out of all the drivers on this forum I would think a fair few own a sat nav,i was given a mild telling off today because I did not know where a place was without consulting my map book which I had left at home,i was asked if I had a sat nav,i replied no I have never owned one and rely on map books,map books have never let me down yet[when I have them to hand] and I have been driving 36 yrs[27 on hgv]why do employers or customers assume you have a sat nav,if I had to phone a customer for directions when on previous jobs they allways tried to give me their postcode,again assuming I had a sat nav,i hate technology and try to avoid it,i do have a lap top and mobile and I manage with them although they have both been in for repair on numerous times due to me giving them a flying lesson but I am trying to avoid buying a sat nav,so annoying
Maybe they assume your not stuck in the dark ages 
beginning to think that myself,everytime I touch something like computers phones or whatever it goes wrong,technology does not like me,lol
The, I understand your dilemma, but the (dare I say) the hight end tomtom trucker sat nav are very user friendly.
But if your happy with the way you work your routes and feel you might need a sat nav get a cheap second hand car tomtom, just keeping in mind it’s a car spec. 
Apparently the world has changed, moved on etc.
I am with you, I do have a chav nav, but use it for speed cameras and do not trust it one iota, unfortunately my attitude is stuck in the same era and there are not many places left for me to find, as I am banned from most 
I need out of this modern world, it is not for me 
Truckman.
In fact you are the perfect sat nav lorry driver owner/user but you maybe haven’t thought of it like this.
Think of it as a handy pocket sized street map of the country only, nothing else, you don’t need it for directions (nor does any pro lorry driver), all you need is a street map that fits in yer sky rocket.
Handily any cheapo pratnav will do this, you proved you know how to drive a lorry and how to avoid bridges so lorry nav would be pointless for you, cheapest thing with a larger screen for your million mile lorry driver eyes would be plenty…i’m as technophobic as you but i find Garmins in particular quite logical to use, only use the thing once in a blue moon to search out a new delivery point other than that its on traffic search 
all the time…that’s another handy bonus for one you might not have thought of.
So you got in trouble for forgetting an essential piece of kit basically.
Forget the sat nav, you clearly don’t need it. Just don’t leave your map book at home you plum!
Would not leave the yard without one but then again I’m of that techno gadget generation. I always cross reference what my Sat Nav shows with Google Maps on my phone so I can bring up the satellite view which allows me to pin point exactly where a place is and the local landmarks around it. Plus its a great help with trying to find the right postcode because the one from the office is nearly always wrong. I think I’ve only ever used my AA map book twice.
Phillips Truck Map and Google Maps on my phone sort me out. I have got a Chinese HGV Sat Nav in the cab just incase but I have not used it yet.
I’m known on here for taking the ■■■■ out of the guys with the ott Astronaut spec sat navs 
… 
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A basic Tom Tom car one is all I need (not boasting btw just saying),… but even I would not be without one these days.
Mine busted last year, and I was without one for about 5 wks, and I did miss it. Even though I did go for about 25+ yrs without one previously.
They have made things much easier, so tbh mate I would urge you to get one if you are not doing the same runs all the time that is, you will find it useful I will guarantee it.
The bestest thing about my satisfaction nav is it shouts at me when I need to take a junction I would have forgot about as I was so busy enjoying myself singing my nuts off
And the fact I have no sense of direction
Go to Halfords and annoy the crap out of the staff by asking to play with a few, see which one seems to work on your wavelength, and then go and see if you can get it cheaper elsewhere!
Yes, I don’t like Halfords! 
I use an iPhone 6+ and Co-Pilot. Big enough screen and the app is way cheaper than a lorry-nav. (I’m talking Snooper, or Tom-Tom Truck etc… )
But I didn’t start driving till I was 52, so it was a good solution for me, as I didn’t want to carry too much gear around. I’ve jumped in a truck without checking the power supplies and got to the end of the battery on my phone a couple of times - same effect as truckman, so I kind of know how you feel, although I wasn’t spoken to like you were. You’re obviously professional in your attitude - it’s a shame they couldn’t come up with some help and a solution for you, like a spare office nav, or borrow mine from the car or something…
Truck sat navs now have a TV which is handy for trampers if you can get a good reception.
ADR routing ,live incident reports for road closures and accidents.
Blue tooth pairing so your private mobile phone is linked to the sat nav for hands free.
I don’t know why drivers argue about using maps only or sat nav only, or car sat navs for lorry driving which is OK until the old bill send you off route with low bridges and weight limits.
It is personal preference.
Before sat nav you would see the foreign drivers in UK Msa,s writting down locations without buying the A to Z books.
robroy:
I’m known on here for taking the ■■■■ out of the guys with the ott Astronaut spec sat navs
Eh what, I’m sure in another thread you said you were buying a £500 sat nav with DAB radio, TV built and dash cam built in…shows what I know.
I really don’t see Truckman needing an all-singing sat nav as it’d be an expensive brick flying out the window within a week, but having spent roughly half my (car) driving life without one and then with one, I’m with RobRoy and think they are a handy little tool just to make life a little easier. Years ago I suppose you could ask people for directions, but presumably that’s becoming less and less common and likely gets strange looks rather than an answer these days, that’s assuming you can find anyone who understands you!
Admittedly for the beginner I would say there’s more reason to buy one of the stupidly expensive ones. Not because they can’t read a map (hope they can!), but because in the beginning when learning the job, it’s handy to have a passenger who can just keep an eye on things like 7.5T zones and such, at least for the first year. That’s my excuse.
Btw Truckman - ask your office how they think you managed before all those GPS satellites were launched. 
In 1973 I took my first driving job with Ford Transit, I progressed to heavier transport in 1975. I drove all over the UK and then Europe, I moved to the USA in 2000 and entered the American truck driving industry in 2001, in all this time I have never owned a sat nav, nor have I ever needed one, if you really need a sat nav you need to find another industry to work in. Everyone on here has access to computers, use google maps to look up the location and make a note of it or better still, print off the map. The other better option is that most of you must have smartphones, these take away the need for a satnav, just open the map on your smartphone, enter the address and it will pop up, if you want you can get nearby and select ‘Navigate’ the phone will guide you to the exact location without the need for an expensive satnav. DON’T Waste you hard earned money.
My sat nav is awesome, it always agrees with my atlas.
Sat Nav are just another tool to help us do the job, nothing magical about them really, they don’t force people to drive down road that are to small for their vehicle, or under bridges that are to low, or onto railways, or into rivers. It’s the muppet behind the steering wheel who does that. And those that do it with sat navs are the same ones who did it before sat navs, but back then we didn’t have social media and everybody carrying a camera with them wherever they went.
I like them especially as a replacement for the small print in A-Z’s, no problem reading them in my 20’s then looking back up into the roads, but I think they’ve made the print smaller these days.
Radar19:
Would not leave the yard without one but then again I’m of that techno gadget generation.
I don’t think it’s a generational thing, I know many youths who hate techno gadgets and plenty of older people who seem to get every gadget going, my mother for instance, well into her 70’s fully computer literate and getting her telly to work would tax the best minds at NASA. One remote sets one thing up, another starts something else and you have to it in the right order or you go back to square one.
muckles:
you have to it in the right order or you go back to square one.
Like a Eaton Fuller 18spd when I was going up Birdlip hill towards the Air Balloon pub last week. Im blame my company for that, expecting a 28yr old to know how to use one
I’ve a start 25 Tom Tom and use it all the time. It helps for distance and time whether I know where I’m going or not!