Google is not your friend. Use an Atlas or at least a truck GPS.

I use google maps all the time, but i pay close attention to how it’s planning to take me and what the road is on my next turn. If it isn’t a state highway i almost never take it unless I’m within a few minutes of the place. I never just put it in and blindly follow it.

If it’s trying to get you to turn on green mountain trail and you’re still 30 minutes from destination that’s just your fault if you follow it.

 

I use Google as a tool right along beside my Rand McNalley map book been using for years with all my note scribbled in sharpy about thigs odd or important. Also have a Notebook with info on deliveries that gave me trouble, or road that are really mud pit I have ran into.

 

Maps FTW. But you must use brain FTW as well.

 

Simplified = SENSE. Your guy never learned to Listen. Listening is not common.
Had an oversized coming out of Ohio, near WheelingWV. State routed me across i70 to i75 to i275 east in to the Kentucky border. Needed a pilot car from Kentucky to Alabama. Pilot car lived in Indianapolis. You would figure that any pilot car from Indianapolis would know southern Ohio and Kentucky like the back of a hand, right? Told her what time to meet me and where. 275 east side of the loop on the state line. She asked what exit. I told her to catch me on the roll and what channel to have the CB on and what time to be there.

“What exit?” You tell me. This is your area, not mine.

Back in those days in the Buckeye, to take an exit, you had to request it to be listed on the permit, otherwise, some cop at the top of the ramp could write you a ticket for being off route. I didn’t get it requested in time and so, I dropped my trailer in a spot in the last restarea on i75 south, and bobtailed to the nearest truck stop. Next morning, hook the trailer, check the beacons, flags and banners and call my pilot car.

“These trucks blocked me and I missed my exit. I am somewhere downtown Cincinnati waiting for a cop to finish writing a ticket and then he will show me how to get back to the interstate.”

You are in a four and you missed your exit because of a truck…you can’t read road signs. I get to the rendezvous spot on the east side of the loop and call out on the radio. Of course, she isn’t there. I call on the phone. She says that she’s there. Turn your radio on. “Oh!” Dumbarse. I hear her on the radio. “Where are you? I can’t see you!” You’re heading northbound. You are on the wrong side of the interstate. “Oh! You didn’t say anything about southbound.” We are going to Alabama from Ohio. Which direction is that? (She has to be playing…she can’t be this stupid, can she?) “I have to put my flags and banners on.” (Yep. She really is that stupid.)

 

I like truck stops with sit down restaurants and hot food eaten with forks. In trip planning, it’s what I look for when planning to stop at the end of the day. Another tool that can be used to help with trip planning is TruckerPath. If there arent any truck stops, you’d better beware the area.

US129 from RobbinsvilleNC to MaryvilleTN. The locals call it the Dragon. By the time you get a truck warning, you are 3 hours deep into doodoo. But if you look at the area on TruckersPath, it is obvious that trucks avoid the area because of the stops.

 

BTW, this video is from 2008. In 2008, US129 was still open to trucks. There was a big rock slide on i40 and the interstate was closed for a long time. Swift has a flatbed terminal in GreerSC and dispatch routed trucks through the Dragon. So drivers, this goes to show you that you can’t fully depend on your travel agent either for routing. You get into a bind, it’s still on you. Proceed with caution.