alix776:
Just the truck nav and tablet should do it I use my phone instead of a tablet
What truck nav you use?
Aponia mainly as im on windows phone. Though when I was on multi drop I used copilot on an iPhone as it allowed me to put a days run into it. I still have the iPhone but just mainly run truck timer on it
I like my TomTom 6000 truck, the processor is a bit slow in reacting at times but it’s easy to use.
The cheaper ones from the likes of trucktables are just as good though, but you don’t get live traffic updates.
The TomTom 6000 has a built in sim that gives you this and it’s pretty accurate.
It’s a £35 a year overhead for the unit, but for me I use it just as much to stretch the job out as I do to avoid a jam.
It easy pays for itself within a month when I’m looking for a bit of overtime! 
I’ve not used any phone apps, so can’t comment on them.
robroy:
How is he ever going to acquire any skills and be prevented from becoming a mindless subservient robot.
Your point about gaining skills is very valid and I would always recommend anyone has a backup map (ideally trucker one), plus a basic sat nav and of course Google maps with streetview mode to figure out the best route. But as Evil himself pointed out, class 2 multi-drop is hard without one simply due to the number of drops and the way bosses often want a subservient robot rather than a thinker. Think too much and they tell you you’re paid to drive, not think.
In my experience, if you’re doing distance work then a map is invaluable and 90% of the time a bog std sat nav combined with eyeballs is perfectly good for the final bit. However, after a week of multi-drop using a car sat nav I had to take the plunge and ended up spending £250 on a Trucker 6000, as there are so many times you waste loads of time trying to work out ways around weight limits with a car sat nav that can’t understand why you can’t turn round and re-route back to the specified street.
Crucially, it’s still a tool and not the traffic god - that’s where the biggest problems come from me thinks, but I do agree that the price is stupid.
[To get around Evil’s evil plan to block Robroy from sat nav threads, I formerly invite his comment]
Traffic is over rated to be honest its not the essential getting to the destination is. The phone apps all offer traffic. Copilot is included from memory aponia is around 10 quid a year for traffic. I haven’t used it so cant comment on how good it is copilot is pretty accurate both will only connect to the internet to receive the traffic data and it is very low usage. The maps on both aponia and copilot store maps on the phone or tablet. Aponia covers android ios and windows phone both 8 and 10 I’ve run it on an nokia 635 budget phone before now and it runs just fine all day long on both 8 and 10.
trevHCS:
robroy:
How is he ever going to acquire any skills and be prevented from becoming a mindless subservient robot.Your point about gaining skills is very valid and I would always recommend anyone has a backup map (ideally trucker one), plus a basic sat nav and of course Google maps with streetview mode to figure out the best route. But as Evil himself pointed out, class 2 multi-drop is hard without one simply due to the number of drops and the way bosses often want a subservient robot rather than a thinker. Think too much and they tell you you’re paid to drive, not think.
In my experience, if you’re doing distance work then a map is invaluable and 90% of the time a bog std sat nav combined with eyeballs is perfectly good for the final bit. However, after a week of multi-drop using a car sat nav I had to take the plunge and ended up spending £250 on a Trucker 6000, as there are so many times you waste loads of time trying to work out ways around weight limits with a car sat nav that can’t understand why you can’t turn round and re-route back to the specified street.
Crucially, it’s still a tool and not the traffic god - that’s where the biggest problems come from me thinks, but I do agree that the price is stupid.
[To get around Evil’s evil plan to block Robroy from sat nav threads, I formerly invite his comment]
Ok, I can only speak from my own experience here, and apologies if I come across as blowing my own trumpet… but you did ask.
You mention multi drop.
On my last job I used to come over from Belgium with excess of 25/30 drops on, starting in Northern England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and finishing in Eire, (I had not been to Ireland previously, it was all new)
I can honestly say I never felt the need to buy an expensive truck sat nav, and managed quite well .
I also have never been or never will be a subservient robot that you mention, maybe because I had to LEARN the job when I first started, rather than have everything laid out for me. 
That was my original point about the o/p being new, how do you ever learn if led by the hand.
Just my opinion, and if nobody agrees so be it, I don’t really give one.
Feel 20 more press ups coming on here when Evil reads this.
Rob you must be around the same age as me and had to use a map or (God help us) actually talk to someone else and ask for directions. The youth of today believe everything electrical is good and will follow it blindly cos it’s a gadget so it can’t be wrong and won’t learn routes the way we did
eurotrans:
Rob you must be around the same age as me and had to use a map or (God help us) actually talk to someone else and ask for directions. The youth of today believe everything electrical is good and will follow it blindly cos it’s a gadget so it can’t be wrong and won’t learn routes the way we did
Yeh that’s right, but I accept you have to move with the times and all that.
I use a basic sat nav myself now (as a guide) but is following a gadget blindly and 100% dependently a good way to learn the job from scratch, that was my original point on this, as the sat nav v map topic has been done to death.
robroy:
trevHCS:
robroy:
How is he ever going to acquire any skills and be prevented from becoming a mindless subservient robot.Your point about gaining skills is very valid and I would always recommend anyone has a backup map (ideally trucker one), plus a basic sat nav and of course Google maps with streetview mode to figure out the best route. But as Evil himself pointed out, class 2 multi-drop is hard without one simply due to the number of drops and the way bosses often want a subservient robot rather than a thinker. Think too much and they tell you you’re paid to drive, not think.
In my experience, if you’re doing distance work then a map is invaluable and 90% of the time a bog std sat nav combined with eyeballs is perfectly good for the final bit. However, after a week of multi-drop using a car sat nav I had to take the plunge and ended up spending £250 on a Trucker 6000, as there are so many times you waste loads of time trying to work out ways around weight limits with a car sat nav that can’t understand why you can’t turn round and re-route back to the specified street.
Crucially, it’s still a tool and not the traffic god - that’s where the biggest problems come from me thinks, but I do agree that the price is stupid.
[To get around Evil’s evil plan to block Robroy from sat nav threads, I formerly invite his comment]
Ok, I can only speak from my own experience here, and apologies if I come across as blowing my own trumpet… but you did ask.
You mention multi drop.
On my last job I used to come over from Belgium with excess of 25/30 drops on, starting in Northern England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and finishing in Eire, (I had not been to Ireland previously, it was all new)
I can honestly say I never felt the need to buy an expensive truck sat nav, and managed quite well .
I also have never been or never will be a subservient robot that you mention, maybe because I had to LEARN the job when I first started, rather than have everything laid out for me.That was my original point about the o/p being new, how do you ever learn if led by the hand.
Just my opinion, and if nobody agrees so be it, I don’t really give one.
Feel 20 more press ups coming on here when Evil reads this.
I’ll let them slide, as I doubt you’ve completed the first set yet!
And I think we are comparing Oranges to Apples when it comes to our ideas of a mulit-drop round…
A lot of Newbies these days are going to get a start probably limping, as that’s more common than ‘back in your day’. 
And they are probably going to get given a round to cover another driver who’s off for one reason or another, and may not do that round again, as they’ll be moved to another round as required, cab limping as they go. The round it’self is likely to be constrained to a specific city area that may be completely unfamiliar to them, with drops just a couple of miles apart, so a truckers atlas isn’t going to be much cop to them when they want detailed street info, and I’m buggered if I’m going to buy a local A-Z for one days work! 
We also have to remember that councils have gone to great lengths these days to try and keep wagons out of the city, and this has probably changed a bit since your days on this type of work Take Portsmouth for example where they have basically divided the city into 2 sides and to get from one side to the other in a truck you have to go out of the city on to the motorway and back in on the other side, as they have weight limited all the roads running down the centre of the city. A standard car Sat-Nav is going to endlessly try to direct a Newbie through this weight limits and he/she will try one road after another until it finally dawns on them what the council have done. At the same time that planner is going to be on the phone asking what’s taking so long and asking why they don’t have a truckers Sat-Nav, as that’s pretty much expected now days. (Wrong that we should be providing that, but that’s the way it is. 
)
So what does the Newbie do, go and spend their hard earned cash on an A-Z that they may never, or hardly ever use again? 
Take a risk and get themselves either fined or stuck?
Or make their life easier and get an aid that appreciates the vehicle they are driving?
I can’t and won’t defend needing a truck Sat-Nav for the type of work I do now, but i can see and understand why Newbies who are likely to be unfamiliar with a certain city can justify having one, as it just makes their life so much easier rushing drop to drop within a few miles of each other and having to negotiate obstructions that a car Sat-Nav won’t care about, as I’ve been there! 
I’ll have 20 sit-ups this time please! 
robroy:
peirre:
Buy an ordinary satnav, use you eyes & intellect
then spend the extra money you saved on whisky & wimmin’I know you are joking.
I am
robroy:
but you do make a good point.
Thanks
robroy:
A basic sat nav with a bit of initiative thrown in would be a better option imo…
This is the point I always try to make albeit humourlessly, especially when the industry gets slated for the errors made by drivers blindly following the overly expensive satnav that’s using maps designed for bog standard satnavs
Evil8Beezle:
And I think we are comparing Oranges to Apples when it comes to our ideas of a mulit-drop round…
A lot of Newbies these days are going to get a start probably limping, as that’s more common than ‘back in your day’.So what does the Newbie do, go and spend their hard earned cash on an A-Z that they may never, or hardly ever use again?
Take a risk and get themselves either fined or stuck?
Or make their life easier and get an aid that appreciates the vehicle they are driving?I can’t and won’t defend needing a truck Sat-Nav for the type of work I do now, but i can see and understand why Newbies who are likely to be unfamiliar with a certain city can justify having one, as it just makes their life so much easier rushing drop to drop within a few miles of each other and having to negotiate obstructions that a car Sat-Nav won’t care about, as I’ve been there!
I’ll have 20 sit-ups this time please!
I think youre seeing the world as it really is there, regarding SatNavs. Question please: In the example you give of Portsmouth youre saying there are short stretches of road with weight limits and without “Except for Access” plates? Not a blanket ban with access allowed? Seems to me a way of enforcing a transit ban by camera? (Enter one side, leave the other:nicked. No excuse of dropping off a parcel half way). But its gotta increase CO2 etc as a vehicle having drops both sides of a ban will put in a big diversion, as you say. I have to ask how do operators expect their drivers to behave in that situation? Or is there some sort of exemption? Official or otherwise. ( Scuse my ignorance as I dont cover many UK miles).
Franglais:
I think youre seeing the world as it really is there, regarding SatNavs. Question please: In the example you give of Portsmouth youre saying there are short stretches of road with weight limits and without “Except for Access” plates? Not a blanket ban with access allowed? Seems to me a way of enforcing a transit ban by camera? (Enter one side, leave the other:nicked. No excuse of dropping off a parcel half way). But its gotta increase CO2 etc as a vehicle having drops both sides of a ban will put in a big diversion, as you say. I have to ask how do operators expect their drivers to behave in that situation? Or is there some sort of exemption? Official or otherwise. (Scuse my ignorance as I dont cover many UK miles).
To be fair I’ve only done the Portsmouth round a couple of times, and in an artic not a rigid, so trying to take a shortcut across to the other side never really entered my mind looking at the cut through roads! I’m also not that familiar with Portsmouth’s policy on HGV’s and suspect Blue Estate could answer their thinking better, as it’s his local city… But generally I don’t think overall CO2 comes into the equation, it’s probably just trying to keep it, and trucks in general restricted to certain areas.
P.S. I think the only exemption operators have with their drivers is ‘Don’t get caught!’
Evil8Beezle:
robroy:
trevHCS:
robroy:
How is he ever going to acquire any skills and be prevented from becoming a mindless subservient robot.Your point about gaining skills is very valid and I would always recommend anyone has a backup map (ideally trucker one), plus a basic sat nav and of course Google maps with streetview mode to figure out the best route. But as Evil himself pointed out, class 2 multi-drop is hard without one simply due to the number of drops and the way bosses often want a subservient robot rather than a thinker. Think too much and they tell you you’re paid to drive, not think.
In my experience, if you’re doing distance work then a map is invaluable and 90% of the time a bog std sat nav combined with eyeballs is perfectly good for the final bit. However, after a week of multi-drop using a car sat nav I had to take the plunge and ended up spending £250 on a Trucker 6000, as there are so many times you waste loads of time trying to work out ways around weight limits with a car sat nav that can’t understand why you can’t turn round and re-route back to the specified street.
Crucially, it’s still a tool and not the traffic god - that’s where the biggest problems come from me thinks, but I do agree that the price is stupid.
[To get around Evil’s evil plan to block Robroy from sat nav threads, I formerly invite his comment]
Ok, I can only speak from my own experience here, and apologies if I come across as blowing my own trumpet… but you did ask.
You mention multi drop.
On my last job I used to come over from Belgium with excess of 25/30 drops on, starting in Northern England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and finishing in Eire, (I had not been to Ireland previously, it was all new)
I can honestly say I never felt the need to buy an expensive truck sat nav, and managed quite well .
I also have never been or never will be a subservient robot that you mention, maybe because I had to LEARN the job when I first started, rather than have everything laid out for me.That was my original point about the o/p being new, how do you ever learn if led by the hand.
Just my opinion, and if nobody agrees so be it, I don’t really give one.
Feel 20 more press ups coming on here when Evil reads this.
I’ll let them slide, as I doubt you’ve completed the first set yet!
And I think we are comparing Oranges to Apples when it comes to our ideas of a mulit-drop round…
A lot of Newbies these days are going to get a start probably limping, as that’s more common than ‘back in your day’.So what does the Newbie do, go and spend their hard earned cash on an A-Z that they may never, or hardly ever use again?
Take a risk and get themselves either fined or stuck?
Or make their life easier and get an aid that appreciates the vehicle they are driving?I can’t and won’t defend needing a truck Sat-Nav for the type of work I do now, but i can see and understand why Newbies who are likely to be unfamiliar with a certain city can justify having one, as it just makes their life so much easier rushing drop to drop within a few miles of each other and having to negotiate obstructions that a car Sat-Nav won’t care about, as I’ve been there!
I’ll have 20 sit-ups this time please!
Ok, I’ve heard your evidence on behalf of the defence,
After careful consideration, … I have come to the conclusion that you may have a point.
However it all boils down to the individual new driver, if he is totally 100% reliant on those things, without supplementing it’s instructions with even a modicum of his own brain power (you can not argue that point that a vast amount do just that) he will end up joining the ranks of the robots and the ■■■■ poor , instead of developing the required knowledge and skill to become an efficient, competent and capable trucker (like wot I am 
)
Just because some ways practiced ‘back in the day’ are old fashioned and dated does not make them wrong when you are learning a new job/career.
The thing I will agree with you on is if these co.s just ‘expect’ you 
as you say, to have one of those overpriced abominations they should have to supply them… end of no argument.
Again being an old style trucker that would be the stance I would take, and if everybody stuck tog…oh ■■■■ it ! wasting my time and breath on that one.
Evil8Beezle:
Franglais:
I think youre seeing the world as it really is there, regarding SatNavs. Question please: In the example you give of Portsmouth youre saying there are short stretches of road with weight limits and without “Except for Access” plates? Not a blanket ban with access allowed? Seems to me a way of enforcing a transit ban by camera? (Enter one side, leave the other:nicked. No excuse of dropping off a parcel half way). But its gotta increase CO2 etc as a vehicle having drops both sides of a ban will put in a big diversion, as you say. I have to ask how do operators expect their drivers to behave in that situation? Or is there some sort of exemption? Official or otherwise. (Scuse my ignorance as I dont cover many UK miles).To be fair I’ve only done the Portsmouth round a couple of times, and in an artic not a rigid, so trying to take a shortcut across to the other side never really entered my mind looking at the cut through roads!
P.S. I think the only exemption operators have with their drivers is ‘Don’t get caught!’
Ta, for answer. I know that when entering a lot of weight restrictions in France youre only likely to be "nabbed" there and then, so you argue your case and show relevant delivery / pick-up notes. Normally no problems if you need access. Guess its gotta be a different story if an envelope drops on the mat with a photo in it.
robroy:
Evil8Beezle:
robroy:
Ok, I can only speak from my own experience here, and apologies if I come across as blowing my own trumpet… but you did ask.You mention multi drop.
On my last job I used to come over from Belgium with excess of 25/30 drops on, starting in Northern England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and finishing in Eire, (I had not been to Ireland previously, it was all new)
I can honestly say I never felt the need to buy an expensive truck sat nav, and managed quite well .
I also have never been or never will be a subservient robot that you mention, maybe because I had to LEARN the job when I first started, rather than have everything laid out for me.That was my original point about the o/p being new, how do you ever learn if led by the hand.
Just my opinion, and if nobody agrees so be it, I don’t really give one.
Feel 20 more press ups coming on here when Evil reads this.
I’ll let them slide, as I doubt you’ve completed the first set yet!
And I think we are comparing Oranges to Apples when it comes to our ideas of a mulit-drop round…
A lot of Newbies these days are going to get a start probably limping, as that’s more common than ‘back in your day’.So what does the Newbie do, go and spend their hard earned cash on an A-Z that they may never, or hardly ever use again?
Take a risk and get themselves either fined or stuck?
Or make their life easier and get an aid that appreciates the vehicle they are driving?I can’t and won’t defend needing a truck Sat-Nav for the type of work I do now, but i can see and understand why Newbies who are likely to be unfamiliar with a certain city can justify having one, as it just makes their life so much easier rushing drop to drop within a few miles of each other and having to negotiate obstructions that a car Sat-Nav won’t care about, as I’ve been there!
I’ll have 20 sit-ups this time please!
Ok, I’ve heard your evidence on behalf of the defence,
After careful consideration,However it all boils down to the individual new driver, if he is totally 100% reliant on those things, without supplementing it’s instructions with even a modicum of his own brain power (you can not argue that point that a vast amount do just that) he will end up joining the ranks of the robots and the ■■■■ poor
Just because some ways practiced ‘back in the day’ are old fashioned and dated does not make them wrong when you are learning a new job/career.
The thing I will agree with you on is if these co.s just ‘expect’ you
Again being an old style trucker that would be the stance I would take, and if everybody stuck tog…oh [zb] it ! wasting my time and breath on that one.
Good, I’m glad I’ve made my point!
All I’m asking is that Newbies starting out doing localised mulit-drop should be cut some slack with regards getting a Truckers Sat-Nav…
I’m in no way defending the generally need to have a truckers Sat-Nav, as most of us on here do work that’s mainly trunk roads, ending in a mile or 2 of smaller roads getting to the drop, so we only really need to suss out those last few miles…
Obviously you need to use your intelligence, as even with a dedicated truckers Sat-Nav, it will quite happily try and send you down roads and routes into places that you haven’t got a hope of getting an artic in. Often with a far easy route that’s just a mile or so longer…
So you should never switch off no matter what type of Sat-Nav you have, just don’t be so hard on the Newbies doing localised multi-drop please Pops.
Aponia Truck on Android (Hudl 2 tablet and LG G4 phone) is an excellent satnav and I purchased it whilst it was 60% off.
As it happens it’s on the same offer again at the moment aponia.com/en/e-shop/truck-navigation.
My only niggle with it compared to my old TomTom car satnav is the menu system takes a little bit of getting used to, I don’t think it’s quite as intuitive as the old TT’s were (can’t compare it to the newer TT’s as I’ve not had one)
As with any “ROUTING AID” don’t rely solely on it and follow it blindly, use it in conjunction with an up to date truckers atlas (the ones with bridge heights) and google maps if you have the mobile data. Also imo a London AtoZ is a must if you have to go anywhere near that godforsaken ■■■■ hole (if you lose signal due to high buildings you’d be right royally screwed without the AtoZ backup)
Evil8Beezle:
just don’t be so hard on the Newbies doing localised multi-drop please Pops.
Oh all right then I won’t
(I do help newbies all the time btw )
So just you keep being my calming influence…son
After all this I am going to borrow one of these things to see what the attraction is, maybe I am being too harsh on you guys who buy them and it could maybe revolutionise my life, who knows. (although I doubt it)
My mate bought one on approval, tried it for a week, and took it back for a basic one with his 220 quid back in his pocket, said he did not need to be lead by the hand, but I’ll keep an open mind.
robroy:
After all this I am going to borrow one of these things to see what the attraction is.
I really wouldn’t bother, as you won’t see the point of them as it’s not going to help a lot in the type of work you do. I suspect it may actually make things worse, as mine is far from perfect. It’s certain at 13’ I shouldn’t go under a 14’ bridge on the A36.
I really don’t need mine in the job I do now, and as I said before I just use it now for the live traffic…
So being relatively new to this and being 3 months into my first job doing multi drop I’ve found the TT6000 really good although as said it can be a bit slow, I also use google maps so give me streetview of where I’m delivering to so I don’t need to be searching for it when I get there. I do have a trucker atlas but have to say I rarely use it, being 49 years old and a newbie I like to embrace modern technology if it’s going to help me although dare I say it common sense tends to help. Anyway 3 months in and no disasters so far just the odd housing estate being thrown in as the fastest route but we live and learn