Don't Use A Non Commercial GPS When Driving a Commercial Vehicle!

Sometimes it's incompetent, sometimes it's stupidity, sometimes it's mismarked, sometimes it's unknown. I once hit a 13'11" underpass because I was 14'1" and didn't know it, never dawned on us to measure after getting loaded, and the route we would normally take it, height wasn't an issue, unfortunately on this day, there was a detour in place and I didn't think anything of it. The cop who blocked traffic for me to get turned around even commented that he was unsure why they routed trucks on this detour instead of the other detour. The only damage was my pride.

 

I don't know about anybody else but sometimes when I use Google Maps I can see the route beforehand but somewhere in the midst of the trip Google Maps changes the route.

Has anyone else had this happen to them?

 

idk, i say atlas, & call shipper/consignee for confirmation.

 

"I saw the sign and the flashing light and I heard the horn but my GPS said to go that way."

 

Using a GPS, even a truck specific GPS doesn't mean driving off a cliff or into the ocean simply because the GPS said turn left. I learned to navigate trucks using a paper atlas, sometimes the big map on a wall in a truck stop, and a payphone. No payphone will route a commercial truck because customers don't necessarily know the truck route from where I am to where they are. They drive to work in a 4-wheeler. The paper atlas doesn't have street-level maps except in maybe 5 or 10 largest cities, and then only in the center 5 or 10 miles of that city. I've spent 40 minutes adding up the mileage along various routes using the little red numbers beside the road in the paper atlas.

Not using a truck specific GPS is like refusing to read road signs. The information is available. Why would a "professional" CHOOSE not to use that information? What if a truck driver claimed he was only going to look out his passenger side window to drive. "Oh sure some of the new drivers use the windshield, but that's just a crutch for drunk drivers and children. A real driver can smell the right path and use the side window to verify." Where or when has anyone told someone to ONLY use a GPS and ignore the world around them or follow it into a cemetery?

 

Yes, Google reroutes or recalculates based on traffic along your route. You enter your trip info at 4am from Knoxville, TN to Banger, ME and Google routes youone way. Then as all the cities along that route have their rush hours, or accidents happen Google changes the route to state highways,etc. Then after rush hour Google goes back to the first route.

 

I notice sometimes it asks me if I want to change the directions and it will say there's traffic but other times it just changes it on me.

Isn't there a way to lock it on one course and stop it from changing whether it's due to traffic or whatever?

 

I think you misunderstood what I was intending to say. I never meant to imply to not use them. I only meant to stress the importance of not relying on the routing it gives. As a driver I always scrutinize the route it gives me to ensure it makes sense and seems, as best as I can determine, to not present any potential problems. If I see something in the route that might be a problem, such as a right hand turn in on urban streets. I'll go look at the intersection on Google maps satellite view and street view and see if it will be difficult and to see if an alternate route might make more sense.
I have a Garmin, a zonar tablet, trucker path, a trucker atlas, and Google maps. Between them all, and I primarily use my Garmin, I'll determine what route I think is best for the situation and then follow that route. I use all my tools, but ultimately I actively decide my route.
(FYI, my last occupation of over 20myears was a map maker, so I'm kinda good with maps)

 

At the USPS BMC main in Denver, at the check in counter there's a phone for the employees to use, next two that phone are three laminated pieces of paper, the first one reads "IF YOU CANNOT READ THESE NOTICES, DO NOT ANSWER THIS PHONE" The other two notices, are directions to the BMC from Utah via I-70, New Mexico via I-25, Oklahoma via US 287 and I-70, Kansas via I 70, Nebraska via I-76 and Wyoming via I-25.

 

It's the same old argument. Guys who use their GPS as a tool vs. guys who use it as their brain.

As a general rule, those of us who know how to navigate with maps are much more spacially aware. We know where we're going, and what our next turn is, and aren't waiting on Samantha to coo our next turn into our ears. I never, and mean never, have the GPS unmuted. It's my job to navigate, and while it's a wonderfully useful moving map display, I'm not following any routing without having verified it. The Atlas for the macro, and usually Google maps for closer in.

I'm well aware that some driver's brains aren't wired for spatial awareness, but the idea of not knowing where I was, even roughly, and just following a magic box's instructions is as foreign to me as 15th century China. As we all see every day, that's a recipe for Stupid Trucker Tricks and vastly increases your odds of ending up on social media.