Route planning?

All of them. As well as company supplied directions in the load screen and making a phone call when things seem iffy.

Try and get at least two sources to get you to feel comfortable and agree with one another. If you get a bad feeling, might be worth a phone call to get direct information.

You also have to learn where your GPS has quirks (they all do) and might try and route you incorrectly because it's "dumb" in that particular scenario. Put your location in then view the overview map and see if it's doing what your other directions say. If not, figure out why before proceeding too far. You're never forced to abide the GPS device instructions. And most will perhaps figure out your preferred route is after you ignore a turn it expected.

 

Take the GPS as a guideline and to use mileage. Then flip to satellite view and double check any questionable spots and adjust as needed

 

always check your route on GPS with your atlas a lot of times you can find a better route ..... make sure you get a truck GPS ..... and I useually will check out the place on Google Earth if I haven't been there and you can see if there is overnight parking and which direction it's best to come in from and the GPS will take you to the address and that's not always the docks which may be on the back side and sometimes it takes a lot of crap to get from the front or back or sometimes a dock can be a pain or impossible to come in from the east and if you come in from the west it's easy ...... good idea to call the place and double check the appointment time and hours ect. ........ my motto is almost every one will do some sort of pretrip very few will do a proper pretthink ...... you can make pretty good money being a dumb truck driver but you can make a whole lot more being a smart one

 

Pick up phone.
"Ok Google."
Gogle does its thing and says listening.
"Navigate to ( address )( city )."

Google gets all excited and repeats the address back and says "OK LET'S GO!!!"

Now Google doesn't know I'm in an 18 wheeler.

Some common sense has to be used.

The 1000 miles from A to B isn't really an issue. It's when you're in town. You need to zoom in/out and see where it's taking you to make sure it's not taking a short cut through somebody's neighborhood.
I promise you there is an Avenue or Boulevard that goes right by said neighborhood.

Half of what I do is loads of 10 stops or more, often in half a dozen cities.

It's all I use, and I can navigate anywhere in minutes.

 

I plan as if there is no internet. On paper. Then I'll take a look at Google street view and see what we are getting into.

GPS made things too easy at times. Provide Dispatch with a physical address of truck location and lat long (As if they don't already know this by our own satellite attached to the thing...) and another truck that has GPS will be sent to collect our trailer.

When we got a laptop of our own with the first Rand McNally GPS of the entire USA it worked wonders on our end and revealed a secret FFE policy of setting trucks at 63 and allowing the computer to show the speed at 65. We were running late by minutes because it refuses to do 65 against the stopwatch and milemarkers. But the GPS revealed the truth and we turned it into the shop to fix the speed problem. FFE did not like that because it was supposed to be a big secret.

Sometimes GPS isnt updated and what used to be a legit road is now a celluar telephone compound. Here we are stuck in it in very thick fog. Getting out around all those cables was fun. The bypass road was built half a mile down.

But for the most part everything was done between our ears.

Once in a while we would go do battle in the teeth of the absolute worst LA traffic rush in the morning where 5 interstates meet. I would be in the right seat telling spouse to be in this lane or that lane and boom we arrived at the shipper correctly the first time. If we did this by directions we would have been hopelessly and completely lost. (This is the one time GPS did correctly when it needed to.)

I still have the GPS reciever and the software. It probably will need a older laptop to adapt to a serial port and one hell of a update but I see no reason why it wont work.

Garmin with topography etc will be my choice but it takes a little more money for that kind of accuracy which is possible these days compared to back then.

The internet did free us from having to go over the routing on paper which cost money for every little book. I remember the complete set of streets and alleys etc for all 5 boroughs of NYC eventually cost me 220 dollars with tax in NJ where I collected them. I would take over his booth in the 76 for hours with all of them spread out making notes and checking clearances. Other drivers would gather and things got interesting sometimes when 10, 20 or more of us are going to hunts and all the newbies had to do was follow us in later that night. Convoy.

In those days long before 9-11 we had to make a decision on upper level or lower level of the GWB. The one thing about the lower level was to make sure that we did not have the foot on the floor with those old trucks in the day, the exhaust coming out up top would be about 800 degrees roughly or more and burn the homeless trying to rest up between the girders beams above it under the upper deck. They had foil lined plywood to help them not get burned. I don't know about today. If you stopped the reefer unit under one of them.. well. they roast and get out quickly enough.

 

Well, I've been out here only about 5.5 years, so not nearly as experienced as many drivers here. That said, from Day One I have always consulted a good Motor Carrier Atlas FIRST. Didn't even have a truck GPS the first six months or so. Still only use it as a secondary help, as it does prove useful.

Company-provided routes/directions are often very helpful. Sometimes those are provided by my dispatch; other times they're from the shipper/receiver. And as someone else mentioned, a phone call to the shipper/receiver can also provide local details such as best "final aporoach" details.

I don't drive for a mega (about 300 trucks total; only 16 at my tetminal). We're given a phone list of drivers from our terminal. If I'm headed somewhere I've never been before, I'll call another driver for details, routes they've taken, etc. While getting their routes, I'm following it on my atlas to give me a mental image.

Satellite view on Google maps is helpful in giving you a "real life" view of how things look going into a place.

Technology is great, can be very helpful, but in my limited experience nothing beats a Motor Carrier Atlas for true trip planning --- well, other than drivers who've been-there-done-that over and over and know the best/worst routes somewhere.

 

My last 15 years I knew the Interstate System and the US Highways so much I could just go just using my experience with those routes. because I spent so much time going back to places I had been many times before I know from memory most of the time. If I needed directions I either got my company to give them to me or I called the place. My last several years I used a Garmin GPS, but honestly it was not my primary.

 

Everybody is different and has their preferences. I used to be a die-hard map nut and would never consider GPS. Now it's all I do. If I'm not familiar with a delivery location I'll check it out on Google earth to make sure I'm taking the best route, but other than that I punch in the address on my Rand McNally and I'm off. If I constantly delivered to new places or worked a lot in the northeast, I would use my atlas more. Here in the west GPS works great most of the time.

 

Pennsylvania. new Jersey real easy to get lost I think it's the signs