Using Motor Carrier atlas

Before the gps and internet maps came into being, you old school drivers used your Motor carrier atlas to get from city to city, but when you got into a city, how can you use it to find your shipper/receiver location? These city map inserts cannot list every street. How did you know where to go? Did you also carry the fold out city maps? If so, I would think you would have ended up with a lot of city fold out maps. I assume the dispatcher gave the directions.

 

directions from the dispatcher... or, if you don't have a dispatcher... you call the number on the bills to where you are going to deliver and ask for directions coming from whichever interstate

 

I didn't start out with a gps but I did have a laptop with street atlas. I still call for directions though if I haven't been to the place before.

Of course I do it from a cell phone while in the truck usually. I still see big banks of pay phones at the odd place but it must have been a pain using a pay phone all the time. And with the way long distance used to be you must have had to carry a whole lot of change just for phone calls. Stop at the pay phone to call dispatch, stop at the pay phone to call receiver/shipper, wait in line at pay phone to check in with home. #### we have it good!

 

I still don't have a GPS and won't use one. I use my atlas to get there and then call for directions. If given directions by dispatch I still call to make sure I have the proper location......then I write them down in my notebook so I always have them. Once I started carying my laptop with me I would check out the location on mapquest or google earth to get a good look at the layout of the place so I would have some kind of idea what I was getting into

 

MO has a gps, but he don't use it to plan his route. He has a notepad that he writes info down on, and if it is somewhere new he googles it too. Being able to see what you are driving into is kind of handy isn't it!

 

OH YEAH!!!! I gotten to see several wonderful places to visit ( not) to make drops, before I got there. It helped because I knew before hand how much swearing would be taking place ....LMAO I like to think of the new gizmo's and even the laptop as tools to be used ..not relied upon. Learned real quick if you rely on your dispatcher to get you the directions you might end up in the wrong place....check and double check everything before you need it

 

When we had our trucks leased to the other company, they got directions from the dispatch and he still checked them if he got a chance to. Now, we don't have dispatch and he has to do the call and look it up thing. He has gotten some off-wall directions a couple of times, and lord at the directions he got from that one place... talk about backwoods, turn at old barn by the two rocks(not their words, but about the same kind of directions)... lol, he picked at me like it was something I would tell him.

 

I've gotten some of those normally places up here in Wisconsin....some of these #### potato farms I tell ya you would think they never heard of the 20 th century. When I was installing satellite dishes up here back in the 90's I got alot of those dueling banjo type directions too!!!! RRemind me to tell you the story some time of installing a primestar at ma and pa's trailer with their boy Tiger........oh boy can you say INBREEDERS!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I'm sure you got some stories Nik! lol

 

yeah I could entertain for a while with some of the stupid crap I've gotten myself into!!