Do Any OTR Truckers Still Use Atlas's?

Well now that Im the yyoung in again my RM is 2010 now didn't get it till 2011. Of course I still carryed my old one just to make sure the new one was right I believe they call this backing up your files now

 

OP I'm a local driver and still carry a Rand McNally atlas on me. Forget the cross country routing aspect of it and just look at the city maps for a moment. They are extremely useful to have in general even forgetting OTR just starting a local driving job and not being very familiar with a City (I was not very familiar with Baltimore) it was useful to help me figure out where I was in relation to my next stop. Combined that with google maps and you are good to go 99% of the time for finding a place. I could go into the rest of the reasons why it's useful but those have already been covered. I just wanted to give the local aspect of the Atlas it's due.

 

I buy a new paper one every year, around now, on sale.

need to know the changes in bridge laws and axle weights.

have always had some sort of atlas and the paper city maps,long ago.

use my dumb phone and call for directions around the city/town to find them.

oh, and a '94 Cobra 29 CB.

 

My RM spiral-bound is a 2009 vintage, complete with additional notations made by me, etc (routes to avoid, etc). I usually buy a less expensive paper one every other year or so, in addition to keeping my RM GPS updated.

Between those things, I manage to avoid getting into more than three problems a day.

 

After my trusty GPS (Rand TND 720) tried sending me down a "no truck" street, *twice*... AND, tried sending me under a bridge with an 11' clearance, yes I absolutely use an Atlas now...

If you do OTR training with whoever you get on with, your trainer should go over the atlas with you and show you how to use it.

 

Use garmin dezl 770 and keep your atlas as a backup

 

Relying on GPS as primary resource is completely brainless and irresponsible.

 

I always keep an Atlas handy. You never know when the gps might go out. Usually, if I am not pressed for time, I will double check my gps' route with the Atlas, just to make sure everything is okay.

A weird thing as well, I have a plain old Garmin car GPS, not even the trucker's edition, and it has not betrayed me once. All ya gotta do is just pay attention to signs warning of truck routes n stuff.

 

I didnt read through the comments to see if anyone mentioned this, but another great thing is Google maps. Not necessarily for navigation, but I always check the satellite view and street view (when available). This lets me know if I can spend the night there, and plus with the street view, you have an idea of what you are looking for when you roll up on it. Sometimes you can zoom in and see signs that show what gate ya need to go into and such.

 

Google street view is very very helpful in final destination. Instead of looking for small addresses on the buildings, houses whatever the street view will show you the building itself and then you can focus on brick color, fences or any other landmark.

On the other hand I am a die hard atlas reader. Even before I started driving a truck I had the motor carriers atlas in my cars or Land Cruiser when going out of town. They are worth their weight in gold.