[dennisdamas]

Hi. DH stands for Dear Husband. I am just the wife who stays at home. My wonderful husband is out there OTR, and enjoying (NOT) the (lack) of comforts of home while driving around our beautiful Country. My those bathrooms at the truck stops are appalling!! He sent me some pics - gave me the heebie dajeebies. My hat is off to all you intrepid women drivers! I would faint if I had to put up with some of those showers and stalls out there!


:lol:

[yoopr]

Buy a Truckers Road Atlas

[lifespalette]

Believe it or not.........drivers functioned very well long before any mapping software, lap tops or GPS. If you're husband is just starting out with Swift, I know from personal experience, the income is somewhat restrained at this point.......if you have a family at home and no second income, I would imagine it barely covers the needs for the month let alone the luxury items for you husband on the road.

With that said, take it in small steps, buy those things that will save him money on the road, a cooker, a refrigerator......those type of things will save money in the long run..........once the money gets better then you can start adding the luxury items that makes life a little easier on the road.

I don't care what the program is or where the directions come from.......he needs to confirm everything........... and the best way I found to confirm my directions was from the destination source. Get a good cell phone with a nation wide calling coverage.......stay away from the cheap pay as you go phones........call the consignee when he gets close to his destination.......don't get directions from the receptionist.......ask to be connected to the shipping manager. Get your directions from there. If you know you're going to get into the city after hours, call when you know someone is going to be there....confirm your directions.

Technology is wonderful when it's kept in perspective. However, there is no application out there that is fool proof. Trust me.......having managed some development projects for programming........there is nothing that doesn't have bugs in it and those were small programs. One can only imagine what larger projects endure. Many applications are released with known bugs just get to feed back from users before patches are developed.

If he gets to dependent on the mapping software.......what's he going to do when he can't get the GPS signal?..................better to know how to do your planning and routing the old fashion way first.........then enhance it with technology.................

[MrCoffee]

get dvd-r disks players will not read dvd-rw disks.

[uglymutt]

Originally Posted by dennisdamas

Hello, love your forums! :lol:
My DH is starting his 3rd week driving on his own for Swift.
He has noticed a few problems in regards to his comforts.
1. He is unable to play the disks I burned at home for his viewing pleasure,
TV shows mostly, House MD and Bones and CSI. I burned them on a brand new Sony DVD Recorder, so the problem is probably his new Supersonic TV/DVD combo player. Does anyone know what will work?
2. He has been given directions that have resulted in his being lost several times, and from looking at your forums, Microsoft Streets etc with GPS is a good deal. What would be a good 2nd, back-up program? Also, does MS have the "voice" that will tell you where to turn and when, so he can focus on the road? Keep in mind he is not making much and we need the best for our buck. Oh - he has the large atlas, with laminated pages and is looking for something to help mostly at pick-up and drop-off destinations.
3. His truck keeps turning everything off - it is a 2004 Volvo. Is there any hope?
4. Any other advise to make his transition as a OTR driver easier for him?

Thank you so much.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

1) dvd hmmm what yer burnin at home ???? ohhh tv, I would say its the disc and maybe the format, several formats for dvd and its a mess, do they play at home if so then its not the format for the other tv/dvd some require a special DVD disc, like record once, has to do with the color or something of the laser that reads, get online about dvd burnin and you will get it all.....

2)Streets and trips, GOOD, some use Delorme, I know several truckies and they ALL USE tomtom, Spendy but they claim it never fails and its small and mounts on the dash....

3) did you say VOLVO, thats the problem... simple to fix, get another truck , anything else like a 72 peterbuilt with 6 million miles would be better...

4) yes this is simple to answer, what does every man want, well most men, if your in the truck well their you go, he will be happy, hun give me a soda, hun can you grab the map, hun can you go do the laundry, hun time for #$#%^^&......

[jmilici]

ibamars, no offense taken. But I stand by what I said. As a rookie he needs to learn to navigate on his own. lifespalette hit the nail right on the head. What he said is basically what my original reply was going to be until I read his. I do need to add though that I worked in computers for about 10 years before I started trucking. The one thing that I learned about PCs and Microsoft based software is like lifespalette said, bugs are built into the system. They do this for the reason he said and so people are forced to upgrade and spend more money. They already know how to make the perfect system. But why make the perfect system that people only need to buy once every 5 years or so than a less than perfect system that they will need to put money into or buy a new one every year or two. The answer is money. The computer I am running on was bought in 2000. Then upgraded(by myself) in 2004. I do not run anti-virus software and half the times I have my firewall off. The last virus I have had was back in 2002 and I got that because my wife opened a bad e-mail.

But back to the point, I do not nor will I ever trust commercial computers with storing my files let alone to tell me where to turn. A perfect example is what happened this week with a fellow company driver. He is a rookie, I think been driving about 2 months. He has the software and goodies and was driving through Newark NJ. He was following the directions from the computer when he came upon an overpass. And lo-and-behold he got stuck. From what I heard he really messed up the trailer too. Yes he should of crossed referenced with the atlas, but what he should of really done is actually pre-planned his trip without the computer. He should have not been a rookie and relied upon a computer to tell him where to go. If you learn to play an instrument do you learn how to play Beethoven's fifth first or do you start with the basics. The same goes with trucking.

The following quote from lifespalette sums it up perfectly:

Originally Posted by lifespalette

If he gets to dependent on the mapping software.......what's he going to do when he can't get the GPS signal?..................better to know how to do your planning and routing the old fashion way first.........then enhance it with technology.................

And yes I have driven in NYC. I was born and raised on Long Island. Moved out at 22. I have driven into the city many times and taken the LIRR in many times. All you need to do is get a local map. The city is not hard at all once you see the logic in the way it was laid out. The problem with the city is the way the people drive and the size of the streets themselves. The city was not designed for a big truck with a 53' trailer and a tractor with a big ol' sleeper on it.

Another question to think about is this.

Would you get on a 2 week cruise knowing that the captain of the boat only knew how to navigate by computer? Wouldn't you feel better knowing that if the computer failed he would still know how to navigate you back to shore? I know I would.

The same goes for trucking.

[dennisdamas]

:lol:
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. We so appreciate it, and you are so very kind.

Cher Damas &
DH Dennis Damas