Why do trainers swear by maps?

I've been known to have more than one device going at once, but I like to have the atlas handy so I can get an overview of where I am at a glance without having to pinch/swipe/zoom a screen. And I'd always use the clearance/weight information in the atlas to check for any restrictions on the route the GPS gave me.

 

Can you read a map and trip plan from an ATLAS, yes or no? If you can, that's cool, carry on as you were. If you cant, after all that map pushing your trainer did, you're an idiot. You were taught, he tried many times but you were the one who refused to learn. Sure sign of an idiot.

Do you have to use an atlas? No. Should you have to be able to use an atlas? Absolutely.If your trainer taught you, he gave you an edge. You should thank him.

Pure steeringwheelholders. Entered an address in a GPS, and shut down the ol brain.

 

Take a route like San Antonio, TX to Newark, NJ. The GPS will run you through the mountains all day long every single time all the way there. Think they were all built or programmed in Wytheville or something.

One look at a map and you run down 10 to Mobile then up through Atlanta and on up the East Coast. No mountains, better mpg and a lot less work. About 15 miles longer on a 1800 mile trip.

That's why you learn to read a map.

 

If I was a trainer I'd be pushing a blend of

• atlas
• common sense
• phone conversation
• dedicated trucker GPS [in truck mode]
• carrier system directions
• and Google Maps app.

Not necessarily in that order.

There's a time and place for all the above.

No need for this to be a one or the other discussion. But, I can tell you, if I could only rely on one, it would easily be the trucker GPS along with an understanding of it's weaknesses and occasional faults and what issues can sometimes lead it astray.

 

I have all my drivers learn how to read maps and read directions.

Why would I do that?

Because in my trucks there is a binder with instructions for some customers with specific maps how to get there, especially with loads that require special handling.

I have had a few applicants tell me the same thing the OP said, check google to get routed but then I hand them the laptop and tell them to find an address which they fail to do because google hasn't updated that section in four years.

So learn how to read a map, learn how to write and follow directions then use the GPS

 

Google updates their streets database a hell of a lot more often than Navteq does. Google will have a new street reflected within perhaps 4 months (probably much sooner) of it officially opening. Navteq and the associated GPS device update provider may take 3+ years for the new street to be reflected.

Furthermore, it would take several hands worth of fingers to count the number of times a carrier's "customer directions" were out of date and/or had critical turn and naming errors in them.

Bottom line is I have much more faith in Google being current than any GPS device, even one that is religiously updated. But yes, I get it. Google is not designed for truckers, but as long as you know this, it's the best backup plan you can have.

We routinely go to new cold storage warehouses that are on streets my GPS is not even aware of, but Google maps? There it is, plain as day and the address entered comes instantly, many times along with driver's reviews noting various on-site concerns. Loading to one today as a matter of fact "Cloverleaf Cold Storage" in Crest Hill, IL. Try finding Churnovic Lane on your GPS. You won't.

 

Somebody send this guy a link to the truck on the jogging path in some park... that will answer his question.

 

But as I reflect on this subject, I realize I'm basing a lot of my current opinion on the fact I'm generally very familiar with travel across virtually all of this nation. I've been out here long enough to be able to "trip plan" a coast to coast or a regional trip in my head. I probably don't refer to my atlas more than perhaps several times a year and that's only when I get dispatched into less traveled regions [for me] like Florida or perhaps upper Michigan.

But I do remember when I was much less travelled, I was referring to the atlas quite frequently, but of course we didn't have GPS devices then, either.

 

That was an indictment of an idiot driver more than the technology. If you're too stupid to not use a trucker GPS, and/or to properly set it up, or develop an amount of common sense, that's on the individual, not the technology.