[AccessD] Google maps

Sun Apr 28 18:40:00 CDT 2024

Paul, it feels like my opinion of one side of the political spectrum.  :)

The reality is that truckers are rarely illiterate, though it might happen
occasionally.  There are driving schools which train some large percentage
of the new drivers.  These range from abysmal to outstanding.  I went to a
school provided by the local community college.  The training consisted of
4 hours in a book (with tests) and 4 hours in a truck, 5 days a week, for
about 14 weeks.  The school was outstanding and has a reputation for being
outstanding, which they are rightfully proud of.

Trucking is heavily regulated and drivers are required to know and
understand a huge amount of regulations.

It is certainly not like programming where one has to learn new stuff
constantly.  The regulations are more or less fixed and so once learned it
is a matter of obeying them.  OTOH if you are stopped by the DOT or the
highway patrol and you have broken regulations that goes on a record of
yours and your company's.  You can be put out of service if you have broken
some of the hours regulations.  Or you can instantly use your license if
you fail (or refuse) a drug test.

So in my opinion, most truckers are not illiterate, most use some form of
electronic gps system (Garmine is a favorite) and (now days) most use an
electronic tablet hooked to their truck and the internet through cell
service, which tracks their hours, allows them to enter paperwork, receive
their load info etc.

On Sun, Apr 28, 2024 at 6:20 PM Paul Wolstenholme <
Paul.W at industrialcontrol.co.nz> wrote:

> John,
>
> I had an interesting conversation a few weeks ago with a man who asserts
> that the vast majority of truck drivers are functionally illiterate.  He
> said few are capable of using a GPS or capable of finding an unfamiliar
> remote farm paddock that is being harvested overnight.  He asserted
> navigation instructions are passed on by describing the landmarks en-route
> rather than the destination address.  This person gave up on using what his
> degrees trained him to do, preferring to travel and go hiking.  He's
> discovered how to live cheaply as he travels widely throughout New Zealand,
> North America and other places using the income from the house he rents out
> and from trucking work he takes on from time to time (which he finds easily
> because he is literate).
>
> This is, of course, a generalisation.  I've also been told that all
> generalisations are false (which is itself a generalisation).
>
> Perhaps your intended market is the person in the office that the truck
> drivers call for instructions?
>
> Paul Wolstenholme
>
>
> On Mon, 29 Apr 2024 at 00:02, John Colby <jwcolby at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > For now I am trying to avoid getting into all the google api stuff.  If
> you
> > have looked at it there are at least a dozen pieces and parts, completely
> > different APIs depending on what you want to do.  In addition one has to
> > give a credit card which does allow up to $200 worth of free api usage
> but
> > it is really difficult to discover exactly what that $200 will allow
> before
> > I start getting charged.  I have no issue paying for what I use however
> > this is not yet sanctioned and paid for by my company, and may never be.
> >
> > It appears that when I feed a string of valid addresses into google maps,
> > Maps generates a bunch of lat/long data and (probably) that is what that
> > additional data piece is.  In the end I will need that but not for a
> > while.  My intention eventually is to generate the stop location in
> Access,
> > feed it to google maps to get a map, recover the lat / long data back so
> > that I can feed that into a GPX file generator, then take that GPX file
> and
> > feed it into Garmin to upload into my Dezl 7xx GPS mapping.
> >
> > I own a device similar to this:
> >
> > Garmine Dezl
> > <
> >
> https://www.bestbuy.com/site/reviews/garmin-dezl-760lmt-7-gps-with-built-in-bluetooth-black/7352055
> > >
> >
> > The garmine is truck specific and knows how to route a map which keeps me
> > on a truck friendly route, avoiding low obstacles such as low overhead
> > train bridges and such, as well as  bridge weight limits.  Google maps
> will
> > take me places a truck cannot go.  However the Garmin is a royal PITA to
> > enter a route directly into.  Damned near impossible.  It has a very
> 1990s
> > interface.  So I am looking to build a bridge between myself and that.  I
> > have been using Google maps for years.  It is fine for cars but dangerous
> > for trucks and RVs - heavy or tall vehicles.
> >
> > But one thing at a time.
> >
> > On Sat, Apr 27, 2024 at 8:37 PM Stuart McLachlan <stuart at lexacorp.com.pg
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Another clue to the !1s:
> > >
> > >
> >
> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47017387/decoding-the-google-maps-embedded-parameters
> > >
> > > Only when changing the parameter
> !1s0xd62377123a70817:0x85e89b65fcf7c648,
> > > the map display will break, meaning this parameter decodes the location
> > of
> > > the
> > > pinpoint.
> > >
> > > On 28 Apr 2024 at 10:19, Stuart McLachlan wrote:
> > >
> > > > This contains a lot of informatabout that those data items
> > > > https://mstickles.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/gmaps-urls-options/
> > > >
> > > > On 28 Apr 2024 at 7:44, Stuart McLachlan wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > On 27 Apr 2024 at 11:58, John Colby wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > So...
> > > > > > 1) does anyone have a source to use to interpret that part of the
> > > url?
> > > > > > 2) does anyone know how to generate that entire thing, start to
> > > fdinish,
> > > > > > without dumping the address part into google maps and letting the
> > > browser
> > > > > > based app "interpret" it?
> > > > >
> > > > > https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation ?
> > > > >
> > > > > The format seems failry  straightforward and the document should
> > > explain the various data
> > > > > identifiers. which appreas to be a leading  three character string
> -
> > > "!" followed by "0L"
> > > > >
> > > > > Each item starts with a header followed by the data
> > > > > +USA/@33.7833331,-100.138283,5z/  'Map centre and zoom level?
> > > > > data=
> > > > > !3m1
> > > > > !4b1
> > > > > !4m85
> > > > > !4m84
> > > > >
> > > > > Then it is apparently 6 pieces of data for each point on the route.
> > > > >
> > > > > !1m5 = same for every entry!
> > > > > !1m1 = same for every entry!
> > > > > !1s0x88646f7df48bd7b9:0xf3817765e325957a = GUIDs ?
> > > > > !2m2 = same for every entry!
> > > > > !1d-86.7413824   = Latitude
> > > > > !2d36.0952999    = Longitude
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
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> > --
> > John W. Colby
> > Colby Consulting
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-- 
John W. Colby
Colby Consulting