IMPORTANT - PLEASE HELP - A few quick questions guys...

I just tell em im not in Kansas anymore.

 

What I will assume he meant by that is that most truck drivers are not locals. They don't know the landmarks. They don't know the nearby towns. This is mostly true.

Even a GPS will not tell you the town you are closest to accurately. I'm pretty sure they base their map data off postal code maps. The problem with that is that postal code maps are not reliable for naming the closest local towns. For instance, The Gaston, SC post office delivers into parts of Lexington, SC. The Hampton, GA post office delivers into parts of Clayton, GA. I'm sure other drivers could provide a ton of other examples.

No gear will tell you where you are, including local flavor.

If you are on the interstate, it's pretty easy. I-whatever, South/North/East/West mile marker Z.

Once you get off the interstate, a driver should know the route, but they won't have a local's knowledge.

 

Well he does make some good points at times, eben for a landstar stranger.

 

If you're on a road without mile markers, just pay attention to landmarks and your odometer - it tells you to within a tenth of a mile how far you are past the last town you went through or major intersection you crossed.

 

Yeah, the problem with that is that if you are off the interstates, you should be paying more attention to the environment around you, not less. Non-interstate roads tend to have a lot more non-vehicle hazards then interstates. Pedestrians. Livestock. Really Huge Potholes. Roads and drives hidden / obscured by hills or vegetation.

It can be done, and if I have poor reception on my phone I will try to watch my odometer, but if I have good reception?

Pop open google audio search. "Where am I?" and then "Route me to <nearest town, state.>"

Then if I need help, I can tell them exactly where I am.

 

Which geo system do you use? Difference sometime couple miles if they use different one..

 

garmin Dezl with my smartphone. Both are within feet of each other.

 

I know that Google maps, Waze, and Verizon ELD all use some weird outdated info, like you're talking about.

Out here in rural OK, there are a LOT of old "towns" that either were rolled together with the nearest bigger one or just don't exist anymore. It does no good to reference an obscure old town that sometimes even locals don't remember.

 

There is another tool that I keep on my phone, and use to update my mother where I am at the end of every working day. Glympse. If I have any wireless connection at all, I can send a Glympse to anyone vie email, which will tell them exactly where I am, and even provide tracking data to my location.

I've never used it for anything but keeping my mother happy, but it could be very useful in some places.

 

Google Maps has location sharing with either ongoing, or for one hour settings. I have it on full-time sharing with my wife so that if I don't come home when I go on motorcycle rides, she knows which ditch to start looking in. Nothing to update or send, it is available to the recipient at any time according to the sharing parameters.

Yes, I realize it allows the evil empire to track my movements, but it isn't like there aren't a million other apps, cameras, etc., doing that too.