Had to call the cops today

one more thing I always ask is.. if I get there before you open, is there room for truck parking. I always try to get to my destination before daylight & avoid the traffic, but the last thing I want is to be outside a locked gate on a 2 lane hyway with no where to go.

 

Yup,. Gary.

Place is HUGE. Not only that,.. but if your ever in there when the fog rolls in,.. man oh man. I've never seen fog so thick. Barely see past the hood of my truck and I wish I was exaggerating about that.

 

I drove up to a bridge marked 12' 8" in NJ, I pulled over to the side of the road with my flashers on figuring out my next move. A cop pulls up and asks whats wrong? I told him my truck is 13' 7" and the bridge is 12' 8". The cop says the bridge is really 13' 8" and that he is also a truck driver. Passed under the bridge with ease.

 

that's why you don't get em from the secretary and use more than one resource, you are much better off calling than blindly following a gps. I call, use atlas, google earth, gps, google maps etc all in conjunction.

like yesterday picking in linden, nj, had gps the address, ran it on streets and trips, they matched , and a call to the location was the exact same directions. exit 13 off nj turnpike, west on 278 to us 1,9 south 3rd light left on south wood street, left at the Y into the bldg. location, conformed exactly by all 3 .

 

Man you OTR guys are spoiled, I have 4-8 drops a day and if I went through all that for every load, I'd be in the food stamp line next week.

What happened to common sense and thinking on your feet?

 

Having trucked back in the 80's before gps, before cell phones... where a calling card and pay phone was your best friend. I still remember 5-6 pay phones together and people waiting in line to use them. Anything out of the area code was long distance.

Common sense? When you have to deal with height restrictions, roads with 5 or 10 ton limits, $700 fines for taking a short cut. Streets where you need to make a right turn but its onbviously going to be easier to drive 8 miles, turn around and come back and hopefully you dont take someones bumper off making the now left turn.

This is why trip planning is crucial.


Running most of the same stops day after day. Knowing your routine like the back of your hand. I ran local and otr back in the 80's. I knew virtually every little street road short cut bridge and scale house between Baltimore and Richmond. I had it all memorized like Chiltons maps and I had one for each county.

Coming home to a hot shower, hot meal and warm bed.

That was spoiled compared to how I live out here now.

Hurst

 

do you do 4 to 8 drops a day in the northeast?? but yeah if I was do 4 to 8 drops in totally unfamiliar territory I would call em and verify my route.

keep in mind at one point in my life I did a chicken load every 2d week that was 18 to 19 drops in Brooklyn queens and the Bronx, I surviced without ever a stratch

 

When driving you should be thinking on your butt not your feet!

 

Excellent thread...

I had to call the local police one time so far. Don't recall where is was but it was in the NE somewhere. Anyway, I followed my gps after seeing it was just one turn off the hwy. I passed it because it was on the side road, not the road the address is on. I was looking for a place to turn around, you know how that goes in city setting, when I came to a "T". I didn't want to go any further because, I didn't know where to go so, I googled the local police and called them. Took about 45mins but they held back traffic while I turned right, than backed up and than turned right back down the street I had come from. They were nice and gave me no problems, if fact they asked me what I wanted to do and I told them. They set up and gave me the sign to go ahead. It worked out perfect and I felt good for calling the police.

Question; I saw where a couple of you guys said you called 911, did you really call 911? If you did, all you have to do is google the number for the local police on your phone,,,unless you have a dumbphone that is. lol