The other day i attended a DCPC course and was astounded to find that out of the ten drivers that attended 3 of them could not read a map book! Is it me or is there a new breed of drivers coming through that can’t think for themselves unless they have a computer to tell them?
You don’t need to, the job is so simple nowadays any idiot can do it, an Iphone and a licence and off you go.
mike68:
You don’t need to, the job is so simple nowadays any idiot can do it, an Iphone and a licence and off you go.
You mean it’s possible to afford an iphone working in this job?
“well officer, to be perfectly honest I DO know how to drive and there are no mechanical faults, I’m just waiting for google streetview to refresh then I can go another 10 yards before having to stop and wait again”
Was talking to my Transport manager about it the other day and he told me of a driver that had his cab broken into in Manchester and his sat nav was stolen. the driver asked could someone come out in a van to rescue him as he did not know how to get to his next delivery! 
Technology is a great thing BUT would never leave the yard with out a good map(preferably my AA truckers map)
I phone / I pad / sat navs etc are really handy and do have there place BUT what happens when you loose signal !
Can’t beat a paper map and some common seance !
uptomydiff:
Was talking to my Transport manager about it the other day and he told me of a driver that had his cab broken into in Manchester and his sat nav was stolen. the driver asked could someone come out in a van to rescue him as he did not know how to get to his next delivery!
Is the TM an ex driver by any chance 
I think I’ll take the Duke of Edinburgh’s line on this one.
“They should bloody well learn how to read a map!”
Fallmonk:
Technology is a great thing BUT would never leave the yard with out a good map(preferably my AA truckers map)
I phone / I pad / sat navs etc are really handy and do have there place BUT what happens when you loose signal !
Can’t beat a paper map and some common seance !
+1
i only use google if my map doesnt have the road name listed and even then to find out where it is then update my map with a pen and use that instead. worst case scenario, google the recipients phone number and ask them for directions (following on my map as they tell me)
plus maps dont leave an ugly ring on the windscreen 
scanny77:
Fallmonk:
plus maps dont leave an ugly ring on the windscreen
nor two hairy cheek prints either side hopefully… 
Thats a bit worrying when HGV licence holders can’t read a map, good news for those wondering if the supposed shortage of drivers will come about…seems it already has.
I’ve got a truck sat-nav, cant remember last time I used it. Much prefer to look at a map & plan route.
I love maps, when I was a kid I could spend hours studying an Ordnance Survey map, even of somewhere I had never been to, watching how the railways weaved through the contours, looking at the tiny villages and hamlets, the churches with their spires and steeples, the youth hostels I hoped to visit one day.
I got told off once during a rained-off playtime when I was about 7 or 8 because I had taken an Ordnance Survey map into the school hall instead of the more usual book, the teacher said “nobody could spend 20 minutes looking at a map”. How wrong she was.
When I was 15, I used to do something called “night orienteering” where you were taken to an unknown place in a van at around 9 p.m., let loose with an OS map and a Silva compass
and had to find you way to another unknown place using just map and compass.
I’ve taught both of my kids map-reading from a very early age, and every time we go somewhere new in the car I always show them beforehand where we are going and how to interpret it on a map, and they will have the map sitting on their laps during the journey.
However, I do predict that they will be the very last generation able to read a paper map.
I have always found maps very interesting.They give you far better knowledge of the area in which you are going than any sat-nav could do.I have never had a sat-nav or ever likely to have one.
Give me a decent atlas anyday.
I have a sat-nav too, and cards on the table, it’s the best thing that’s ever been invented since I started driving a truck, in 1986.
The essential point is to view it as an addition to map-reading skills and not a substitute for them.
I love maps as well Harry, I still ponder over them even though I no longer drive professionally. Have never gone down the sat nav route and had to rely on A-Z’s in the ‘old days’ which could be fun trying to find a back street in a town while keeping one eye on the road! Map’s give me a feeling of adventure and planning the journey is one of the best parts. I had some friends arrive from down country last week ( 150+ miles) and I asked them which way they came, neither of them could tell me any of the places that they had driven through as they just followed the electronic lady which I thought was very sad. 
When the satellite’s finally drop out of the sky we will all be stationary! 
Pete.
When i started off as a van driver i never had a sat nav, always map read and had an a to z of the area i was going. Thats how i got to learn the roads. Nowadays i have a satnav but cant remember the last time i switched it on. Use it in europe sometimes but always plan the route on a map and tell the sat nav which way im going rather than let the sat nav tell me, this way i can use it just to see how many miles ive got left to go! And also it doesnt try and send me through swiss on my way to italy! Sometimes ring my mate to ask him how hes getting on, his usual answer “wait there… (goes into tomtom menu, help, where am i) …” Dont get whats so hard about reading a map?! Its just plain laziness if you ask me, and if you rely on your satnav sooner or later it will get you into trouble.
My A-Z street maps got well thumbed and little notes added here and there, it’s suprising how many drops can be in the same neck of the woods and you can get pretty near to most of them just by memory. Sat nav seems to take that away because only a street or two appears on the screen so the neighbourhood isn’t there to see in the same way as a street map. The one and only time I used a sat nav I spent more time checking I was following the directions it gave and missed all the useful landmarks that could come in handy next time.
Easy to add a quick sketch of an estate or new road, weight restriction etc to a paper map too, instant update that isn’t always an option with sat nav.
Yeh i used to put a little mark on the map of where i was going, so i could open my map and see all the places ive been, sad i know lol When i first started learning the roads i went through maps like a hot knife through butter. It was always the double spread london pages that fell out first! Followed shortly by manchester! 
I played join the dots with all the drops on two street map pages, finished up with a load of ■■■■ spread across central Manchester
On our annual family holiday,I always sat in the front and navigated.
uptomydiff:
Was talking to my Transport manager about it the other day and he told me of a driver that had his cab broken into in Manchester and his sat nav was stolen. the driver asked could someone come out in a van to rescue him as he did not know how to get to his next delivery!
And? I can give you an address and I doubt without access to a Satnav, map or the internet you’d find it either.