Interesting Question

[Indecisi0n]

Get an Iphone. The GPS has saved my butt plenty of times. I can pull up my current location with one click of the screen. A lot faster than an old fashion map. Although i do keep one on the truck in case the phone signal goes out.

 

[lovemyupser]

This is what my husband did when he first started driving. On Saturday's we would get in the car and drive the route he was working. In his map book he would mark down different landmarks. This helped him when he first started driving. Now he just goes with the flow when they throw him on a route he hasn't been on.

 

[soberups]

Buy a map book of the areas that your center services, and then make copies of the specific pages you need for the routes you will be running. That way, you can write notes on your maps and clip them to your dashboard or sun visor. Its a lot easier to deal with one page than having to fumble around with an entire map book. If your delivery area encompasses more than one page in your map book, then you can make copies of the pages you need and tape them together to make one giant map. This will help you "get the big picture" of your entire route, which is harder to do if you are flipping back and forth thru multiple pages of a map book or relying on a GPS or iphone with a tiny 4" screen.

 

[old levi's]

Buy a map book of the areas that your center services, and then make copies of the specific pages you need for the routes you will be running. That way, you can write notes on your maps and clip them to your dashboard or sun visor. Its a lot easier to deal with one page than having to fumble around with an entire map book. If your delivery area encompasses more than one page in your map book, then you can make copies of the pages you need and tape them together to make one giant map. This will help you "get the big picture" of your entire route, which is harder to do if you are flipping back and forth thru multiple pages of a map book or relying on a GPS or iphone with a tiny 4" screen.

Good info. / In the early days I would take two pages,place them back to back, and laminate them. Saves space, quick to reference and almost indestructible.

 

[kingOFchester]

Pre smartphone maps:

I would use a map. Look at Diad and find first stop on map. Then scroll threw EDD to come up with a game plan to hit the streets in the development/area.

Smartphone:

Look at Diad and find first stop on map. Then scroll threw EDD to come up with a game plan to hit the streets in the development/area.

 

[kingOFchester]

Anyone else notice when you need a map, the area just happens to be on the corner of 4 different pages? Fun times.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Anyone else notice when you need a map, the area just happens to be on the corner of 4 different pages? Fun times.

If you know that you will be running a new area the following day and the map you have does not help you may be able to get a more useful version at one of the online websites, such as Mapquest. You can zoom in and print the area that you need.

 

[Raw]

Here`s my answer and I`m being serious! In my case when I see what my next stop is I visually get a pic in my mind where it is as if I`m looking at a map and also a pic in my mind of what the place and surrounding neighborhood looks like, maybe my brain has grown memory in that compartment after 24 years of this job. I like the map in my brain visual, very helpful!

 

[CharleyHustle]

Thomas Jefferson mandated that all new states and territories would be laid out and surveyed in 1 mile quadrants. Road numbers are determined by county. All counties are divided on 2 axis that all numbers start from and all county roads will have the odd/even numbers on the same side of the road until it crosses an axis. Some counties use 500 and others use 1000 numbers to the mile. Towns, villages, and cities that maintain their own roads can and do have their own numbering systems which generally are based off axis which are mostly two main roads that cross each other. Know your number breaks and jurisdictions where numbers change and how many numbers to the mile.

If you have a 10th wheel on your odometer and numbers are 1000 to the mile, 1500 Podunk rd will be a half mile from the corner where the number breaks. For some reason around my neck of the woods, if you build a new home the power company determines your house number.

 

[menotyou]

In the Clayton area, whomever builds a new home-no matter where it is- gets the next house number in line. Very difficult area to get use to .

 

[pickup]

Anyone else notice when you need a map, the area just happens to be on the corner of 4 different pages? Fun times.

Ha ha oh yes how true. Sometimes, it will even say that the adjoining area is in another county map that is not included in the map book that you have.

 

[gman042]

Check to see if the county that your route is in has a GIS department. These are the guys that insure the address system is accurate for emergency responders. There should be a map that can be viewed online while on route or maps can be printed from the site. Some GIS maps are so accurate as to have the position of the house numbers on the streets and roads.

 

[JustTired]

Thomas Jefferson mandated that all new states and territories would be laid out and surveyed in 1 mile quadrants. Road numbers are determined by county. All counties are divided on 2 axis that all numbers start from and all county roads will have the odd/even numbers on the same side of the road until it crosses an axis. Some counties use 500 and others use 1000 numbers to the mile. Towns, villages, and cities that maintain their own roads can and do have their own numbering systems which generally are based off axis which are mostly two main roads that cross each other. Know your number breaks and jurisdictions where numbers change and how many numbers to the mile.

If you have a 10th wheel on your odometer and numbers are 1000 to the mile, 1500 Podunk rd will be a half mile from the corner where the number breaks. For some reason around my neck of the woods, if you build a new home the power company determines your house number.

I think this is one of the most useful posts on this thread.

Every once in a while you will find an exception to the rule (odd number house on the even side of road, etc.), but overall a great tool to learn and use. And as others have stated......there is no substitute for experience.

 

[gman042]

Check to see if the county that your route is in has a GIS department. These are the guys that insure the address system is accurate for emergency responders. There should be a map that can be viewed online while on route or maps can be printed from the site. Some GIS maps are so accurate as to have the position of the house numbers on the streets and roads.

maybe this will work....... MapServer My neck of the woods. You can adjust your search using the tabs on the left hand side. You can get house numbers, their position on the street or road and the owners name. best one that I have found so far.

 

[kingOFchester]

If you know that you will be running a new area the following day and the map you have does not help you may be able to get a more useful version at one of the online websites, such as Mapquest. You can zoom in and print the area that you need.

I work in a large center. 90+ full time drivers. 75+ bid routes. Between the bumping and shuffling of cover drivers and call outs it is VERY rare that I know what trip I will be running the next day. I have been moved 3 times in one day!

 

[dannyboy]

Before GPS, there were mapping programs. When I went into coverage after being on two routes for 20+ years, I had to learn a lot of routes.

What you learn to do is sectionalize the area. On most areas the breaks are pretty obvious. And you run those sections one at a time. I would print pages for each section that were large enough to read, and inserted break numbers where needed. That really helped. I also got an updated copy every year of the 911 directory, that has all the street names for each of the counties I delivered. IT would have the name of the street, city, then directions from well known streets or landmarks. That really helped for those hard to find streets. And once computerized, I was able to update it with any new streets that were built and named, many before the first house was built.

I also used this this system when I driver trained as well. Most drivers appriciated the detailed maps.

There is also one neat thing about what the poster asked as well. 90% of the packages go to 1 % of the houses, or maybe 5%. You learn where these 5% are, and the rest you can count down or up from.

Couple that with what Charley posted, along with experience, and you have why we can find you without a problem.

d

 

[CharleyHustle]

There is also a way for your supervisor to plot any routes' stops on a map for that day. You need to wait till the sort is down so all the stops show up. Every stop is numbered by the order they show in EDD, air stops have a flag attached. They can blow it up to show different parts of the area on different sheets. If we've never been there and thus there is no GPS tag for that stop it doesn't show up.

 

[dannyboy]

Charley

I have seen a prototype of a package car that has a windshield that has an interactive display. If you can invision the Street level detail of mapquest. Then what you do is drive down the correct street, and the correct house is highlighted on the windshield. THen arrows point to the next delivery point. This is projected to cut out all training, and eliminate miss deliveries. No paper, all interactive display. Dont have a clue when it will roll out or the cost, but it was interesting.

d

 

[dilligaf]

Before GPS, there were mapping programs. When I went into coverage after being on two routes for 20+ years, I had to learn a lot of routes.

What you learn to do is sectionalize the area. On most areas the breaks are pretty obvious. And you run those sections one at a time. I would print pages for each section that were large enough to read, and inserted break numbers where needed. That really helped. I also got an updated copy every year of the 911 directory, that has all the street names for each of the counties I delivered. IT would have the name of the street, city, then directions from well known streets or landmarks. That really helped for those hard to find streets. And once computerized, I was able to update it with any new streets that were built and named, many before the first house was built.

I also used this this system when I driver trained as well. Most drivers appriciated the detailed maps.

There is also one neat thing about what the poster asked as well. 90% of the packages go to 1 % of the houses, or maybe 5%. You learn where these 5% are, and the rest you can count down or up from.

Couple that with what Charley posted, along with experience, and you have why we can find you without a problem.

d

You bring up an interesting point Danny. Sectionalize (is that even a word?) We have names for our resi areas. Do any other areas do this? We La Fonda resi (La Fonda restaurant), Crestview resi (street name), Verde Santa Fe resi (golf course), 6th street (this is business or resi), and on and on. Literally a hundred different areas. They all represent a section of an area (resi and business alike).

 

[dannyboy]

Mornin Dill

I believe that this is company wide. The different sections represent different cut/add sections that have been moved around, or used to identify a certain area. Many are common to the public, but many are also exclusive to UPS and its drivers, and when the public hears us talking about that area, are left clueless.

As far as it being a word, there are a lot of words that we dont have in our language proper, but because of technology and other improvements to society, who knows what words will be added. I have heard there are a thousand new words added to the english language each year. Dont know if that is true or not, but it keeps webster et al in the business of printing new dictionaries each year.

d