Newbie for HGV - HELP

Jason2304 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 18, 2006 Posts: 7

I have to pick a Sat Nav for my HGV drving father in law. The main function has to be ease of use otherwise he will be on the phone to me every time he needs help.

He has a short list of...
Mio - C210, C510 or C710

TomTom 510 or 710 (910 maybe over budget)

Indago

Sony NV-U50

My choice if I were buying for me would be the Garmin 310D with the TMC included.

He would like Bridges, truck stop and camera POIs but again these must be simple and easy to use.

From what I can see and read on here it might just come down to personal preference but I thought I would seek your expert advice anyway.

lbendlin · Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2006 4:04 pm Post subject:

Is a laptop based solution an option?
_________________
Lutz

Report Map Errors here:
TomTom/TeleAtlas NAVTEQ

Jason2304 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 18, 2006 Posts: 7

What would this look like?

How would he run the GPS for a laptop?

Crying

Please help!!!!

Jason2304 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jul 18, 2006 Posts: 7

Without wishing to knock what seems to be a very good forum I must say that I am disappointed with the reponse to my question. I first posted in the HGV forum thinking it was the best place to go. The response was underwhelming so I posted here. Again I was underwhelmed. I read on people's blurb at the bottom of their posts that they do not wish to be pm'd or emailed just post q question in the forum.
The average reply to a newbie question seems to be about 2 or 3 posts.

If we had some of the experience that you guys had we would not need to come on here and seek your advice.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I REALLY do need your advice. This is a genuine query.
I have to a SatNav unit for my father in law for his HGV.
Please give the benefits of your wisdom.

Thank you

neil01 · Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 12:35 pm Post subject:

As for HGV driving, I have a mate who is an HGV driver and often have to set up his PPC for him. I sometimes even join him and navigate for him.

Although a laptop based solution might be possible, mounting it in the lorry (in his case not always the same one) would be an issue - and that is before even thinking about the security issue.

Currently, he has access to CoPilot 6 on a MIO 168, and a TomTom one. His preference is for CoPilot - he has got used to its foibles and can work with them. Ironically, one of the problems with CoPilot insisting on sticking to the major roads rather than selecting a shorter route often suits him with his 40' trailer.

For an HGV driver, two options I would think as being essential are:
The ability to force a route (ie by using waypoints etc) - there are many situations where the route a lorry may have to take a specific route to gain access to the destination, which would be nonsensical for a car driver.
The ability to input your own POIs - not just safety cameras, but things like Low Bridges, truck stops etc.

Others may be able to suggest additional essential features. Width, and weight restictions would be useful - but so far, I haven't actually found this data.

As to responses to newbie questions, I do know what you mean, but in our defence, many of the questions asked have been asked many times before - the poster should have searched first!

You also have to remember that most of the answers are coming from people who are just forum members who have nothing to do with the site, and in the case of HGV questions, the best people to give advice work long hours and might not be the most frequent visitors to this site, and as such may be reluctant to get into a potentially lengthy dialogue with a new (often inexperienced in the use of satnav) as they don't really have the time to spare.

Unfortunately, I only have experience with CoPilot where I would consider myself to be pojficient in getting it to do what I want, and to a lesser extent with TomTom, which even though many of its features are better implemented, frustrates me far more often but possibly with more experience this may change.

As for traffic information - unfortunately this is an area where I wouldn't pretend to have even the most basic knowledge (yet).

Hopefully, other members may be able to give advice about the use of other software/hardware combinations.

Just remember that what might be good for one person might be bad for another. A particular hate for me is an on screen keyboard in ABCDEF rather than QWERTY - because as a regular keyboard user (IT by profession) it really slows me down, as my brain now thinks of the alphabet in keyboard position, rather than in alphabetical order.

Oldboy · Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2006 12:45 pm Post subject:

	PocketGPS
	Web