How do drivers receive information about loads?

Most medium to Large Carriers have Qualcomm or Peoplenet or something like that.
Guess QC/Peoplenet are the main ones.
Basically a computer in the Truck for Tracking and sending messages back and forth.
Used for Elogs now also if the companyuses them.

 

They run off cell towers. So if your elog unit has no reception you cant send or receive messages just like a cell phone. Having no reception will not affect your elog's though.

 

Also all info about where you're going to pickup and deliver are sent over the QUALCOMM/peoplenet via messaging.

 

Can't speak for Peoplenet.
But with QC you will have signal pretty much all the time.

If it doesn't work guess you could work out with your dispatcher to email/text you.

Broke my Screen once (QC) dispatcher just emailed me the load info.

 

And imagine what all this was like when all you had was a bank of pay phones at a truck stop or one phone at a remote rest area. No cell phones/smart phones, lap tops.

 

Up until 4-5 years ago, most of the qualcomm units were Satellite based in terms of communication but as cell data coverage across the US even in remote areas has improved to above 95%, most carriers who were on satellite systems have converted to cellular-based comm systems for a much cheaper per-byte cost. All of the mid and larger carriers use some form of onboard electronic comm system to include a keyboard and basic "form macros" to reduce the amount of data that needs to move across, as well as regular pinging and movement of basic position and log data and checking for messages.

 

Yep ... those were the days, when you carried around a bag full of quarters and every truck stop had walls and walls of phones and always had to get directions from someone who could speak little to no English with no sense of direction whatsoever.