never to return.

When my dispatcher offered me this load, I thought, "How bad can it be?" After all, I had loaded and unloaded all the nasty bad areas of Chicago--land of low bridges and low-lifes. And picking up at the Hunt-Wesson warehouse in Bayonne, NJ was a regular thing. It was just across the bay from Bayonne, I reasoned--couldn't be much different... could it?

All I can say is... it's a whole different world over there.

 

I love Manhattan. I grab every NYC load I can get, but Manhattan is great. I would go there every day if I could get the loads. In fact on the 21st I start 7 straight weeks of 1 load going there every day Monday through Friday.

I bought a trailer yesterday, and rented another one for 2 months starting on the 20th, just to do this job. I thank God every day for those Manhattan loads.

 

I believe this is an excellent discription of a horrible sinking feeling.

I've got no problem going back, but next time I'm going back better prepared, or indeed I'm NOT going.

No way in the world I'm about to go rolling around NY lost, hoping to find my way out. NEVER going to do that again!

edit--
Also, after I found the place I was looking for and got back to the Interstate, rush hour was starting, and it took hours just to get a few miles to the GW bridge. I will never complain about Chicago traffic again! Really, i didn't care how slow traffic on the Interstate was, because I was so relieved just to BE on an Interstate!

 

I went to a grocery warehouse on Foster Ave in Brooklyn, Canarsie area I think. The cops were there questioning a driver. It seems he was in the sleeper taking a nap, waiting for his appointment, when someone sprayed starting fluid through the vent. As soon as he bailed out of the truck he was robbed. Nice place, made me want to go back again.

 

Key Foods out there in Canarsie.