10-4 Magazine - For Today's Trucker

AUGUST 2005 TRUCKER TALK
WHICH WAY DO WE GO?
By Writers and Owner Operators Rod & Kim Grimm

I often wonder how many Americans find their way to work each morning. It’s not by the directions they give us because we are following those directions and we are now lost! After being drivers for so many years, we’ve developed a “sixth sense” about bad directions. And the even more important “seventh sense” you need when this occurs (and it will) is the ability to figure out how to get unlost.
What a difference a little morsel of information can sometimes make. Once at 2 AM in Florida, I gave Rod the right directions but neglected to tell him that when he crossed the RR tracks that he’d be crossing a viaduct over the RR tracks and not actually crossing the tracks. It’s a little dark out at 2 AM and when he finally crossed a set of RR tracks he was at the beach. On the bright side, the beach isn’t too busy at that time of the morning and it’s easier to turn around. After being awakened, I gave him that little piece of information that I had not told him in the first place, but couldn’t get back to sleep – Rod made sure of that.

It’s really nice when people give you a landmark along with what street to turn on. “There is a Shell station on one corner and the Bank of Whatever on the other corner, make a left, swing wide it’s a narrow street” etc. All added information is a great help and bless those people who give us GREAT directions. The next time it might be that the street sign is turned or gone, the sign for where you are going is camouflaged in shrubs, there is no building number or better yet, like not too long ago in Los Angeles, the actual building we were going to was a full block south of the street the address was on. Thank goodness there was someone getting to work early that could help us. “Down the street one block, go left, then right”. We were lucky. A lot of people can’t tell you how to get to a business two doors down from theirs.

Just a couple of weeks ago we found ourselves a “little” lost in Lincolnwood, Illinois. The man who gave me directions told me to follow Lawndale to the dead end and go left, and then the company would be on the right. Well, he forgot to tell me that one block after I turned on Lawndale, I would have to veer right, and then go one more block to the dead end. While trying to find our way, we ran across this neat road sign sculpture that seemed a bit timely (and ironic). So, one hot lap later, we had the perfect picture for our story. It’s a little blurry because we took the shot from our moving (and lost at the time) truck.

Getting lost is not always a bad thing. Once in Philadelphia we had a drop in a not-so-nice neighborhood on a Sunday afternoon. Sometimes a nice police officer is a good person to ask how to get where you are going, so we found one and asked. He directed us right to where we had to go. The next time we had that drop, it was Mother’s Day and they were having a block party on the street we needed to be on. After the last time, we knew how to go to get around it and back to where we had to be without asking anyone. But sometimes not even a nice officer knows how to get where you need to be.

Once in Las Vegas, while helping a friend deliver a load, we came around the exit we were supposed to take but ended up on the wrong street. On our way back to I-15, we got stopped by a funeral procession. There was a motorcycle cop right beside us and I suggested that we ask him for help. After inquiring about our destination, the officer replied by saying that this wasn’t his usual beat and he had no idea how to get where we needed to be. Yes, we did finally find it, but only after a little more careful observation of the signs. Sometimes the way streets are marked (or not marked) can make our job more challenging. It’s really nice in the places where the street is marked BEFORE you actually get to the intersection.

It amazes me sometimes how many drivers will ask for directions on the CB. In an age of computer map programs, satellite GPS systems, detailed map books and cellular phones, this really isn’t a smart way to get directions anymore. In fact, it’s never been a very good way to get directions. Years ago when we were with another company, there were two drivers who asked how to get to an egg plant in New Jersey over their CB. After getting bogus directions that put them on a dead-end street, they were trapped and then robbed. This might sound like a “big city” problem, but you could be given bogus directions anywhere that lead you out into the middle of nowhere just as well. Either way, you, your truck and your freight are vulnerable.

I’ve always tried to call ahead wherever we are going. But even that isn’t always foolproof. Once in Kent, Washington, the man gave me directions partly from 167 and partly from I-5. At 2 AM, after over an hour of driving around, we found where we were going. When I checked in the next morning, I asked the person I was talking to if he was the one I had talked to for directions the day before. Yes, he was. And above the phone he had talked to me on was a typed list of directions of how to get there from I-5, 167 and a couple other routes. I suggested that the next time he gave directions to a trucker he should use the typed ones above the phone. Again, I wondered how these people actually got to their job every day without getting lost!

Unless you have a dedicated run and customers that you go to on a regular basis, know that getting lost sometimes is just part of the job – and it happens to the best of us from time to time. In trucking as well as life, patience is a virtue. We all make mistakes. And remember, it could be worse. You could be driving around lost in a blizzard while chained up! How’s that for finding a bright side! We hope you have a “cool” summer and safe, well-directed travels.