Game: GPS Gaffes

Diver Driver suggested a fun thread about the crazy things and places that the GPS try to send us. I thought this would be a cool way to show new drivers exactly why the GPS is a tool...not a bible!

I learned this lesson early on when in training. I woke up to find my trainer driving through a corn field!!!

Yep...it started out as a two lane road but narrowed as he went on. There was no way to turn around and then POOF! The road disappeared leaving him on a narrow dirt road in the middle if a corn field in Iowa.

I never trust the GPS now. Hahaha I use it to determine how far away my turns are....my real turns not the ones it wants me to take..or the rest areas/truck stops. I don't rely on it.

Ha ha ha

I had a delivery at an Amazon Fulfillment Center in Las Vegas. I was crossing a bridge when the GPS said "turn left now". After I found the location, I realized it was right next to that bridge. GPS does want to give you the shortest route!

I was escaping from Hoboken when she said I was out of route. I looked at the screen and it showed that I was in the water a few miles south of JFK airport.

My very first solo load was delivered to Jasper Alabama and all was well until I got into Jasper. GPS said turn left on 9th street (i believe). Either way after fully completing the turn off the busy main street I am met with a huge no trucks sign. Low bridge ahead. After about 30 minutes I found a nice city police officer to help me back out of the street back to the main road and he told me how to get to my destination. I have learned now to always google street view ahead of time and match it up with the QC directions.

Any time I'm at our Little Rock yard and have to take a trailer down to the trailer repair bay, my GPS believes that I'm driving through a lake and insists I make a u-turn!

There used to be a small pond down there that was drained when they built the yard.

GPS is always fun around construction. In Dallas, my gps always thinks I am off the interstate and tries it's best to reroute me back. My advice to new drivers, always follow company directions until you know the area really well. Use Google maps, earth, and gps. They are all tools to help you become a better driver.

I was on a load from North Carolina to Missouri. I punched the stops in the GPS, kind of sorta looked it over, took care of everything else to leave, and finally left. It started me off taking I-40, then I-77, then US 58, then podunk street after podunk street. I never questioned it more than a couple minutes at the beginning. I woke up my trainer when it was his time to drive. (He had been asleep the entire time.) He looked at the GPS and said "that's an interesting route you took. Let me know when you're done!" I kept on driving. He told me to stop when I was down to an hour drive time. Once we stopped he asked if I had looked at the map. No, not really, I answered. He grinned and stated maybe now is a good time.

We were in the exact center of bum hump Kentucky. Hours from the interstate. Middle of nowhere. When all was said and done, I learned that this route was only a few miles shorter than staying on the interstate but twice as hard of a drive with none of the convenient stops.

Ah, yeah, I remember that trip like it was yesterday. ... Oh, wait, it was yesterday!

One of my first solo runs was a Tyson load out of a small town in MO. (The details are fuzzy) It had been raining recently and the main route to the Tyson plant was flooded, so you had to take one of those double letter highways (HH I believe it was) to go the back way. The GPS was doing a FANTASTIC job of keeping me on the correct route, and once I got onto the detour, the GPS again, showed the proper directions. That is....until I got into "town". Of course my pick up was at "O-dark 30" so you couldn't see anything, and there was no traffic to follow. The GPS tells me to continue straight. (I'm at the intersection of "small road" and "Main Street") I look at the road ahead and think "that looks a bit tight. But hey, the road you just traveled was really tight too." I decide to go for it. I get about a block into it, and an unmarked car approaches and lights me up. (It was the local cops)

The two cops stop and ask me "where the hell are you trying to go?" "Your about to get yourself in all sorts of trouble, going this way."

"Ma'am, I'm just trying to get to the Tyson plant."

They start to explain, when the other cop just says. "Let us get turned around, and follow us."

So I got VERY lucky and got a police escort to the plant, with no harassment or even a ticket.

Of course the load wasn't ready when I got there. The Next morning, the GPS wanted to take me the same way it had the previous night. But now that I could see, "Main Street" was the way to go.

Lesson learned... Pre check EACH AND EVERY step on the GPS against your atlas and another source. (Google maps, map quest, etc.)