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
I remember phoning a drop once as i couldn’t find it on my A-Z … spoke to this girl and asked if i could get directions … her reply " Oh - I don’t know how to get here" … when I asked how she got to work “Oh my Dad drops me off every day … I don’t use my car to come to work” .
Eventually she got a guy from the factory to come to the phone to give me directions
I only use sat nav to for when I’m close to site or farm but I always look at map write directions down and follow them not a keen lover of a sat nav they can get you in some tricky situations if you haven’t got a truck one
My transport manager always says use sat nav will get you there the fastest way but I never do maybe fastest way in a car not a 55 foot artic
He wont be saving much fuel when youre following your sat nav up to a low bridge and realise after checking the map that the only diversion is 20 miles round!
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.
Surely anybody could find ‘any’ delivery point, simply by using that well known skill of asking! When doing the multi drop (in my early years) I spent most of my day asking how to get from one drop to the next! Admittedly most people only knew ‘the front door’ which normally turned out to be nowhere near the goods in point, so had to ask how to get there! We used to do some burger joint (many moons ago) that was in the Arndale Center in Manchester so didn’t really have a ‘front door’. Get to Manchester city center, ask where said shopping center was, get there, ask where the delivery point was (Great British Burgers iirc) then ask where the lift was, then which floor was needed and then ask which door it was…then ask some little runt where he wanted the goods…peice of ■■■■! After a few weeks and after having learnt all the drops, you could save an hour cuz you knew where to go!
NotBad4AYoungLad:
He wont be saving much fuel when youre following your sat nav up to a low bridge and realise after checking the map that the only diversion is 20 miles round!
Exactly that’s why I don’t follow it I have a Phillips navigator truck map my best ever purchase better than any sat nav
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.
Surely anybody could find ‘any’ delivery point, simply by using that well known skill of asking! When doing the multi drop (in my early years) I spent most of my day asking how to get from one drop to the next! Admittedly most people only knew ‘the front door’ which normally turned out to be nowhere near the goods in point, so had to ask how to get there! We used to do some burger joint (many moons ago) that was in the Arndale Center in Manchester so didn’t really have a ‘front door’. Get to Manchester city center, ask where said shopping center was, get there, ask where the delivery point was (Great British Burgers iirc) then ask where the lift was, then which floor was needed and then ask which door it was…then ask some little runt where he wanted the goods…peice of ■■■■! After a few weeks and after having learnt all the drops, you could save an hour cuz you knew where to go!
Great if the delivery point is a shopping centre or destination built with some concessions to access by big wheels, if the person being asked has an idea of how to wheel something bigger than a shopping trolley, knows the local bridge heights/weight limits etc then fine, 3 am is not a good time to try though, usually ends up with a bang on the head from the local lowlife or a chat with the rozzers asking what you were doing talking to the skirt stood on the corner!
Speaking to the delivery point is probably best option for the non map reading contingent. Also saves the embarrassment of looking a right pleb by pulling up at the local Co-op when trying to get to the RDC on the industrial estate on the other side of town.
I can read maps, but only because I chose to learn how. GPS devices were not available when I used to plan my cycling routes through the peak district. Compass and Map all the way.
Problem now is that you can do everything via your mobile phone. No one needs to learn.
The pupils at my nephews school are all issued tablets (the computer kind) to do their class work on. In fact, me and my wife were discussing the other day, how terrible our daughters hand writing has become recently. This is because they are encouraged to use IT rather than pen and paper at school. Sad really.
haribo4000:
In fact, me and my wife were discussing the other day, how terrible our daughters hand writing has become recently. This is because they are encouraged to use IT rather than pen and paper at school. Sad really.
This is another interesting issue… I am no longer making much notes on my uni, because we either go handouts or it’s all on-line. When I work, I work on the computer, I write everything on it…
So when it comes to written exams, I just simply can’t copy with the task of handwriting for two hours… And I am not the only one - if you look around, you see all students twisting their hands and trying to overcome the pain…
orys:
So when it comes to written exams, I just simply can’t copy with the task of handwriting for two hours… And I am not the only one - if you look around, you see all students twisting their hands and trying to overcome the pain…
I wouldn’t advise any of you to sit the Operator’s CPC then. I didn’t see too many other people taking the written paper, equivalent of sitting an A level school exam, writhing in pain because of the sheer hard work involved in pushing a piece of plastic up and down a piece of paper.
Harry Monk:
I wouldn’t advise any of you to sit the Operator’s CPC then. I didn’t see too many other people taking the written paper, equivalent of sitting an A level school exam, writhing in pain because of the sheer hard work involved in pushing a piece of plastic up and down a piece of paper.
I know, that every occasion to pick up on me is good for you, but this is just the sign of contemporary times that we live in. Off course as long as you posses the knowledge it is possible to write exam (as my grades show) but it is just uncomfortable, because you are not used to writing with pen any more.
But of course even if you do this all day long, you can have similar problems - ask any graphic artist you know about what problems he or she has from holding the pen all day long.
It’s just the thing that say 10-15 years back, everyone was making notes and homeworks on paper, today many students even uses laptops to make notes during the lectures… That makes your hand trained the different way. I am sure that I can type on keyboard much faster than vast majority of students from 20 years ago, but so far exams can be written only with pen and paper.
And, btw: how long is the essay for Operator’s CPC?
When I started, the boss told me to get a Phillips navigator map. Every driver had the same one, and all the office staff had the same. Ideal for finding somewhere because you knew the other person was liking atty same thing as you. On tipper work we did a lot of farms, and the Philips makes am awful lot of them.
