Google proCab - they offer stanav upgrades showing height/width/weight restrictions, but perhaps not tight turns, narrow lanes info, is my guess.
Of course, technology is no substitute for common sense, Mk1 eyeball, or using the phone to call the drop/pickup to check on the best access.
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Cheer's ONB, I'll check that out after I've cooked these pork & apricot sossies :)
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It's not just Satnav. A few weeks ago I planned a route into rural Yorkshire, and carefully looked up the roads using Google maps. One road recommended by the route planner seemed direct, and I even printed off the zoomed in satelite image so I would recognise it.
In the event the "road" turned out to be a pot-holed dirt track. If I had been in a bigger vehicle it would have been too late to turn back.
I'm not sure an A-Z would have been any better at identifying the quality of the road surface
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>>I'm not sure an A-Z would have been any better at identifying the quality of the road surface <<
Very true Cliff - The problem this morning was that the sat naf had actually sent the driver down a narrow residential area where'as he would have been better orf keeping to the main drag.
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A lot of the mapping data used on the sat nav devices does not contain restrictions such as width or height. So it therefore cannot take this into account. But more and more info is finding its way into the maps.
Part of the problem is the space needed for the extra data - storage is now cheap but if they can cram a map into 512Mb instead of 1Gb they will to save a bit of money.
The problem seen my perro this morning is not really the fault of sat nav. The device used would have been aimed at car users and not lorries. The lorry driver was responsible for checking the route was appropriate. So yet another example of the user being to blame in my opinion.
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The lorry driver was responsible for checking the route was appropriate. <<
Ah! so there we have it - user error.
Living in Cornwall for the last 12 years, I've seen (and lived) in some very quiet area's orf the beaten track - until the sat nav came along that is.
I remember one Saturday afternoon, a quiet moorland village becoming akin to a Grand Prix when the A30 was bumper 2 bumper but - I'd have done the same years ago if sat nav was available then!
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My Tom Tom took me up the driveway to a rather posh golf club in Cheshire recently. I should have take the hint from the non standard speed humps, but I didn't get the message until I reached a closed automatic barrier at the car park gate.
The kids were most amused by the 10 point turn I then had to execute to get back to the main road!
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The kids were most amused by the 10 point turn I then had to execute to get back to the main road!
Even number?
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the A to Z was 'state of the art' and 100% accurate!
Not true! The A to Z contains a small number of deliberate errors, so they can track when people are plagiarising their maps. Strange but true.
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How funny that you should mention that Marlot!
We (inc. one ex-George Phillips cartographer) came to the same conclusion with regard to an OS map of part of the Cotswolds we were tackling today. According to the map section there should have been some farm buildings at a particular junction on our off-the-beaten-track route (close to the main arterial Cotswold Way), but in fact they were almost 1/2 a mile further down the green lane. Our man suggested exactly the same reason ? deliberate errors to ensure that copyright is not abused?
However, our combined 90-years worth of navigational trekking & walking expertise saw us through in the end ? hah...
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Always set a satnav to 'quickest' rather than 'shortest' - this avoids most of the garden path type of problems.
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The A-Z once took me down Sale Golf course once, well my mate as he was drivinng but I was navigation. I've mentioned this story before but the golders were not amused but kindly opened the gate so we could drive onto the course to turn round. Lots and lots of swearing from my mate for getting him stuck in a countrylane!
I blamed the A-Z but it was my fault for not reading it correctly.
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Whats this A-Z everyones on about, I thought that they were just street maps of towns and cities? - I've always used map books based on Ordnance Survey maps and they usually either don't list unmade roads or show dotted edge lines and other such give-aways such as "gated" or "toll"! We stayed in the country in Belgium last year at the end of an unmade track and to give it its due the satnav correctly highlighted it!
BTW the deliberate error thing was covered in one of those documentaries on mapmaking which followed the makers of the London A-Z, seems there are a few roads that don't exist except in their imagination!
Edited by b308 on 12/06/2009 at 21:37
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Perro
Don't always assume that lorry you see, with the satnav on the dashboard, shouldn't be there.
One of our regular deliveries is to Birks Mill at Sedbergh.
We have to stop at the top of Birks Lane and ring the firm to see if we are ok to go down the lane as there is no way an artic can reverse in either direction.
Last week I went there and had noticed a group of ramblers in one of the fields when I went down at about 5MPH.
Whe I'd tipped and was slowly picking my way betwen the two houses on the bend, letting my trailer wheels slide down the bank, as it is impossible to go round the bend properly, the same group of walkers were in a field close to me but I needed total concentration.
One of them shouted at me in a very superior voice 'You've taken a wrong turning' while her companions were all laughing at the site of this huge lorry 'stuck' in this tiny twisty lane.
I flipped!!
I switched off the engine and, as it's impossible to open a door, I sat and told them to walk to the mill at the end of the lane and see the firm that has premises down there.
I also explained that I had probably just delivered the baked beans they would have for breakfast the following morning in their hotel.
Can you imagine the stories that would have been told if I had just carried on?........Woman Driver, Satnav, stupid etc.
Pat
Edited by pda on 12/06/2009 at 21:51
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Don't always assume that lorry you see, with the satnav on the dashboard, shouldn't be there. <<
Pat, this is strictly between me and you - ok ... I've not driven a lorry for about years and I told this mornings driver to ignor his sat naf and to get back on to the main drag ..
it wasn't until I got back indoors that I realised the road I sent him down - had an infernal width restriction !!!!! :(
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We love people like you perro :)
Hope had has a 'narrow gear' like I have!
Pat
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We love people like you perro <<
I know Pat - what a wally! I did feel awful about it - praps he followed his sat naf after all in the end :)
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Sat Nav doesn't 'send' you anywhere. It offers route guidance. Obviously you can ignore the guidance and it will plot an alternative route. The problem here is zombified thickos.
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A lot of people programme their device for "shortest" route not "quickest" route!! and then wonder why they get taken down country lanes.
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I think its the default setting on them - I had it on mine last year and had an interesting trip right through the centre of Ghent... After finded out why I changed it very quickly after to a combination of quickest/shortest, slightly favouring quickest and have found thats a good compromise! The manual for it was rather basic and spent more time telling me how to take a photo using it than the differences between quickest/shortest... no wonder people have problems with them...
Edited by b308 on 13/06/2009 at 09:39
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my tom tom is set to quickest unless you change it yourself.
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As I've said before - I don't own a sat nav, but what I would like to know is ...
is it just another gadget?
I can understand a pro driver finding a use for one but - if I was gonna go from here (Truro) to say Fishyguard in Wales, I'd get me map out or have a butchers at Google maps - why would I need a sat nav to distract my attention whilst driving?
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Because it shows and tells you verbally when to take exits etc. in advance. So you don't need to glance at a map if it's an unfamiliar route. If you go wrong it recalculates the route.
I have mine check traffic and plan around delays too.
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Because it shows and tells you verbally when to take exits etc. <<
Ah! I didn't know that rtj - perhaps I'd better get back to my trailing Petunias :)
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Lorry drivers tend to use them for the estimated time of arrival it gives you which means you know if you can reach a delivery on time, or will need a legal tacho break before you get there.
I usually go out with at least 8 timed deliveries every day and I find this very handy.
We also use them to warn us of speed cameras on unfamiliar roads.
Another use I have found very handy is in dense fog, and even on local roads it is easy to get disorientated, it will tell you just how far that roundabout or sharp bend is away.
Last but not least, we don't know every street in every town :)
So it guides us into the last mile or so.
One problem I have with my Tom Tom is that I have it set to limited speed at 50MPH, which gives me a little leeway on arrival time, having a maximum speed of 54MPH and needing to 'water the wheelnuts' now and again.
But set like this, Tom refuses to route me on motorways and does try to take me across country, so we have many a good argument and he gets called a few names other than Tom!
He's a typical man and always thinks he knows best:)
Pat
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Lorry drivers tend to use them
No they don't, they think they're the spawn of the devil and should be hurled as far as possible...and i'm a typical man and swmbo knows i'm never right..;)
Selection of good maps, mk1 eyeball, common sense, knowledge and old school nous...exactly what you used for years before you bought that heathern monstrosity.
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Ah yes GB, but that's because all your deliveries are in towns and on to a concrete forecourt.
if you had to start living dangerously again and doing the job properly you'd soon be rushing off to Halfords!:)
He does lead a sheltered life, you know!
Pat
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I like my TomTom satnav too Pat. But don't be too hard on GB. I think he's quite old !
( ducks for cover )......
;-)
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all your deliveries are in towns and >> He does lead a sheltered life you know!
Tongue very firmly in cheek there Pat, good tease though..;)
Edit...quite old.....aaarrrrggghhh....
Edited by gordonbennet on 13/06/2009 at 22:09
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Well, here we go again - I've now learnt a lot about Tom, do we need to go to skool anymore I wonder?
When I was 'on the road', mainly driving Bedford TK's, Leyland Terriers and some awful dog of a Commer, I used to have multi-drops to the print & paper trade around London and the home counties, so I could do my deliveries with one eye tied behind my back but - when I got a new job I.e. a whole new set of places to find *then* Tom would have been absolutely indispensible to find places I'd never bin to before!
I like wot Pat says about being aware of sharp bends when vis is poor etc.
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tinyurl.com/n47n36
"Wrong house demolished in GPS blunder...."
Perhaps the worst satnav error so far?
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What about "wrong country demolished - no wmd's after all" ?
Edited by Cliff Pope on 17/06/2009 at 11:10
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Well, the US government managed to demolish the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade by mistake, of course. Outdated maps, you see. Yes. Perhaps GPS would have helped. I'm sure. Oh yes.
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