Sorry it's been a while but we have been continuously busy. Our recent runs have been start- to-finish, non-stop, all-nighters. I haven't been on the computer since Sunday. We left Arkansas, went to Kansas, Oklahoma, Alabama and back to Arkansas, where we will again have dinner with my sister and her husband. This is great! In the morning we head to Texas, then Tennessee. Still hoping to get home for Easter week.
Having gotten caught up reading other blogs, I discovered that my friend Kevin was experiencing the same problem this week that I was planning to write about: GPS . Kevin, I totally sympathize! These little gems are marvelous most of the time, but don't bet the house on them.
For the first 6 months on this job we had our Qualcomm. This is the device, installed by FedEx and most other trucking firms, which allows communications between drivers and dispatchers, utilizes electronic logs instead of paper log books and has truck-routing GPS. Most of the time she is right on the money. Usually the only problem is she gets us to the front door and we have to find the loading docks on our own. Then there are the times when she gets us to the church but not the right pew! Sometimes she is on the wrong side of the street or around the block. One time we were in a rather remote area on a major interstate, following the given directions when she announced we could find our destination straight ahead--the middle of a 4-lane interstate in the middle of nowhere. We resorted to the old fashioned method of stopping and asking for directions.
A couple of months ago we brought our GPS from the car with us to use for finding local attractions: stores, movies, church, etc. This was a great help in those searches. We began to set both for loads and were being entertained by the differences in directions. Of course, we had to remember that the small one wasn't programmed for trucks. On one particular run neither one could find our destination. We ended up in the middle of the night on a country road that a truck of any size bigger than a pickup had no business being on. This was when my country upbringing came into good use. We managed to get turned around and out of there. Can you believe the road they said was correct was only a gate to a cow pasture! After this experience we bought a new GPS for trucks.
I wrote a little about this experience a while ago. Ron loves his new toy with one exception: we had to retire Samantha because her voice and attitude were much too snippy for us. We now have Tom to guide us along with the Qualcomm. His attitude is very laid back--he tells us to "slide right" or "slide left" onto the next road. His voice is pretty soothing too. Of course, I think maybe they could use Sam Elliott or James Earl Jones for the voice and I'd be more than happy to follow those directions.
One problem they both seem to occasionally have is the hiccups. By this I mean that they show us in one spot and the road off to either side and inform us that this route is not approved and to recalculate when we have been in a straight line for miles and not turned. Maybe the signal got blocked or maybe it's sunspots. Sometimes I think there are just too many streets congregated together, like in NYC, and they get confused. Who knows? But if we just keep on as we were they eventually get back on the right path, thank goodness.
Yesterday we encountered a problem that could have been potentially disastrous as far as deadlines and loads are concerned. Our Qualcomm went out. I happened to look up to see a message stating that is was shutting down. We cannot shut it down manually and it is ALWAYS on when the truck is running. Just as I was trying to figure it out the screen went totally black. I tried calling dispatch but evidently this was a system failure and everyone else was doing the same thing because I was on hold for the longest time. Before I could talk to anyone the system came back up and was restored to the exact location we were at. No explanation whatsoever. Isn't modern technology wonderful?!!!!
Thanks for listening to my ramblings. Until next time . . . . . .
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