GPS that actually says weigh stations

You absolutely can. Starting at 10 pm when it's out. The last two stars point north star. (Very end of pot opposite handle) Once you have that then you know as the Big dipper rotates a quarter of sky every 15 minutes give or take. Or was it 30. I forget. But at some point in the night you will be able to estimate to within 15 minutes where you are in the night time clock. Just remember how many times you have rotated that north star.

 

So your gps distracts you?? Maybe turn off some features

 

You make me want to use a quadrant and hourglass.

 

I actually know a little. But I do not posses the books or factor to convert. I know where they keep a set in a library not too far from here. It's like about 5 books full of tables, rows of numbers lat and long to be matched up.

You run north or south on the planet until you find the lat you want. Then run east or west to landfall. Hopefully that's where you want. You also need a little math, maybe spherical Trig. Something that makes me weep... I cannot stand it some days. Im not a math person.

I am way better in the sky with the map and stack of radio DME, VOR radials etc.

 

Perhaps it is not the people who have posted to this thread and your questions, that need to remove their cranium from their rectal orifice, maybe it is someone very close to you.

One of the components of operating a truck is trip planning. It is an essential part of the job. Something that should be done before the trip is underway. Many tools are available to drivers these days, Both printed, like an Atlas, or electronic based such as GPS and other mapping products. Each of these tools has a bit of a learning curve. The good part is that they come with basic instructions, help menus and keys that can help to understand the information they are trying to convey.

From some of the posts, it seems like you may be a newer driver. it makes one wonder about the training received.
While one would hope that the person doing the training is experienced and knowledgeable, unfortunately that is not always the situation. I would say they did you no favor for not providing adequate training with the tools you need to be a successful driver.

Distracted driving is a big problem. Even more in areas and times of heavy traffic. Enough studies have been done to clearly indicate humans are very poor at multitasking. Keeping your attention on the surroundings and operating your vehicle should be your top priority. Things that could cause distraction should be silenced or at least ignored during that time. If something like a GPS making a tone and pop-up or banner is causing problems and overwhelming you. You may want to think hard about what your doing, and how you can change that.

Something that might prove to be a good idea, stop every few hours, get up and walk or stretch for a few minutes, then take another minute or so and do a route review. Know what you may encounter over the next few hours.
You will better prepared for whats ahead and less stressed about it.

Last, do yourself a favor and never run unlawfully. Should you be encouraged or coerced to think it OK, remeber that you pay the price. The fee is more ways than one. your CDL is a tool, that tools makes you money. Take care of that tool. Know that evading a scale/weight/check station can carry hearty fines, also know, that The local LEOs that work around them know more ways to try and get by them than you will ever know. When they do decide to stop you, and they will, because they know why your where you are. Get ready to be put under a microscope.

 

Trip planning is a good and important mantra. However, there will always be times when a driver is dispatched on short notice, without being able to spend the time to meticulously plan a trip.

The most difficult of these last minute loads is if you are going to pull a permitted load, either oversized, overweight, or both. You DON'T want the ticket for getting off route. You don't want the ticket for running past an open scale. In this situation, once the permits are sent to me as a PDF file, I input the first few hours worth of driving, to a place that I know I can safely park, then plan out the next few hours. On a multi day run I plan out the remainder of the trip once I stop for the night.

Even without permitted loads there's plenty of times I have been dispatched and had to trip plan on the fly. It's part of the business. If the OP wants additional heads up to know what scales are coming up, good on him.

 

This is true, it does happen. I think we are in more agreement than may appear. I believe the difference here is experience. While we may be able to do this on the fly, a newer driver may not. They have yet to gain the knowledge and experience to draw from.

One outcome is the setting of bad habits. The reliance on something like GPS as a sole means of trip planning can certainly lead to problems. Add the false sense of security it may provide. What is the likelihood that a driver stops paying attention and looses awareness of surroundings?
Unfortunately we see this too much in everyday driving.
How many times has the “the GPS routed me here” been the excuse a driver has used?

Advanced notification is great. No problem with that.
From reading some of the follow up postings, the driver is getting overwhelmed by the electronics in some situations. Not good. Something needs to change for the better. If they don’t know what information the device is trying to tell them, that can be another problem and distraction. This is a familiarity and training issue. The tools are only as good as the user.

 

You can setup these things if you take the time to do so. I used to have a lot of our drop yard lock combinations programed into my GPS. Over time my GPS became a wealth of information. Places I went to a lot was programmed in. I had emergency numbers programmed in mine. If say i was at our terminal in Idaho and an emergency came up the number was right there in my GPS, I did not have to dig into my permit book. I think by the time I retired I had just about every trailer drop yard we used programmed in that GPS.

 

My old faithful RM 540 gives a 5 mile notice (which I think is the default setting) when approaching a Weigh Station. Trucker's Path app will give you a pretty good idea whether the scale is open or closed.