This might sound like a silly question but humour me! 
but how do you locate your drops!if its an RDC i presume the TM will tell you which motorway and jct ,fair enough but if its multi drop with a stack of delivery notes with addresses on them do you take pot luck and drive round the town or do you use A-Z street atlasās or finally use a computer mapping system . An ex -owner driver mate of mine had a laptop in his cab with microsoft autoroute on it!! 
look forward to your replys! thanks
One of our lads was forever getting lost so I suggested they put some sort of Nav sytem in his cab, turns out he had a laptop connected up to something or other 
Me ? I just bowl up and flag anyone down, makes my dayā¦
A-Z, Philips Atlas, etc for meā¦ābestā drop I ever had was 64 Trafalgar Squareā¦now I knew where Trafalgar Square wasā¦ 
but I think I went round it about 5 or 6 times in various ways to find 64. 
I sit down and work out where iām going before I start outā¦ mainly cuz my geography and memory are uselessā¦ But I can read a mapā¦
The truckers map will get you to any town in the UK, then either the laptop with autoroute, or a local A-Z from a garage is required to find the roadā¦
With Somerfield, like most other big chains I imagine, they have their own maps for each drop, but in just two weeks of delivering for āTredairā, to places like āCarpet Right, Weston retail park, Westonā 
, I ended up buying a dozen A-Zāsā¦
Luv
Chrisieā¦
A full postal address will get you near then just ask at a garage or better still a taxi driver or at the snap wagon which are a mine of usefull information. Industrial estates are easy to find and RDCās tend to have enough trucks painted the same colour, coming and going in the same direction to give you enough clues.
When you have been driving for a bit you get to the point where you have a pretty good idea where a lot of industrial zones are and if you keep your eyes open when you are on a new run you will pick up information up that may prove usefull in the future and if all else fails parcel delivery companies are great, drivers love showing off their knowledge just act humble and they will draw you a map.
Just remember not to panic about getting lost, you have to think logically to find places.
I get to the town im going using the truckers Atlas and then pop in a local garage and by a local streetmap, i still end up stopping and asking anyone and everyone though!, makes for an interesting day!
SatNav. Tom Tom Go. Fantastic. Havnāt been lost since I bought it a month ago and theyāve given me some right cack drops. Darwin Street in Birmingham springs to mind 
. One or two clients do print maps for you, but they sometimes bear no relation . The trouble with asking people is, they think of their car and send you
- Up a sidestreet, which if your brain isnāt functioning, you have to back out of, much to everyoneās amusment.
- Under a low bridge - you turn round before you hit it.
- Round the houses.
- On a wild goose chase
. - To a totally different address to the one you asked for
.
I get within striking distance with the truckers atlas and the switch the Sat Nav on. Fantastic . Also saves you wondering where your going to get an A - Z from a 4 in the morning .
Liberace,
I see on the TV that Dixons are flogging the TomTom Go for just over Ā£400. Does the TomTom allow you to avoid low bridges, [zb] narrow routes etc?
Also, where do you get hold of a truckers atlas and does it have bridge heights on it?
Sorry Jayhoe. Small one I know, but it had to go . Libbo.
If you have a look here then that ought to give you a bit of an insight into the Tom Tom . The truckers atlas is a tad expensive and can be picked up at most MSAās/ordered at bookshops/ found at a lower cost on Markets . It shows bridges on major A roads - theyāve done a top however many of the most hit ones and put them in, although it doesnāt show every one.
Liberace,
sorrry, I replied to your PM before I read this so please ignore the PM! Thanks for your help.
Did 12 years with A to Zs. Had an entire box full of them for everywhere. County maps wherever possible.
This year I bought a PDA with TomTom 3 after getting lost in Manchester then realising my Manchester A to Z was nearly10 years old and alot has changed.
Satnav is definitely the way to go. Even though I had pretty much every map in the UK, there are towns/villages not covered which Satnav does have.
I have TomTom 3 on a PDA. There are freely available low bridge and speed camera databases although theyāre not always that accurate as theyāre volunteer maintained. The best add on is a UK postcode database so I can enter a postcode and navigate to it. Handy for all those PO Box 3, Reading RG12 9NL type addresses. (Those who look up that postcode will get what I meant) that you routinely get on CMRs.
But the best thing about Satnav, no matter which one you go for, is being able to drie without having a map in one hand and having the quickest routes worked out for you. Makes it pretty much stress free and Iāll admit that even in areas I thought I knew well, its found routes Iād never have considered which have saved me alot of time; for example routing me down a minor A road where I wouldāve gone back to the nearest motorway. In fact, one day the other week I ignored it telling me to turn off at a roundabout thinking I knew better as I had some written directions the TM had given me. Took me 15 minutes to get back out of the mess Iād got myself in as a result. Needless to say I rewrote the instructions.
So which is better, Tom Tom standalone, or Tom Tom plus PDA?
Cheers
John
Where do you get the postecode navigator from Conor, that ought to come in dead handy .
The trouble with asking people is, they think of their car and send you
up a side street
it always helps if you tell them what type of vehicle your driving
Liberace:
Where do you get the postecode navigator from Conor, that ought to come in dead handy
try here liberace this is what i use on my pda with tomtom and the programme called ukpostcodes
thanks for the replyās everyone!! some useful tips there !!! the sat nav sounds the way to go! does it point out one -way streets,dead ends and the like!.unlike autoroute!! And why is it when you ask locals for directions they are always tourists especially in london!!
I found a great review hereā¦
globalpositioningsystems.co. ā¦ lprods.php
and extra downloads including Little CHefs, M6 Toll and exits, Strip joints ( ), weight restrictions etc hereā¦
poihandler.com/Logon.asp (look under Available POI - Points of interest)
Cheers
And why is it when you ask locals for directions they are always tourists especially in london!!
because they know london better than the ones that live there
kitkat:
The trouble with asking people is, they think of their car and send you
up a side street
it always helps if you tell them what type of vehicle your driving
Donāt matter. They can be standing looking at you and they still send you through weight limits etc .
Donāt matter. They can be standing looking at you and they still send you through weight limits etc
then you say can i get up that road with this vehicle