I’ve just been reading a few chapters of the book I got for Xmas, about euro truck driving in the eighties. The author doesn’t explain though, how he ever found the pick up or delivery addresses on his travels around Europe.
So, this day and age of sat navs, I just wondered how drivers in the ‘old days’ found their way for the final few kilometres to that obscure factory in the suburbs of Naples, or that unmarked warehouse just outside Valencia etc.
Was it a case of stopping and trying to ask the locals for directions, or did you pay a taxi driver to lead you in, or was it some sort of trucker intuition that led you to the right place?
citycat:
I’ve just been reading a few chapters of the book I got for Xmas, about euro truck driving in the eighties. The author doesn’t explain though, how he ever found the pick up or delivery addresses on his travels around Europe.
So, this day and age of sat navs, I just wondered how drivers in the ‘old days’ found their way for the final few kilometres to that obscure factory in the suburbs of Naples, or that unmarked warehouse just outside Valencia etc.
Was it a case of stopping and trying to ask the locals for directions, or did you pay a taxi driver to lead you in, or was it some sort of trucker intuition that led you to the right place?
Stop and ask or at the nearest motorway services or local garage stop and see if they have a map of the local area, buy it, or workout a route to the street from your location and write it down, Done these methods during the nighties and even the naughties, as sat nav’s until recent years were not worth buying imo,
If I was going to a larger city that I was likely to visit again I would buy a map. For smaller towns I would look at a map in the last service area and memorise where the place was, or draw a sketch map. I’d say that “trucker intuition” did play a large part though, or at least the fact that in much of mainland Europe, much of the industry in most towns tends to be concentrated in the same area of that town. But time wasn’t as precious then, so it didn’t matter if it took a couple of hours to find the place.
In Italy I have asked the Carabinieri for directions, and been escorted to the factory by them, in Holland I asked in a petrol station for directions one evening and the bloke actually closed the petrol station down, put a “back in 10 minutes” sign on the door and escorted me to the place I was looking for in his car.
citycat:
I’ve just been reading a few chapters of the book I got for Xmas, about euro truck driving in the eighties. The author doesn’t explain though, how he ever found the pick up or delivery addresses on his travels around Europe.
So, this day and age of sat navs, I just wondered how drivers in the ‘old days’ found their way for the final few kilometres to that obscure factory in the suburbs of Naples, or that unmarked warehouse just outside Valencia etc.
Was it a case of stopping and trying to ask the locals for directions, or did you pay a taxi driver to lead you in, or was it some sort of trucker intuition that led you to the right place?
robroy:
Find it hard to believe he’s being serious to be honest, or is he on a wind up/fishing expedition.
It’s got to be a fishing trip, as it’s obvious that maps and common sense was the answer…
I’d image that back then “the good old days with manual gearboxes” a good driver was valued, as they earn’t their money and had knowledge that was valuable to their employer…
But with SatNav’s, that specific knowledge is almost gone, as it doesn’t matter who’s driving if the SatNav is telling them the way. However it’s not completely dead, as I’m better and more efficient at my job/firm than when I started. I know the best ways into my regular drops, I know what time restrictions a lot of them have, and as such I sometimes swap my drops around to suit. The SatNav doesn’t have a clue about this, and I doubt my TM gives it much thought either.
There you go Robroy, I’ve just slagged SatNav’s off a bit - Maybe I am your son!
robroy:
Find it hard to believe he’s being serious to be honest, or is he on a wind up/fishing expedition.
It’s got to be a fishing trip, as it’s obvious that maps and common sense was the answer…
I’d image that back then “the good old days with manual gearboxes” a good driver was valued, as they earn’t their money and had knowledge that was valuable to their employer…
But with SatNav’s, that specific knowledge is almost gone, as it doesn’t matter who’s driving if the SatNav is telling them the way. However it’s not completely dead, as I’m better and more efficient at my job/firm than when I started. I know the best ways into my regular drops, I know what time restrictions a lot of them have, and as such I sometimes swap my drops around to suit. The SatNav doesn’t have a clue about this, and I doubt my TM gives it much thought either.
There you go Robroy, I’ve just slagged SatNav’s off a bit - Maybe I am your son!
robroy:
Find it hard to believe he’s being serious to be honest, or is he on a wind up/fishing expedition.
It’s got to be a fishing trip, as it’s obvious that maps and common sense was the answer…
I’d image that back then “the good old days with manual gearboxes” a good driver was valued, as they earn’t their money and had knowledge that was valuable to their employer…
But with SatNav’s, that specific knowledge is almost gone, as it doesn’t matter who’s driving if the SatNav is telling them the way. However it’s not completely dead, as I’m better and more efficient at my job/firm than when I started. I know the best ways into my regular drops, I know what time restrictions a lot of them have, and as such I sometimes swap my drops around to suit. The SatNav doesn’t have a clue about this, and I doubt my TM gives it much thought either.
There you go Robroy, I’ve just slagged SatNav’s off a bit - Maybe I am your son!
Even without a sat naff i can still find my way to places that i have delivered to several years ago , because that’s how some of us old school worked we stored info, not just directions but we would use landmarks and other similar methods of recognition that where near to a drop or collection , plus some of us used differing routes, especially if there was a good stopping place on a certain route, as it wasn’t all in the companies favour, a decent coffee and a snack is just as important, because without driver it don’t get there,
tommy t:
Even without a sat naff i can still find my way to places that i have delivered to several years ago , because that’s how some of us old school worked we stored info, not just directions but we would use landmarks and other similar methods of recognition that where near to a drop or collection , plus some of us used differing routes, especially if there was a good stopping place on a certain route, as it wasn’t all in the companies favour,
I aint saying I don’t use a sat nav, I do now, but even today old habits die hard.
I do a lot of farm deliveries in Cornwall, I do not take any notice whatsoever of sat nav on those roads that are built for horse and carts, as I don’t want to end up in The Sun or You tube.
If I do a farm I write down directions in case I go there again, it still works for me.
I should imagine they did what the foreign truck drivers did here, and that is ask and if there a language barrier, show somebody the delivery notes and hope they could help. Even now with the days of Sat Nav, I’ve done several tours of Norfolk to show a bewildered truck driver the way to some remote packing station.
raymundo:
By an old art that is sadly missing from most lorry drivers today … Skill and the power of speech and common sense
It says a lot when a driver is fascinated by the fact that we used to manage without [zb] sat navs.
Find it hard to believe he’s being serious to be honest, or is he on a wind up/fishing expedition.
Where do I say about being fascinated etc ■■ The o/p asked how we found our way around so I replied to that only. And there was me thinkin you could read
raymundo:
By an old art that is sadly missing from most lorry drivers today … Skill and the power of speech and common sense
It says a lot when a driver is fascinated by the fact that we used to manage without [zb] sat navs.
Find it hard to believe he’s being serious to be honest, or is he on a wind up/fishing expedition.
Where do I say about being fascinated etc ■■ The o/p asked how we found our way around so I replied to that only. And there was me thinkin you could read
Wind your neck in bud, I was meaning the o/p, I was agreeing with you ffs
Merry Christmas, …no arguing today mate
Sorry chaps. Maybe the title of this thread is a bit misleading? I fully get you used maps to navigate across Europe, and still do. But what happened when you got to Naples or Frankfurt or any big city and had to find that small factory in the suburbs down small streets.
The only euro work I’ve done is with coaches, and sometimes it used to be a right ‘mare’ trying to read a map and find that small hotel in the suburbs of Bordeaux or somewhere, especially with fifty two pairs of eyes on you. One time, I went to Antwerp, and got totally lost trying to find the bleedin’ hotel. Ended up in narrow streets bordering canals with cars parked on the other side. Then, ended up on some tram tracks while trying to find an exit route. I was a gibbering wreck by the end.
I just wondered how you coped trying to find some factory or warehouse in a foreign country with just delivery notes and not speaking the lingo? Nobody has a map of every suburb.
Anyway, it was a genuine question and not a phish take. Merry Xmas
