Entry from that direction is a hard right turn off a residential-size street that dead-ends about five feet past the gate. Well, actually it makes a 90-degree turn onto an equally small street. A UPS van might could make the turn. I wouldn't want to try it in anything bigger. It's about the same as the turn to get onto that street in the first place.
You may wonder why I'm so fascinated with that gate. Well, it's simple enough.
My GPS told me that was the way in here.
My truck has a GPS built into its satcom unit. It's incredibly handy at times, but neither the company nor my trainer entirely trusts it. My first trip by myself I found myself in total agreement with them. Modern satellite navigation and computerized maps are wonderful things, but they do have their limitations. In the case of this particular system, these include:
1) I don't control the destination settings.
The company sends them when they send me my load information. That's usually not a problem, but the first time I hauled a load on my own I found myself in the heart of Cape Cod, staring at a screen that insisted a warehouse in Pocasset was actually in the middle of a residential neighborhood in Buzzards Bay. No harm came of it, but it sure was educational.
A more subtle form of the disease has shown up seveal times since--like some of the online map sites, my truck's GPS has a "drop back and punt" mode for when it can't find an address in its database. Judging by the maps confused people have waved to me in my home town, I think some of the online services will direct you to the geographical center of the zip code. This machine seems to direct you either to the exact center of town or to the post office--I haven't had the nerve to go find out which. I'm just pretty sure that the big truck stop isn't in the middle of the courthouse square...
Less harmful and more amusing are all the truck stops that are in the exact center of the interstate, right where it crosses a highway. The address did say I-23 and State Route 456, didn't it?
2) I don't control the route selection.
Neither does the company. The machine computes its own "most efficient route." And what it thinks is "most efficient" can be odd sometimes. It's especially fond of cutting corners--adding 3 or 4 extra turns to save you a mile.
Of course, if you ignore the machine it will (usually) stop nagging you with helpful hints on how to turn around and get on the "right" road, and figure you a new route based on the direction you're actually going. So that's what you end up doing a lot of the time.
Which is why I ended up way out of my way once. I missed a turn, and ignored the GPS for some time afterward. As many times as it had cried "Wolf!"...
3) I don't control the display.
There is no button I can push to zoom out and figure which way the Interstate is. Or whatever. And it's always in "Turn by Turn" mode, zooming in on the next place you're supposed to make a right (so you don't miss it).
Which means if you don't want to turn there, you can't tell what other streets are nearby. The street you're looking for might be fifty yards down, but by the time the map scale would show it, the machine is fixated on that shortcut at the next intersection.
4) The directions can be fascinating.
There's nothing like a map with a nice big bright line leading up to the intesection and then going left--while large friendly letters say "Turn right at Zinnia Street."
Or a line that runs on forever in the direction you're going (which you know is the right direction) and the large friendly letters that say "Turn around on I 41." And wants you to do it thirty miles ahead.
And about half the time, there's a big bright arrow on the map pointing away from your road, in some direction that seems to have nothing to do with anything you're doing.
I get the impression this particular software just grabs the nearest appropriate map tile and (supposedly) the right words from a database. But if so, its search algorithms are kind of, um, off.
All this is probably just this particular software package. I'm told there's supposed to be an update coming out that will do something about at least some of these problems. And if I had any money to spare, I could buy a commercial GPS unit that would do a better job--or so other drivers tell me. But then there's the real kicker.
5) To a computer, a road is a road is a road.
All these gadgets are supposed to include a database of places you shouldn't go. I haven't seen any of them I can trust. So far, I've had computers try to lead me
- under 12'9" underpasses, in a 13'6" truck
- over bridges with a 6,000 lb load limit, in a semi that weighs 35,000 lbs empty and 80,000 lbs full
- into cozy residential neighborhoods with streets that would barely hold my rig BEFORE the cars parked on both sides
- and onto cross streets with signs bigger than the road saying "NO THRU TRUCKS."
Oh, yes, and they've tried to get me to come into a plant through a back gate that hasn't been opened in two or three years. Which brings us back to the present.
Fortunately, I had directions from the customer. If you've read my "Adventures in navigation" series you know how far I trust those, but they're usually more reliable than the magic box. When the two contradict each other I usually follow the directions, cross checking them against the GPS--and frantically looking for plan B in case they're BOTH wrong. This time I ended up coming through the front gate--after turning around twice trying to find it.
Not bad, all things considered.
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