Now this may seem like a real noobish question, but I start my first class 2 job next week and getting worried about how to find my way around the country. (being as someone asked what BHP means, im not afraid to ask anything on these forums hehe)
OK, my idea is to use a Tom Tom sat nav, punch in my destination and go. But I have 2 fears about doing this.
1, id been seen as a total idiot, who does not know were he is going (not far from the truth tbh)
2, id end up going down some silly small country lane and causing all sorts of problems.
So do any of you guys use sat nav? or, do you use maps? and how long was it before u knew roughly how to get to places in the uk without looking at maps?
Comon, please be honest if u sometimes dont know how to get to places, or get lost easy, of disoreantated
Can you read a map? That isn’t a dig by the way but a genuine enquiry as we have members who admit they can’t.
If you can then the SatNav may be of benefit to you. If you can’t then do not go down the SatNav route, a SatNav is only a map and having one does not make up for lack of navigational know how. In fact it would get you into more bother than it would save you. Learn to read and follow a paper based map first.
If you can read a map and you go down the SatNav route, treat it as just another map, nothing more. Don’t just go with the out of the box settings either, spend some time sorting out the options and preferences which will limit the amount of unsuitable roads it routes you down. Check the route it chooses and don’t just blindly follow what it says. People do just follow the instructions without thinking and end up in awkward situations as a result, even striking low bridges because, ‘The SatNav told me to go this way.’ If you planned a route with a paper based map and arrived at a road you had planned to take to find it looked iffy, you would not take it and would instead choose another way. Do the same with a SatNav, in fact if you ignore a turning it will re-route for you, one advantage over the paper based map.
Too many people buy a SatNav thinking it will solve all their geographical confusion, it won’t, it’s not a magic box.
Do a little homework, get hold of an atlas and learn which major roads go where from the part of the country you will be working from. It’s a start and you can build your knowledge from that.
Yeah sure I can read a map I guess I could have the satnav as a backup, but plan the bulk of the journey using my paper map.
Its just, my real problem is remembering names of places and roads. If someone said drive to town XYZ, off the top of my head id have no idea were it is in the country. Looking at a map for a few seconds and id be fine. Its not rocket science. But its the fact i had to look were the town was makes me feel inadequate.
bacardi:
If someone said drive to town XYZ, off the top of my head id have no idea were it is in the country.
I bet there is not a member on this site who knows where every town in the UK is, so you wouldn’t be alone there.
bacardi:
Looking at a map for a few seconds and id be fine.
Yep, that works for me as well.
bacardi:
Its not rocket science. But its the fact i had to look were the town was makes me feel inadequate.
Well I’ve been driving trucks for over 22 years and I still look places up. You learn the major places quickly but you will always come across places you have never been to, or sometimes even heard of before.
cheers, thats cheered me up no end. to know its normal to look up places
Trouble is, my girlfriend you see. Say any road or town, and she knows it, she knows the roads to get there. She makes me sick. Im going to need this type of knowledge in my next job, and shes so much better at it than me. But knowing its fine to look up a place, and see which major roads connect to it makes all my fears vanish
" Have you checked she really is a woman"
A tad personal I think
I just use maps which can get expensive. I look up places unless I’m positve I know where they are, A regular drop for instance. When I first started, only a couple of years ago, I used to write down a list of roads and juctions in the order I would need them. That way I wouldn’t have to keep looking at the map just glance at the note pad to see what I needed next. I would buy a map book showing low bridges but most of them only show bridges on major routes so If you go down minor roads keep your eyes peeled.
Most of all ask, most drivers are only to willing to help.
Congrats on passing your C+E by the way.
Must admit, the thing that bothers me most when I get a job is not finding the town, but finding WHERE the drop is within that town. I can spend just as much time once I am in a town looking round for the building I am going to as I have actually getting there in the 1st place
When I was doing class 2 work I tended to just use TomTom - since I tended not to have time to spend 10 minutes working out a route… Worked fine for that - although it doesn’t work quite so well in an artic as it isn’t always so easy to reverse your route…
I tend to use the AA Truckers atlas to get me to the town and then TomTom to get me to the location. I find TomTom is ok as long as you review your route and make sure you are on A roads until you are as close to your destination as possible. Big advantage over local a-z’s is that you can fit the thing in your pocket and know you carry maps for the whole country with you !!!
Check your notes,in which order
you have to deliver,
check your route,from the maps
make notes of route(S) to the
customer (S),
check alternative routes in case
of problems when delivering,
Know the height of your vehicle
also width and weights, so you
are not caught out by restrictions,
me I LIKE THE GOOD OLD MAP
but the Navigation systems do
also provide a good choice when
it is the right system for the work being
carried out, SO long as you remember
also to watch the road and think for
yourself and not rely on a machine
as it is not always right.
I think most old hands have the map of UK hard wired into their brains and could tell you pretty much how to get from major town/city to major town/city without looking. If you think about it you really only need to know major routes/ motorways to make your first decisions and then maps to choose you exits and final approach. Get a low bridge atlas so you dont get into bother that way.
It takes time but its like anything, keep thinking and practicing and you will hard wire it too. I used to spend the first 1/2 hour of my overnight break working it out for next day and then jot it down forget it and get my head down.
laptops are great and a good investment because you can check how much mileage it is whilst you can play around with routes.
I use all three, maps, laptop and sat nav but only carry UK bridge atlas, London and Birmingham A/Z’s
A final thing is that when you get better at it you can then start to develop your get out of trouble routes for known trouble roads at peak times.
Its all down to a bit of work before you go as busking it during the day will generally cause you problems and stress you out.
Brilliant news that you passed your class 1 - well done fella!
I passed class 2 recently and have done quite a bit of work for local agys. Satnav is fantastic for finding ‘backstreet’ drops when you’re in the right area.
Long distance - I always plan my route with a map, I only ‘trust’ the satnav when I know I’m nearly there. To have a ‘town atlas’ for the places I’ve been would have cost a fortune!
bacardi:
Trouble is, my girlfriend you see. Say any road or town, and she knows it, she knows the roads to get there.
Have you checked she really is a woman, because that just doesn’t sound right?
Oi, watch it you! I resemble that remark! Err, bacardi’s that is, not yours
knight:
I just use maps which can get expensive.
Just a thought, but how many maps could you buy for the price of a decent GPS?
Not that I’m at all anti-GPS (I’ve owned one since before they had maps on them and just gave you your longitude and latitude ) but it’s a tool like any other and only ever as good as the person using it. See here for where Tom Tom tried sending me recently
Personally, I think satnav’s are for dummies. I’d be lost without my maps and will be still using hard back maps on the day I retire from the job. Satnav? Never. They’re unreliable and don’t give you a proper overview of where you are/want to be.
I hate to think what state the job will be in in 20-30 years time when all these new breed SWAs are running the show. The papers will be full of “lorry stuck under bridge/stuck down farm track” stories. What a [zb] carry on.
Personally, I think satnav’s are for dummies. I’d be lost without my maps and will be still using hard back maps on the day I retire from the job. Satnav? Never. They’re unreliable and don’t give you a proper overview of where you are/want to be.
There are definately a lot of dummies that use GPS - follow it blindly no matter where it sends you. Which is where you get the stories of bridge strikes and idiots going up farm tracks… Then again there are drivers that use maps that do exactly the same thing… …
As for them being unreliable and not giving you a proper overview of where you are - I would suggest that you try them (or at least TomTom) out before you say that. I’ve not had a problem with it in over a year of use - so that sounds like a user interface issue !!
Rob K any tool is only as good as it has been programmened
and the person who is useing it, ““WHAT i will say is MAPS will
never go away,and also before people state “” I COULD NOT
WORK WITHOUT MY SAT-NAV”” what you going to do when
it goes ape ,and before useing a sat-nav it would be better
learning – to read a MAP.
The Sat-nav programms are improveing and are a help when
used correctly,but they are not all ways right,
I use a Tom Tom, every day and would be lost without it. Set it up correctly and it will only use major roads to get to your destination. I do however, always check the route it gives me with my truckers atlas and make a note of motorway exits etc. I would say its payed for itself in the time saved trying to find spurious addresses and roads. You also get the benefit of a read out of your time to destination which can be a great help when the traffic office is on the phone ( dont forget to add an hour to the ETA ). Use it as a helpfull tool and they are great, but not as a complete replacement for a good map.
as has been said before learn to read a map then resort to sat nav
always take a large scale map with you 1 to 100,000 Philips at least when the box of tricks goes up the bugle you have some backup
