So I’ll be starting with a company as soon as i pass my class C driving test (hopefully next week :s) and i’m currently looking at buying a trucking sat nav.
There’s a sale on amazon for tomtoms where you get some of your money back (£30 when you buy tt5000 and £40 when you buy tt6000)
So what do you guys think, should I buy a tomtom while there’s an offer or should i go for a garmin/snooper or something else
Any sat nav recommendations are welcome!
Thanks
If a mod can move this to the transport technology section of the forum that would be great
Depends what you want to spend as a cheaper option you could get aponia eu maps are around 45€. Works across iPhone android and windows phone maps are stored on your phone so it’ll work without an internet signal.
Hi I wondered about this, is the aponia app reliable? Also does anyone still rely on maps and road signs, did this on my last trip, apple maps and keep my eye on weight and hieght restrcitions?
When I first drove C1s AZs was all we had
I realise that a “truckers sat nav” sounds like a wonderful thing, a nice security blanket protecting you from fines, and your lack of geographical knowledge. But unless you want the extra features like Bluetooth, and tv, etc that come with some of the more expensive models, the branded ones are just a very expensive way of wasting your time.
I would recommend one of the cheap jobbies, coupled with a truckers atlas, and google maps on your phone. Punch in the route to the Truck Nav, see what it spits out, compare that to the mental route you would have chosen if you looked at it on google maps, if they disagree its time to break out the Atlas to see why.
Yesterday was a prime example. I loaded up a guy for a run from St Albans to Streatham, Streatham to MK. He is a new driver, and follows his TomTom, so by the time it had taken him around the houses missing timed weight limits(un-necessarily) and taken him through town through some not particularly fast moving traffic, and then done the same in reverse coming back out again, that he kissed goodbye to nearly 5.5 hours of his driving time for the day, and I would have guessed had it not been school holidays it probably would have been more like 6.5 hours. I don’t mean to sound critical of him, just that if he was bit braver in himself rather than his sat nav, he could have comfortably knocked an hour off that time, maybe more. He ended up having a second tacho break and finishing rather late to boot, with rather high stress levels I can imagine.
They are great tools, but not the silver bullet that TomTom, Garmin, Snooper would have you believe.
I should finish off by saying I blindly followed a Snooper for 3 months when I started doing what I’m doing now, so I guess I really am no better, but I didn’t pay for it at least! you’d be amazed how fast your mental map develops as you start to put down the sat nav and engage your brain. I still use my sat nav, but all of the planning is cross referenced before I leave.
Take a look at the TomTom Trucker 6000 Lifetime Edition approx £400
It includes Lifetime TomTom Traffic and Lifetime Speed Cameras, that the cheaper models don’t include.
I would rather use a much cheaper app with a mobile phone or tablet as the screen resolution will often be much higher than a dedicated sat-nav. The screen resolution of dedicated sat-navs is rather low. It’s often difficult to find out the screen resolution of a dedicated sat-nav, maybe because the manufacturers know that it’s low and therefore not a selling point.
I currently use the CoPilot Truck app on my smartphone. One less gadget littering the cab and although it’s not infallible (hey, it’s man-made - if it was woman-made it would be perfect!), I think it’s good and is very customisable. I would never throw my truckers atlas away though. Diversions can confuse the poor thing…even when I tell it to calculate an alternative and tell it to avoid a particular road…
No satnav is perfect, and the cheaper models have the advantage when it comes to price.
However, personally I find the live traffic feature on the Tomtom Trucker 6000 worth the extra. Not only does it help plan around the jams, or plan stops to optimise breaks while traffic queues ahead ease, it is also aware of temporary road closures and re-routes around those too. You still need eyes and a brain, but as an ‘aid’ to sensible driving I’m prepared to pay the extra to take some more stress out of the job.
Different people’s brains are wired differently, and spacial/contextual awareness does not come naturally to everyone. That means navigation by gut feel and sense is a gift for some, but not for all. I’m not blessed, so II’ll take artificial aids instead.
Boss recently brought a Xgody to welcome me to the firm, I’ve been using it now for 2 weeks.
Thing drops me right off at the door step, even rural farms. Pain in the arse to see in the sunlight and has issues with low bridges, I’m 12"10 on one route I knew there was a 13"5 bridge, set the nav upto 14" took me under the bridge…
tommymanc:
Boss recently brought a Xgody to welcome me to the firm, I’ve been using it now for 2 weeks.
Thing drops me right off at the door step, even rural farms. Pain in the arse to see in the sunlight and has issues with low bridges, I’m 12"10 on one route I knew there was a 13"5 bridge, set the nav upto 14" took me under the bridge…
Other then those it’s [zb] hot for the price
Cheers for the link, I’m in the market for one nyself and this is a good price.
Just type trucktables in google the 7" nav there works great height weight widths etc , I often have 8 drops London no issues. 71.98 p had mine just over a year going well.
spacemanZ10:
Hi I wondered about this, is the aponia app reliable? Also does anyone still rely on maps and road signs, did this on my last trip, apple maps and keep my eye on weight and hieght restrcitions?
When I first drove C1s AZs was all we had
.
So just seen this aponia is as reliable as any other sat nav on the market.
It uses the same maps and you know it will work from when you down load it
I find TomTom Trucker 6000 the best on the market used in conjunction with a Phillips Navigator Atlas, I used this on abnormal load work for over a year and it never
gave me a bad route. it is expensive but you get what you pay for
