always check google maps

Satellite view and street view are great tools. A minute with google is time well spent IMO.

A couple of hours? psst. you're doing it wrong

 

I always try to pay attention to railroad tracks, esp in Chicagoland areas, and cities in the NE, etc., using google map. Also I have favorites for t/s starred, some of them are little hole in the wall places.

 

Unless they have moved Oakland, it is still part of the Bay Area, so I did not forget it. Sacramento? No worse than any other midsized city, LA County ty? Again, wide streets comparatively. Downtown LA gets tight, the county, just has traffic.

I should probably quit checking restricted routes in my Atlas too, because its not current info... I mean, a new sign could have been out up, so why bother, I'll find out when I get there...

Do what makes you happy, but don't come on here and tell others they are wasting their time doing more detailed research because it makes them more informed.

Personally I don't spend a couple of hours trip is planning, I spend a few minutes, doesn't take long, and I always look at a shipper or reciever I have never been too before so I know how to approach. You know how many times I have come in from the wrong direction and had to find somewhere to turn around downtown in a city? It's been years. I also eyeball the kingpin every time I connect to a trailer, every single time time, yes I do a tug test, but you know how many trailers I have dropped since 1979? Not a one, not ever... So is it a waste of my time to get under there and look? Maybe, but its my time to waste.

I am on a Yuma to Rochester NY run right now... I took the 3 or 4 minutes it takes to let OK at the reciever and how I need to enter the facility. I still have managed to get my sleep each night too.

 

I think google maps is a great tool to have, used it a few times when I was OTR, didn't get a chance to use it much due to the years of driving OTR prior to google maps being available

 

Just don't rely on it for routing, use it as a tool along with MCA and a GPS as well as your phone. OTR driver hit an 11'4 bridge here in Denver last week, using Google maps. The f******g bridge has been there 60 yrs and gets hit once a week, huge signs as you approach it warning of low clearance, in this case, someone was watching google maps for directions instead of the sign.

 

I think what we have here is commonly referred to as a Suuuuuuuuuuper Trucker!!!!! He can do no wrong and do it better than anyone else. He knows all and can do anything. He things you are an idiot for using available information to help yourself. He has driven 800 million accident free miles and done most of it in blizzard conditions. He is Suuuuuuuuuuuuper Trucker.

 

Why is everyone getting on snowwy? He is not insulting us or telling us not to use google, simply stating that he doesn't use it. I like google, he doesn't, so what? Well I have a gps, but sometimes I don't use it because I like my own route better, am I a super trucker?

 

Well, I agree with Snowy. I don't know how he could have put his position more diplomatically? Seems like a huge waste of time to look at every shipper, every consignee, every road, every turn, from Google Maps or Google Earth. If some one feels it helps them, good for them.

My position is I am not going to waste any more time, especially if not paid, planning a trip. I got a good high view from a cab of the truck and can make good judgements from that position. Judgements based on that position are the best anyway. If things don't look right I don't go down that way unless I have a way out of it.

What we all see is a lot of people at the wheel of the truck that don't make good judgements, like the guy in the satellite photo. Now, maybe looking at the satellite might of helped that guy, but it would have, at best, just postponed his next accident for a later date. There is nothing hard about that shipper or the situation he put him self in. He just should not be making judgements behind the wheel of a truck and I am afraid others feel that Snowy, I, and the like are lumping them in with this moron. I have seen nothing that we said that did that.

Like implied, I have never used Satellite view even though I have known about this technology for better then 20 years. Just not needed. Nor have I ever called a shipper to get directions; also not needed and time better spent elsewhere. Most people give bad directions, and if they are not outright bad, they are not suited to a truck. Like Snowy said, I am not claiming I am better than anyone there are just more efficient means to get to your destination.

 

I dony think.anyone looks at the whole route. I personally look at the lot/dock and any small side streets off of the main road. But my driving is all city and a lot of low overpasses. But to each their own. No right or wrong here.

 

Wait, wait: not ever using satellite view I can understand. But never calling the shipper in your whole career? What did you do before GPS? That used to be the only way to get there!