Do new drivers use gps? Truck driver stuck on the highway ramp

I've yet to find a street level national atlas with truck restrictions that I have room to actually carry. Show me a paper atlas that is 100% accurate.

 

well had a example today of which way do i go? enroute to my usual pickup place, road is shut down due to gas leak. Nice man from fire dept gave me verbal directions, but I'd never been down those roads. had google maps up on my fone but signal was weak so it spazed out. gps wasnt hooked up so had to wing it. luckily it was a small town so wasnt too much of an issue but thats how things can go.
Had another instance out in BFE west tx awhile back, gps, fone and atlas was useless so just went by seat of my pants out thru no mans land lol - made it fine

 

many, many years ago, a major wreck shut down south bound Rte. 9 In CT. they had volunteer firemen at various locations along the detour. I would go from one location to another, each fireman pointing his flashlight where to go. comical at times, i'd stop and say thanks for the help. (no GPS for me back then..!!!!!)

talk about going thru the woods after midnight....I was skeered....

 

Google Maps does NOT support truck specific routing. I use it ONLY to compare to the route selected by my truck specific Rand McNally GPS and determine whether there might be a safer, more efficient route. Don't go jumping off on a recommended Google Maps detour if there is an accident blocking traffic up ahead. You will eventually find yourself in places a truck doesn't belong, sooner or later.

 

While my Rand McNally GPS is one of the better ones, I don't trust it. As you noted, frequently you can't find an address. Midland, TX is an area I go to a lot, and entire roads, let alone addresses, are missing.

In those cases I have to use the feature where you can touch a location on the map for the destination. That's a common thing for me, as oil rigs are in places that don't have an address. I find the last place on the RM GPS that shows a road and route from there. After that it is following the "turn by turn" directions provided by the shipper: "Go west 3.3 miles, turn left at the second cattle guard, go 5.2 miles and turn right onto the lease road. Follow signs to location". What could possibly go wrong??? Many a time I have to back up on narrow dirt roads for a mile or more.

There are tricks to forcing a better route, like changing truck parameters to indicate you are hauling Hazmat, or changing the dimensions and weight, or "prefer freeways", or "avoid tolls".

A GPS is only a tool. Use it correctly and you can get close.

 

In truck mode, you will get routed to major highways...truck routes!! Not some residential route that is shorter and prohibits trucks.
Also, in truck mode, it will keep you off a parkway that is for cars only. It may have an option to warn you of traffic lights. If you need to make a u-turn, it may take you to an intersection that allows u-turns.

I am not aware of any trucker gps that gives bridge heights. The gps will not give you a warning of a narrow road, but if it directed you to a truck route, it should be passable.

Usually you get a free trial to try out gps software on your phone or tablet. I used a tablet for a bigger screen. I also downloaded all the roads in the eastern USA so the software could recalculate the route much quicker.

 

Did the school teach you what to do when you run up on your exit and its completely blocked or closed and you can't stop where you are or you'll block thru traffic so you have to just keep going and the next exit is 37 miles away?

Ask your school what to do with that atlas then. You'll be pulling over and fumbling around with that thing while GPS users will hear "recalculating" and instantly get a new route to follow to put them back on course.

I don't see much use for an atlas. I just use GPS to get me out to the interstate and then follow street signs on my dispatched route and then use the trucker GPS combined with the google maps on the phone to get me to the front door. A trucker atlas won't give you turn by turn directions from the shipper to the interstate or from the interstate to the consignee so it's useless to me.

Only when I'm given a bad destination address have I ever had an issue. Or worse, bad directions from dispatch. Had I just followed the #### GPS it would have taken me to where I needed to go. But I did what the school and what Ozark taught me, follow the directions sent by dispatch. Well, that got me so lost that it took 3 hours to straighten out.

 

The street-level book for Los Angeles just barely fits in a book.

 

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