Tips on navigating unfamiliar places?
 

Any tips from experienced drivers here on how to navigate unfamiliar places?

Thanks.

If you see a sign saying low clearance ahead, DO NOT PROCEED if your equip is higher than the clearance. if you see a sign that reads NO TRUCKS on a certain road... do not proceed unless you are picking up or delivering on that road. what I always do when going into a new place, I will call the shipp/rec & ask if there is truck parking if I get there in the early a.m like 3 in the morn. I dont want to show up even 15 min early, if it means i'll be stuck out in the hwy waiting for a gate to open to let me in.

if your going thru small towns stay on truck route. I found myself going down a one way street right by a lil town courthouse. lol. I new a made a wrong turn some where. but mostly just obey all lane restrictions, traffic lights e.t.c. also go online & look to see if any major truck stop is nearby. if it is i know i can have a place to sleep ,eat, e.t.c if needed. all major stops have locations on their websights. I'm sure there is a lot more than I list here. I'm just too tired to think anymore. lol. good luck my friend.

Yeah.

Even numbered highways go east and West. Odd numbered go North & South. Doesn't always apply to state highways. Learn the rules regarding 3-numbered highways, like I-285 and I-440, and I-170

Mile markers start and the South and go North, and start at the West and go East. Usually.

Tombstones in cemeteries always face east (The head is at the west end)

The fat part of the moon looks West in the early evening and looks East early in the morning.

Even numbered addresses are on one side of the road, odd numbers on the other.

There are dozens of variations of the name "Peachtree St" in Atlanta. And none of the Peachtree's go in a straight line.

Look for patterns in street names. In San Diego there is a section of town with streets named after states in geographical order. Another area has streets named after trees in alphabetical order (Apple, birch, cedar...)

I recommend DeLorme Street Atlas for your laptop in your truck.

If you really can't get any help, call the Chamber of Commerce. REALLY! I've only done this once (in East LA) and the lady was really helpful - knew the area and everything.

Fire departments and cops know every address in their areas. I've gotten help from both sources.

And lastly....If you have screwed up and gotten into an area where you should not be, STOP! Call 911 and tell them you are a trucker and you need help backing out of your situation. I've done this 3 times and never had a problem.

One that I lear... err... someone else learned and told me about (yeah, that's the ticket)... is that you might as well get comfortable aggravating other motorists every now and then. If things don't look clear to you and you have a nagging feeling that you're about to drive into a problem, stop. Put on your flashers and get out of the truck. Go for a walk until you can see whatever it is that you need to see.

You might make lots of people mad in the process. You might have people honking and revving their engines and speeding past you and all the rest. The worst offenders, to be quite frank, will tend to be other truck drivers who really should have the sense to know better. What's important is that you don't hit anything. Making someone think that you've ruined his day by stopping in front of him for two minutes is a lot better than actually ruining the day by causing an accident.

That same "someone else" also learned this little tidbit pretty early on in his driving career. Any spot that he got into going forward was a spot from which he could exit going backward. That's a neat little thing about the actual geometry of it all. If the wheels follow the same path in both directions, so will the truck and trailer. Sometimes that path takes you back into traffic though. That's when there's nothing you can do except get someone else (cops and such) involved.

Yes. Familiarize yourself with unfamiliar places.

It's pretty evident you have access to the internet . . type the address of the place you'd like to go in:

Google Maps

Google Earth

Mapquest

etc, etc, etc . .

Hit enter

Behold wondrous results.

Ditto to the DeLorme Street Atlas USA with GPS

Try this exercise: Call your local Walmart and say "I have a truckload of crap for your store. I'm coming in from the north. Can you tell me what side of the building your truck entrance is on or from what street I can access it? At the same time, type the store address in Google Maps, hit enter and select "satellite".

Of the two results, which do you prefer?

True.

And I think I've successfully navigated every %$# one of them.

Sometimes to a few raised eyebrows from pedestrians...

I'm afraid this one is a bit less than accurate. I know of at least one where the head of those buried is on the east end, and you must face the east in order to read the tombstone. Can't say anything about the rest.

Yeah, it isn't chiseled in stone - at least not that I know of - but probably 9 out of 10 Christian Cemeteries are laid out W - E.
But let's face it. If I'm so lost that I'm checking out tombstones I'm in a whole heap o' ****.:roll:

I have a laptop. I use Microsoft Streets and Trips. The only real 'problem' i have had with it, is it will tell me some exit is a 'left exit'....when it is actually a right one. I dont blindly follow it, i atleast know if i need to turn on I-70 west....i'm going to use whatever lane "I-70 West" sign is over.

other than that, i like that program...but you've gotta get it with the GPS. if not, it is just a glorified MapQuest.com application.

Another thing i do, is i get the shipper and cosignee's addys, and plug them into mapquest, then look at an aerial view of the place i'm picking up and headed to. Gives me an idea of the layout of the place. most of the time you can make out guard huts, etc.

also, do the same with Wal-Marts if i plan to stay at one overnight. Give me an idea of the best enterance to use, etc. Dont want to go into the first enterance you come to, cause you might have a Murphy's gas station to negotiate.

Use live search maps online and use the birds eye function to locate your customer... I do this every single time im delivering to a new place. I look at how im going to manuvier once i get there. It really helps a ton.