Hi folks… I am a recently qualified Cat C driver. I have a job, multi-drop, 18t and so I “invested” in a Garmin “Dezl” Sat-Nav. It seems to panic if my delivery uses a “7.5T except for access” road and sends me down side-streets, seemingly to avoid the weight restrictions. I found myself in a “Play-Street” the other day! I had to do a three-point-turn, which was not fun. Luckily, people helped. But are Garmins useless? How do I tell it that once I am in a “zone” I cannot use side-streets? My delivery places are mostly big supermarkets, superstores etc, but the route suggested by the Sat-nav was residential and NOT appropriate for a truck! After this, the Sat-Nav was constantly asking me to “tap” and “allow” me to continue? I switched it off. What did I do wrong?
Unfortunately, this is a feature of the Garmin. It’s not just the Garmins that do this.
I did a head to head test of many SatNavs that I posted on these forums and discovered the same thing as you.
The best I found for coping with the 7.5t limits was the co-pilot app but none were perfect when it came to the 7.5t except for access weight limits. For such premium, expensive products, you would have expected that some thought had been given to this scenario but unfortunately, most have not even considered it.
I did email Garmin and others about the issue, but it just fell on deaf ears.
The only thing you can do is change the weight in your lorry profile to 7.5t but then you have to decide yourself if you are allowed in a particular weight restricted area.
In my tests, the Garmins came out top for just about everything else overall, but the 7.5t weight limits are handled very badly.
I would suggest that you contact Garmin support as the more people that do gives a better chance of them doing something about it.
This was my test:
Speaking from an old school trucker pov to a new driver…
If you keep blindly following your sat nav without question, to the point of it getting you into places like that, …you are eventually going to bring a compete ■■■■ storm around your lugs in terms of combining big trucks with totally unsuitable/impossible roads.
A sat nav does not ‘‘SEND’’ you anywhere, it advises and/or guides you…YOU are the captain of your ship, not the ■■■■ sat nav.
Good advice, take it or leave it, I ain’t fussed. 
No wonder there are so many f/ups when those bloody things are actually programmed like that from the manufacturer.
…and all for the pleasure of dropping 400 or so notes for a one.
I totally agree that SatNavs have to be used with common sense. But the point with this is that something being sold as an aid to navigating big trucks at a premium price, should be fit for the purpose it is intended for.
No one should blindly follow a SatNav in either a truck or car and assume everything it tells you is gospel, but it should go some way to at least following what the law allows.
Steevo25:
I totally agree that SatNavs have to be used with common sense. But the point with this is that something being sold as an aid to navigating big trucks at a premium price, should be fit for the purpose it is intended for.No one should blindly follow a SatNav in either a truck or car and assume everything it tells you is gospel, but it should go some way to at least following what the law allows.
I agree…that was my whole point.
The Garmins are the worst of the bunch for 7.5t limits. They assume that every 7.5t limit is a no go limit under any circumstances. It is a complete over sight by the manufacturer.
It’s a shame as the Garmins overall have some pretty useful features and are generally very good for most situations.
I didn’t really discover this until I started a job that involved a lot of deliveries in to 7.5t zones. Before that, I was very happy with the Garmin.
The only solution is to check the route beforehand and if safe to do so, then change the vehicle profile to 7.5t.
I know it’s difficult when you are doing time pressure multidrop where you don’t know the area at all and you are expecting the SatNav to really help you out. But the reality is that none of these SatNavs are perfect.
Thank you both. Luckily I was in Essex, and on “Home Ground” and found a way. But having paid a premium price for a “top-notch” sat-nav, I was not happy that it could not route me between two large stores without sending me down tiny residential streets, one of which was a “Play Street” and I had to turn round…
And also Garmin assumes that EVERY lay-by is a gents and ladies lavatory. I am an old-school bloke, and in general I agree! I don’t need flags or symbols cluttering my sat-nav?
Garmins are useful but have their limitations.
It is why I do not bother with them and just stick to google maps.
As you are from Essex I’ll give you an example of how I route!
Say I want to go from Sainsbury’s in Waltham Point to Argos near Southend Airport Essex.
Now as you may or may not know Sainbury’s Waltham point DC is right on the M25. From the M25 you jump on the A127 and basically follow that to southend airport. I’ve included a picture as reference.
You can see google maps will try to take you down smaller roads that are 7.5t only roads. Which for this delivery, you just don’t need to use. So I can just an extra waypoint on google maps telling it to use Rochford road as I know it is fine.
I haven’t use a Garmin in ages but I am sure they have a similar feature. Maybe look into that. Waypoints are a great way of forcing the sat nav to make it go the way you want.
So thats my advice. Use the way points in the garmin satnav.
adam277:
Garmins are useful but have their limitations…
Thank you Adam!
I was delivering to Waitrose; Enfield, Winchmore Hill and Enfield Chase. All quite close to each other but the Garmin sent me down here! (Hoe Lane, narrow, residential, and half-way up it becomes a “play-street” closed to all traffic at certain times and too small for an 18t anyway!)
It “told” me NOT to use Carterhatch Lane or Southbury Road, but Hoe Lane instead!! This has, as you can imagine, made me lose confidence in my new investment, and want to chuck it out of the window, or at least stick it back on EBay! How can I ever trust it?
After this disaster (which cost me at least an hour) I needed to get to Broxbourne. A relatively simple route? Every 100 metres or so, the Garmin threw up “Restricted Zone” and needed me to “OK” it… (which as you all know is now technically illegal!) I ended up just pointing the truck at the M25 and hoping for the best! Have I programmed it wrongly? Surely the market-leader can’t be this terrible for everyone?
adam277:
Garmins are useful but have their limitations…So thats my advice. Use the way points in the garmin satnav.
But then you have to know the way in the first place, and in this case, have no need for a SatNav at all? Imagine if you were in Paris or Madrid for example? Do I have to go back to having a paper map-book on my knees? Even then… not ideal!
It’s always been the case with 7.5 except for access that its going to be ‘interesting’, unless you’ve been to a premises before you will never know until you get there whether you can access the site from the direction you are travelling, or will you find its just the other side of where the restriction ends and you had no need to go through at all.
For such deliveries i judge the roads and surroundings and likelihood of being able to get my vehicle through for myself, likely to encounter more cars parked awkwardly with residents only expecting to see the odd parcel delivery 7 tonner or short local bus, nothing longer or that bends in the middle.
All this is beyond what a satnav can reasonably be expected to tell you, hence the default avoid at all costs.
Juddian:
It’s always been the case with 7.5 except for access that its going to be ‘interesting’, unless you’ve been to a premises before you will never know until you get there whether you can access the site from the direction you are travelling, or will you find its just the other side of where the restriction ends and you had no need to go through at all.For such deliveries i judge the roads and surroundings and likelihood of being able to get my vehicle through for myself, likely to encounter more cars parked awkwardly with residents only expecting to see the odd parcel delivery 7 tonner or short local bus, nothing longer or that bends in the middle.
All this is beyond what a satnav can reasonably be expected to tell you, hence the default avoid at all costs.
Thank you @Juddian. Perhaps I have put too much faith in technology. I used to drive a 7.5 in central Paris, (also Amsterdam, Antwerp, Zurich, Madrid etc) literally with an A-Z on my knees. Some “interesting” situations resulted… But that was many years ago!
wakou:
Juddian:
Perhaps I have put too much faith in technology.
I think that applies to vast swathes of the industry as a whole 
, trying desperately to automate/electrify/deskill an industry that whether they like it or not still depends to a great extent on experienced careful capable individuals doing their part but increasingly with one hand tied behind their back yet expected to deliver ever more.
You think of all the electronic tat that has been added over the past few years, not just the crap like AEBS and lane departure ■■■■■■■■ that automakers have been compelled to fit, but the mutiple devices operators now invest vast sums in to monitor or supposedly make safer their particular sector/speciality or as a knee jerk reaction to stop others causing the same easily foretold disaster that the haven’t a minute to live tear arse half wits they employed did, as anyone with an ounce of common could have predicted they would the day after they started.
Half the time this tat is unfit for purpose to the extent its positively dangerous in some situations (AEBS) and the people who fitted it are constantly at the operator’s premises, or the vehicle is at the workshops, repeatedly fixing the rubbish.
and another bus went past
I have a Garmin Dezl 1000 and if I do not know where I am going is to use google maps on the side as Google is a lot better at pin pointing exactly where a place is.
Always check out where your destination is on google maps/real map if you do not know where it is. Never just blindly follow a sat nav. Follow what’s on the road/street signs.
I did this on my second day in an artic when trying to find a farm and ended up in a residential area. Luckily a helpful chap helped me reverse down a side street and turn around.
It also doesn’t hurt to get out and have a quick walk around if you think you are going to end up at the point of no return!
My Dezl 1000 has plenty of options where you can edit your route and reroute where needed if you spend the time to look at all the options it can be very handy.
I have got to the point now where I spend a good 15 to 20 minutes programming in my daily run and do not have to touch it again for the rest of the day.
I’m afraid technology is not going to do what you want it to do for a long time yet.
For the ‘last mile’, in the past, we used to use a street map to find the destination street; it was then up to us to find the route to that destination using road signs.
Today a sat-nav will save you the inconvenience of having to purchase all the individual street maps, but you still have to use the street signs to get you there legally.
Reading road signs is a skill no truck driver should be without - you can wing it in a car, but not a truck.
On top of that there is a skill in reading roads & the knowledge of them that can only come through experience.
Unfortunately the longer you look at the sat-nav, the longer it is going to take to develop these skills.
For a more useful technology based experience then consider the following:
Put the sat-nav in 2D mode & zoom out, with a marker on the destination but no route planning, then route yourself the last few miles.
Whilst you learn this skill you could use a second, cheaper, non-truck sat-nav for that role; with your expensive Garmin running an actual route until the point it fails.
Generally speaking you set the waypoint on an A road.
Or for example lets say you just done your first deliver and you had to go through a 7.5st restriction you set your waypoint so your having to go back out the same way and onto the A10.
I think I see the issue. One of your waitrose was in a restricted area. So as your set nav went silly and instead of taking the southbury road you took hoe lane.
A solution would of been just to set the waypoint on southbury road. Now, I here you ask how do I know Southbury road is fine? I don’t lol but I know it is an A road (A110). If I had to choose a road at random to go down it would be a road called the A110 over hoe lane.
Generally speaking A roads are safe for you lol. Trust A-roads. If you see the sat nav trying take you down Hoe lane or Old gates pass, Little Sheep Lane etc etc. and its not even a B-road then maybe it is a bit dicey and maybe there is another way. Not always, sometimes you have to go down these roads. It is a pain in the ■■■ for sure.
For example that Argos southend airport delivery. I know Rochford road is fine but if I didnt know that then I would of set the waypoint on the road next to it the A1159. Because it is an A road.
Also there is a bridge on the A110 15ft6 height limit. You sure you set your height correct on your garmin app so its not set at 16ft6 lol?
ScaniaUltimate:
I’m afraid technology is not going to do what you want it to do for a long time yet.For the ‘last mile’, in the past, we used to use a street map to find the destination street; it was then up to us to find the route to that destination using road signs.
Today a sat-nav will save you the inconvenience of having to purchase all the individual street maps, but you still have to use the street signs to get you there legally.
Reading road signs is a skill no truck driver should be without - you can wing it in a car, but not a truck.
On top of that there is a skill in reading roads & the knowledge of them that can only come through experience.
Unfortunately the longer you look at the sat-nav, the longer it is going to take to develop these skills.
A man who talks common sense.
Too many totally depend on sat navs these days, if you ask these guys how they got to a destination, they can’t tell you, they are in auto pilot mood the whole time, which is why you get idiots hitting bridges,.and finding themselves being pulled out of a back road with a ■■■■ crane… .
Reading some of the comments and terminology on here that suggest they are lost (literally) without a sat nav, kinda illustrates it.
A sat nav is a brilliant concept, even though I did without one for 20 + years, I would not be without it today, but you have to use them in the right way and in the right frame of mind,…alongside a back up proven method …either electronically or printed,.and definitely garnished with a lot of common sense and initiative.
On my job if I relied on a sat nav doing remote farm deliveries,
…
A.I would not be ‘‘allowed’’ to go down 80% of the truck non friendly roads by a truck type sat nav.
B.I’d have been suspended on the end of a heavy crane numerous ■■■■ times.
I know guys are thinking I’m old fashioned and banging on,.and I know on the whole I’m ■■■■■■■ against the wind with some of you, but if at least one new driver takes notice and prevents getting stuck fast in some totally unsuitable, unreal crap situation…my crusade is done.
Still can not believe guys are buying these overpriced ■■■■ things when by their own admission they are totally unfit for purpose…you would not buy a phone that could not take calls, ie it’s primary function/reason for being, but was fine at picking up Netflix would you.
I’ll just stick to my bog standard cheapie, google earth,.and a bridge map. 
To quote Alex Higgins…’ You can shove em up yer ■■■■ in arses’’ 
That’s my final answer on all this ■■■■ btw.
…(long day rant removed)… short version >> all the satnavs dont cope with multidrop too well at then moment, finding it better to actually use their computer aides that can send a route, and then planning routes this way rather than rely on just entering postcodes on the fly, … and still 100% think maps are better, still using mine in the day with multidrop, as thats how much I dont trust the satnav, especially in little villages, having it on freeflow no destination, and giving and overview 2D view is good so know where I am on the route and traffic flow.