Got myself a truck sat nav for when I start my new job but also dont want to 100% rely on this so was just wondering what the best road map book for truckers is.
I have found the AA one or the Phillips one.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers
I’ve never had the AA one so I won’t comment on that but everyone I know in the industry has the Navigators truckers Britain atlas and I do too.
You won’t use it anyway, but my vote is for Phillips, that’s what I own… notice I say own not use. I just look on google maps (if I check at all) I rely on copilot for the bulk of the run and google maps to walk me to the door.
cheetham100:
Got myself a truck sat nav for when I start my new job but also dont want to 100% rely on this so was just wondering what the best road map book for truckers is.I have found the AA one or the Phillips one.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers
I use a Phillips,great for proper route planning, all well and good relying on a truck sat nav or Google maps till suddenly youre in the back of beyond and the signal drops out. Battery dies etc.
I have a sat nav but generally it’s only really looked at for the last 2/3 miles of a journey to get me around the houses so to speak to the drop.
Navigator is my personal choice
Philips is a really good map book, whatever you do don’t rely fully on your sat nav just use it as and aid. I also have a quick look on google maps at the location my del/col is just incase of dead ends limited access etc. It may take extra time to plan in the beginning but may save you getting stuck. Good luck
I have the Phillips but never used it, always use sat nav along with Google maps and never had an issue. The flat battery thing doesn’t make sense as surely you would have the nav and phone plugged in. If you have a decent sat nav it shouldn’t drop signal.
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
Somebody here said the AA truckers is going into reprint, when it does i shall have a new one.
The Philips is ok, but it isn’t a patch on the AA for clarity.
The AA also came in two scales, the standard and Close UP versions, Close Up was huge and much larger scale, not quite Ordnance Survery but not far off, in some ways too big for laying across the steering wheel as you…nah scrub that no one would (admit to these days) do that…mind you an MAN ship’s wheel could cope with it, in fact you could cable tie it on and use the outside spokes to steer whilst chanting a good old sea shanty as you navigate the roads 
Juddian:
Somebody here said the AA truckers is going into reprint, when it does i shall have a new one.The Philips is ok, but it isn’t a patch on the AA for clarity.
The AA also came in two scales, the standard and Close UP versions, Close Up was huge and much larger scale, not quite Ordnance Survery but not far off, in some ways too big for laying across the steering wheel as you…nah scrub that no one would (admit to these days) do that…mind you an MAN ship’s wheel could cope with it, in fact you could cable tie it on and use the outside spokes to steer whilst chanting a good old sea shanty as you navigate the roads
Having a map book, and using it, is important in my opinion. I’ve got the Phillips Navigator one.
I rely on my satnav for on-route guidance, but every time I set off to go somewhere I don’t know the route for, I look over the route in my map book first and compare it to the route the satnav wants me to take. 9/10 times they are the same, but there are those occasional times where the satnav wants to route me, for example, off the motorway at junction 20 and then follow an A road through a couple of villages to the delivery point, but looking on the map you spot that if you stayed on until J21, you can be blasting along flat to the mat, and only do a short stretch of A road, then you reach your delivery point from the other side. You might add a handful of km but knock a decent chunk of time off.
It’s also amazing how just following your satnav can leave you stuck in that mindset, without any real awareness of where you are.
I had a demonstration of how important that is just last week - One of the old hands at work who’s given me all sorts of top tips, had told me to always keep count of what junction you’ve just passed “just in case” and I’ve been trying to do it as much as I can, though of course laziness does kick in from time to time. Luckily last week I was on the ball. I was northbound on the A74(M) and saw a car in the southbound carriageway, for no apparent reason, spin out and give the barrier a couple of ■■■■ good whacks. 2 women in the car looked very shaken up, but okayish, and they were stranded in lane 3 - a very scary and very dangerous place to be. I phoned the police immediately, and was able to tell them that it happened about a mile or two southbound of J18 - how else can you tell the emergency services where something has happened on the motorway, without using junction numbers? (In the past, I’ve tried telling them the milemarker code, when I drove past a car that had dumped an engine’s worth of oil across all 3 lanes in the wet, but they didn’t know what to do with it.) Anyways, within maybe 5minutes, tops, of making the call, I saw a police car shoot past southbound absolutely flat to the mat. So help and a bit of safety was on the way to those two unlucky ladies asap. If I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings, the only way I could tell the police where the crash happened would have been to keep driving on and make them wait until I found the next junction… and that can take a long time.
Google maps is great, in satellite view, for spotting exactly where your delivery or collection point is. The map book is great for route planning. The satnav is great for on-route guidance. Using a mixture of the three is, to my mind, just common sense.
Also, if you miss a turning, do you blindly trust your satnav to unf**k you, or do you find somewhere to pull over and check the map? I’ve blindly trusted it before, and ended up doing a loop around a tiny one-way system that had me pouring so much sweat I looked like I’d been standing in the rain. It was doable, sure, but what I should have done is pull over, check the map and I would have seen that if I’d gone only a little bit further on I’d have come to a big roundabout and could have just looped around without any drama, but the satnav wanted me back on the route in the shortest distance possible.
I’ll stop rambling in a minute, I promise! 
My final point is that reading a map is easy, if you’re used to it. When I was young I went through the whole Beavers and Scouts thing, so got used to reading a map. When I started driving, I’d not read a map for about 13 years or so and it’s not half as easy when you’re rusty, you’re in charge of a lorry that you can only take down certain roads, it’s dark/raining/both - so it pays to get used to it so that it’s natural because in this job, the only time you will absolutely need to read a map is when you’re up ■■■■ creek.
wrighty1:
I have the Phillips but never used it, always use sat nav along with Google maps and never had an issue. The flat battery thing doesn’t make sense as surely you would have the nav and phone plugged in. If you have a decent sat nav it shouldn’t drop signal.Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
Ever been out on a run and had the fuse blow on the outlet? You’ll have your say mavery for about anew hour before the battery craps out.
Are you for real! Carry spare fuses plus being an Actros it has 4 available outlets, I do have a Phillips map just never had the need to use it. I love the way some people refuse to embrace technology that is there to make your life easier and put down those that do use it.
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
Thanks to everyone for your replys. My sat nav is a Garmin dezl 770 and so far is looking the biz
I will probably go for the Phillips navigator as I have read good reviews too.
Thanks again for the advice. Much appreciated
Sent from my CUBOT DINOSAUR using Tapatalk
Collins Atlas used to be the best before Sat navs do they still do them?
Sent from my HTC One M8s using Tapatalk
slowlane:
Having a map book, and using it, is important in my opinion. I’ve got the Phillips Navigator one.I rely on my satnav for on-route guidance, but every time I set off to go somewhere I don’t know the route for, I look over the route in my map book first and compare it to the route the satnav wants me to take. 9/10 times they are the same
Also, if you miss a turning, do you blindly trust your satnav to unf**k you, or do you find somewhere to pull over and check the map? I’ve blindly trusted it before, and ended up doing a loop around a tiny one-way system that had me pouring so much sweat I looked like I’d been standing in the rain. It was doable, sure, but what I should have done is pull over, check the map and I would have seen that if I’d gone only a little bit further on I’d have come to a big roundabout and could have just looped around without any drama, but the satnav wanted me back on the route in the shortest distance possible.
I’ll stop rambling in a minute, I promise!
My final point is that reading a map is easy, if you’re used to it. When I was young I went through the whole Beavers and Scouts thing, so got used to reading a map. When I started driving, I’d not read a map for about 13 years or so and it’s not half as easy when you’re rusty, you’re in charge of a lorry that you can only take down certain roads, it’s dark/raining/both - so it pays to get used to it so that it’s natural because in this job, the only time you will absolutely need to read a map is when you’re up [zb] creek.
agree so much!
I use all 3 (google maps, sat-nav and map)…
I got ‘caught out’ by the sat nav a couple of times sending me down roads that yes can be done with an artic but boy would I much prefer not to do it!!!
an example only last week…I made a mistake, I checked the route that the sat nav gave me before departing…looked good to me, however I was not familiar with the area and did not take the time to memorise ok roads and not ok roads etc…
I departed, the sat nav for some strange reason (I now think it may be because it lost the GPS signal or ‘got confused’ slightly, this can happen, it thinks you are on one road when you are on the one next to it! usually when you are stationary or going slow) it re-mapped the route!
as it was the bank holiday saturday it was ‘very busy’ and I could not see a spot where to stop to check the new route it gave me…
It told me to go down an A road so I thought hopefully should be ok as it’s an ‘A’ road…
well yes I got the artic down the A road ok but it was one of the tightest A roads out there (very much like North Wales near Snowdonia where I’ve been the day before) and the camber was not great in parts of it, I had bits by the canals (I travelled from Wisbech going down south-west, it was the A1101 it took me down on) and bendy bits etc. I did it mostly at 40mph overall (a mixture of 30 to 60), I had to concentrate quite hard on most of it and I hated it, the thing lasted for miles! hahahahaha I have to say I am not that experienced so maybe it was good exercise LOL
The time before that it was when there was a simple and logical way to go (this was in London near Canning town) and the blasted thing got me down one residential road so tight it is a miracle I did not take a car away with my trailer HAHAHAHA, the road did look just enough wide to go down to so I went, but as I went it got tighter HAHAHAHA made it out safely without touching a vehicle or pedestrian but still there was a MUCH easier way to go!!!
I have been before unsure of where to go in London and to be honest i stop and check my map if i am ‘very worried’ even though it may be a double yellow etc I’d rather do that then find myself stuck in front of a low bridge! but of course it is much better ‘not’ to be in that situation to begin with so maps are MY BEST FRIEND 
wrighty1:
Are you for real! Carry spare fuses plus being an Actros it has 4 available outlets, I do have a Phillips map just never had the need to use it. I love the way some people refuse to embrace technology that is there to make your life easier and put down those that do use it.
Yes actually I do carry spare fuses and other tools. My comment on the tech wasn’t to put you or anybody else down. Just what I thought was a valid point. Also I however aren’t driving an actros, merely and old shed so stuck with 1 outlet and wish I had a few more.
wrighty1:
I love the way some people refuse to embrace technology that is there to make your life easier and put down those that do use it.Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
The people who end up having problems are those who don’t just use modern tech but come to rely on it being accurate and must be obeyed.
Luckily i’ve been driving long enough that i seldom need the thing, and i use it 99% of the time just for its live traffic feature…at which it is a invaluable and worthy successor to the original Trafficmaster YQ unit, which i sorely missed for a number of years when TM stopped transmitting 
Sat navs are great as a pocket street sized atlas of the country, invaluable to help you locate a new address in the final approach stages, very good for checking which side of a town an address is so you can plan your approach.
Superb machine to have running as you drive along, great for spotting hidden turnings, confirming the current speed limit and possible camera locations, brilliant for negotiating unsigned roundabouts and unnamed roads which are still a feature of many industrial urban areas.
What sat nav should never be used for IMHO is for a lorry driver to plan their actual route, that is what a lorry driver does with a map in front of them, if the sat nav confirms the route then great, if it doesn’t no doubt it will at some point when it recalculates when it’s naughty child operator doesn’t do as its told
As for traffic spotting, the problem with the sat nav is that it will only tell you of traffic on the programmed route, in the real world you are better off with it on Traffic only (if sat nav supports this function) because it takes seconds to scan your whole route at any time during your journey, and hold ups on a parallel or crossing route may well have an effect on the route you are on but not yet showing, forewarned is forearmed.
Lastly its not always the sat navs alternative routes round hold ups that are the best option, cos everyone else will be doing as aunty satnav tells them, you need lateral thinking and the idea in your head of where you are so you make quick decisions and beat a path of least resistance.
I’m not going to knock satnav users as such, but i suggest this technology can be better used as an assistant not by treating it directions as gospel.
Juddian:
wrighty1:
I love the way some people refuse to embrace technology that is there to make your life easier and put down those that do use it.Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
The people who end up having problems are those who don’t just use modern tech but come to rely on it being accurate and must be obeyed.
Luckily i’ve been driving long enough that i seldom need the thing, and i use it 99% of the time just for its live traffic feature…at which it is a invaluable and worthy successor to the original Trafficmaster YQ unit, which i sorely missed for a number of years when TM stopped transmitting
Sat navs are great as a pocket street sized atlas of the country, invaluable to help you locate a new address in the final approach stages, very good for checking which side of a town an address is so you can plan your approach.
Superb machine to have running as you drive along, great for spotting hidden turnings, confirming the current speed limit and possible camera locations, brilliant for negotiating unsigned roundabouts and unnamed roads which are still a feature of many industrial urban areas.What sat nav should never be used for IMHO is for a lorry driver to plan their actual route, that is what a lorry driver does with a map in front of them, if the sat nav confirms the route then great, if it doesn’t no doubt it will at some point when it recalculates when it’s naughty child operator doesn’t do as its told
As for traffic spotting, the problem with the sat nav is that it will only tell you of traffic on the programmed route, in the real world you are better off with it on Traffic only (if sat nav supports this function) because it takes seconds to scan your whole route at any time during your journey, and hold ups on a parallel or crossing route may well have an effect on the route you are on but not yet showing, forewarned is forearmed.
Lastly its not always the sat navs alternative routes round hold ups that are the best option, cos everyone else will be doing as aunty satnav tells them, you need lateral thinking and the idea in your head of where you are so you make quick decisions and beat a path of least resistance.
I’m not going to knock satnav users as such, but i suggest this technology can be better used as an assistant not by treating it directions as gospel.
I understand what you’re saying but by using Google maps alongside a Sat nav I manage to get by and use my judgement. It always annoys the wife when I take a different direction to Sat nav.
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
Fair enough about Goolie maps, though on a smart phone the scale will leave much to be desired, but can you get bridge heights to show on them.
Juddian:
Fair enough about Goolie maps, though on a smart phone the scale will leave much to be desired, but can you get bridge heights to show on them.
If you tap on the 3 bars in the top left corner and scroll down there is a button which will show low bridges.
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
