Hi
Do any of you guys have experience of using sat navs through UK & Europe, if so which is good, which not so. I would like coverage of EU including Greece (fat chance I expect) 
if possible. Are there any ‘truckers’ sat navs available i.e. low bridges, trucks prohibited etc…
Ian
At the moment I have company issue Tom Tom which is good but it stops in East Germany.
I though have my secret weapon which is a Becker Traffic Assist 7418(i think) I know it covers Eastern Bloc including Romania but will get a definate list and post for you it is a very good unit especially considering the cost. They are going around the £100 mark on e-bay.
Here are a list of countrys you may need to download it off included disk to a 2gb memory card:
: Austria, Albania, Andorra, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece (the Athens area), Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia-Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, United Kingdom, Vatican City.
I have been using a TomTom 710 (now superceded by TomTom 720) for the past two years all over western europe. The street level mapping is superb and it rarely fails to find an address. In Spain it does sometimes fail due to the huge amount of new developments both industrial and domestic - however I usually find what Im looking for on Google Maps then navigate to the nearest street listed on the TomTom.
I always use the failsafe system
it´s called a
map
I always check where the sat nav is sending me with a map.
As an avid anti-satnav man, I have always used a good map of the country but I always find the best way and most fun is ASKING!!
In Spain nowadays so many of the youngsters speak English, it isn’t a problem. I have also sat in a restaurant at Km61 on the N1 going towards Madrid where not one of the 5 guys in there spoke English but I got directions to where I wanted exactly. Much more fun and I learn a few new words at the same time
The real beauty of a sat nav which is used with a little common sense and alongside the traditional road map is the time and money it can save.
I used to have a cab full of A-Z’s of numerous towns and cities across Europe, quite often they would only get used once or twice a year as we rarely get back loads out of the same place twice.
Add to that having to try and drive and read an A-Z in a strange town with traffic coming at you from all directions and the Sat Nav wins hands down in my (humble) opinion.
TheBear:
As an avid anti-satnav man, I have always used a good map of the country but I always find the best way and most fun is ASKING!!
In Spain nowadays so many of the youngsters speak English, it isn’t a problem. I have also sat in a restaurant at Km61 on the N1 going towards Madrid where not one of the 5 guys in there spoke English but I got directions to where I wanted exactly. Much more fun and I learn a few new words at the same time
in spain twice the person ive asked for directions,has jumped into there car and took me right to where i wanted to be.
fantastic…
BEAR you love satnavs really you old goat.
Old people are always frightened of technology.
I use Autoroute on my laptop, I always go to different addresses as I am in removals, and it very rarely lets me down, but I like it because unlike Tom Tom and the like, it can show you a decent map when you zoom out, However, when the new Europe wide VDO Daytonis finally released I might get that as well
vdo will be lauching a pna that will do the new data aswell
Well dudes
I figure that it wont be to long a wait,
Before trucks are built with an integrated Satellite Navigation System
with the route being projected onto the glass surface directly in front of the driver (ie The windshield )
along with all the truck system readouts (i.e speedo, fuel, engine oil, etc etc)
and intergrated comunications.
As Standard !!!
Such a system is called “HUD” [ Head Up Display ]
(Already comes fitted to high end Car’s )
Sadly for old time truckers, the days of stoping for water (to top up the Steam Boiler) 
Have long gone, welcome to the 21st Century dudes.
Regards 2xQ
DoubleQ:
Well dudesI figure that it wont be to long a wait,
Before trucks are built with an integrated Satellite Navigation System
with the route being projected onto the glass surface directly in front of the driver (ie The windshield )
along with all the truck system readouts (i.e speedo, fuel, engine oil, etc etc)
and intergrated comunications.As Standard !!!
…all data-linked direct to the TM 
TC
Yep… 
DoubleQ:
Sadly for old time truckers, the days of stoping for water (to top up the Steam Boiler)
Have long gone, welcome to the 21st Century dudes.Regards 2xQ
All this technology can not be relied on, hence numerous articles in UK papers about foreign drivers stuck in weird places after following their satnavs.
Ah one says but you need to use common sense as well and therein lies the problem. We are breeding generations of drivers without common sense who are either incapable or too ■■■■ idle to get out of their cab and ask the way, this of course assuming that they have bothered to learn any of the local language.
3 months ago I made the jump from steering wheel to desk and at present doing the planning for 100 vehicles from Holland to Spain and I am amazed at the amount of drivers who phone up asking where an address is because the sat nav can´t find it not once does it occur to them to get out and ask 
. On occasion I have had to use the GPS tracking system to guide them in to addresses 
.
While all this technology may have its good points it has led to our having drivers with no initiative or common sense who are completely out of their depth the moment that technology can help them no further.
“no initiative or common sense who are completely out of their depth the moment that technology can help them no further.”
Bett you wont be surprised to learn this statement rings true in other transport modes that require
the application of “common sense” when technology fails.
I hold a Private Pilots Licence ( acquired before I became a poor trucker )
and am often ashamed to read in aviation publications about accidents which happened solely because
the pilot had become dependant on technology.
Examples include:
Aircraft not being aware of the chaos there clausing
as they infringe busy Airspace at Major airport
(due to entering wrong co-ordinates of waypoint in GPS)
Crossing English Channel (into French Airspace) after flying 180 degrees in wrong direction
and not even being aware of it
( as if a large geographic feature, called the OCEAN
is difficult to recognise, had they looked out of the window )
PS: Both the above incidents were committed by Air Crew making a flight under “Visual Flight Rules”
VFR rules mean the pilot commanding should at all times be in visual contact with the surface
( as recognising visual features on the surface and matching these to those expected to be seen,
should be there primary means of navigation )
and certainty not continue flight in any weather conditions that can be classified as unsuitable to maintain the visual reference.
So PLEASE
next time the voice on your SAT-Nav says “Turn (here)” // Look and assess before making that turn.
yep, been there. darn embarrassing.
not to mention the dangers of reversing out when the [zb] hits the fan
Another good tip (hopefully not teaching granny to ■■■■ eggs)
If you fond of entering the Postcode on your invoice/delivery note
into your GPS to find the destination
Don’t forget to call up “Map view” of the found destination
and make certain the destination matches the remainder of the address
(ie correct Town, correct Area, correct STREET)
As postcodes can often be wrong on invoices
Nothing like driving 50miles to the wrong destination to brighten up your day
regards 2xQ
Vascoingles:
Ah one says but you need to use common sense as well and therein lies the problem. We are breeding generations of drivers without common sense who are either incapable or too ■■■■ idle to get out of their cab and ask the way, this of course assuming that they have bothered to learn any of the local language.
3 months ago I made the jump from steering wheel to desk and at present doing the planning for 100 vehicles from Holland to Spain and I am amazed at the amount of drivers who phone up asking where an address is because the sat nav can´t find it
While all this technology may have its good points it has led to our having drivers with no initiative or common sense who are completely out of their depth the moment that technology can help them no further.
Would they fair any better with paper based maps? They don’t come with a dose of common sense either. I know what you mean though, I’ve seen drivers in our place saying they can’t go somewhere because they don’t have the full post code. Others who won’t turn a wheel until they have plotted every last centimetre of their intended route at least twice because there might be one of those nasty bridge things in their way. This from guys who are pulling a 4.0 metre trailer FFS. Whatever happened to getting on with it and looking at road signs? Then there are those who have bridge height maps and SatNav but will still sit in a traffic jam on the motorway because they have got a clue or are too ■■■■ scared to venture of those nice big roads that are blue on their maps.
DoubleQ:
Nothing like driving 50miles to the wrong destination to brighten up your day
You didn’t, did you? Go on, tell us that story. 
