Succeeding as a modern lorry driver – don’t depend on following a sat nav
Modern trucks, packed with tech but it's mostly up to the driver to suss it out
HGV driving. It's not easy, never was easy, isn't getting any easier and whatever golden era there was, is long gone. Technological advances in trucks have improved things behind the wheel, that's for sure.
They all got the auto boxes right eventually, most trucks are well equipped and spacious and most of them have enough power to do the job comfortably. Some are hobbled with a generous helping of eco-sludge (not the truck's fault) and the obsession with touch screens (some more than others) is questionable but that's not what we're here to talk about.
Analogue manual simplicity. Heaven to some, undesirable to others, outright undrivable to some as well
It's hard to imagine a world before mobile phones, especially smart phones, and sat nav.
Not that long ago, lorry drivers would have boxes of maps in the cab and delivery addresses were located using written down instructions. Locals would have to be flagged down for directions, landmarks located and care taken not to take their advice at face value, as some well meaning old chap directed you and your artic across town using the same route he used in his Metro, not realising you're not getting under that 12ft bridge.
Knowing where you're going and what's there when you arrive is always nice
Drivers quickly had to learn their geography. Then, about 20 years ago, along came the sat nav, followed by the specialised truck sat nav, available in portable form, and then found increasingly built in to trucks as standard.
Now, you'd think if you wanted to be a lorry driver that you'd already have a fairly good grasp of the layout of the UK and it's main road network. But as new technology crept in some hauliers began to notice that new recruits didn't really have much of a clue about where one place was in relation to another and we're talking where the likes of London and Birmingham are. Perhaps it was in part down to less people watching telly, and seeing the weather forecast with its handy map of the country.
Pulse quickens as the road gets narrower.
It was second left, right? Right. Right?
You said left!
Learning the layout of the UK's roads takes time, and we reckon there's a good case for a Driver CPC course based around the network. Experienced drivers still learn new routes and alternative options all the time. Knowing your way around, being able to think quickly and having the ability to recognise potential problems or hold-ups can be of huge benefit to a lorry driver.
Yeah yeah whatever I'm not writing all that down this magic device will show me the way
But there's a number of drivers who don't have much of a clue about the road network, the distances between major locations and even what's north, south, east or west - and that's because they depend almost entirely on sat nav.
It's a great driver aid, almost all of us use it. But you can't just depend on it. There are people out there who have somehow ended up with their C+E licence, who don't seem to know where anything is.
This is a few years ago now before everyone's phone had nav (we'll get to that), but a haulier in Scotland recalled. "I had an agency guy in to do a night trunk, down to Skelmersdale, trailer swap, just off the motorway, as easy as it gets. He comes back in from the lorry which was all ready to go and says 'err there's no sat nav in it'. I said well what do you need that for?
It's Junction 26 off the M6, Junction 5 off the M58 and you're there, do you want me to write it down for you? 'Uhh yeah' he said. So I wrote down the directions and the address and then he said to me 'How do I get to the M6?' Now we're about five minutes from the M8 and I'm thinking, has this guy ever left Scotland? He's supposed to have a few months experience under his belt.
I literally had to direct him to the M8, then the M74. I take it he'd never been far in a car and spent his whole driving career up to that point in a truck with sat nav, going to the same couple of places all the time."
Many trucks have built-in sat nav systems now...
Just the other week, a haulier had placed a driver in a lovely new high spec MAN TGX 580, the one with the big 15.2-litre engine. The driver - with many years experience - upon return to the yard deemed the truck unusable as the built-in truck nav wasn't working and he wasn't going to drive it until it was fixed.
Sorry, what? Of course in the beginning, all we had were car sat navs, and then Google Maps became a standard thing on everyone's phones. It's not designed for trucks, and this inevitably led to many cases of lorries ending up in places they really should not be, often with viral results because everyone's phones also now had several social media apps.
....while dedicated devices such as this Snooper can move between trucks
Truck sat navs have improved a lot, but they're there to help, they're not a magic foolproof guide to get you to your destination.
They'll often program ridiculously long routes because of something minor or non-existent that it thinks you can't get past. Ultimately, depending on a sat nav to get you where you need to be can mean that you don't know your bearings, you don't really know where you've gone from, and to, and you do not learn the route, you're not accumulating information. Drivers stop taking in information from road signs, they don't notice land marks and it's all well and good-ish until you have to think for yourself.
But the sat nav said this field was a road
THE KEY TO SUCCESS IS COMBINING OLD TECH WITH NEW TECH
Whether you drive regionally, or long distance, it's good to know the area you're going to. On long distance work it can take years, decades even to fill in different areas of the country. Do you know what the best thing is to do that?
A MAP. Yes, a good old fashioned map. Not just any one though, a quality trucker's road atlas with weight limits and bridge heights is worth its weight in gold.
You'll be able to see where you are, where you're going and alternate routes. Road signage in the UK is disgraceful and it's not uncommon to find roads you can drive several miles on before a sign suddenly tells you you're not going to make it past a hazard of some sort.
It's great for multiple routes and traffic but it's FOR CARS
Modern day Google Maps is fantastic, and can be a massive benefit to lorry drivers who know how to use it. You can set it to display all bridge heights in the UK too, just Google it and you'll find the link right there.
You can set Google Maps to satellite view, and this gives you overhead imagery of where you're going and what's extra handy is you can see inside factories and RDCs and see where it is you need to go. Many drivers will WhatsApp screen shots from sat' view marked up showing colleagues where they need to be. Then there is also the Street View option where you can take a stroll right along the road so you can work out things like, yes you're going to have to reverse in off the road, so you want to go that direction into the Industrial Estate so you're not going in off your blind side.
Of course always remember the directions aren't designed for trucks, and it might want to direct you right through a village you're not allowed through, but thanks to your handy HGV map, you can work out your alternative safe route.
The satellite view is super helpful for checking out big sites like RDCs
Here's a couple of very useful pieces of advice when going somewhere new for the first time - ASK THE OTHER DRIVERS about the place. Don't just head in there blind, someone else is bound to have been there before and can advise you on the best routes to take and what the procedures are once on site. We're all here to help each other, and many companies have driver WhatsApp groups.
Secondly, it's very often worth phoning the customer ahead of your arrival to let them know you're on the way, that address is definitely where the stuff is going (you'd be surprised how often it's the address for the accounts office on the paperwork not the warehouse) do they know it's an artic, what time do they tip until, can you drive into the yard or do you wait outside...and so on. Be prepared.
Being able to view the street and premises you're going to is also a big help
And off you go, with your route programmed in to the nav of your choice (you can drop stops along the route on Google to route round places if you want). "Ah you're using sat nav!" you may be saying. Well of course we are, everyone does these days, but what we've done is we've prepared first by checking the good old trucker map, checked the satellite overhead, street view, spoken with another driver to get actual directions and phoned ahead to the customer.
You'll be reversing in here off the road.
Best to park outside and go and check with security.
360 degree visuals and zoom
What if there are problems on the way? Even when you know exactly where you're going, leave Google Maps running all the time as it has live traffic information on it, which can give you time to come up with a way of avoiding big queues. It's amazing how many lorry drivers will drive straight past a motorway junction with a gantry sign saying "LONG DELAYS" because that's the sat nav route, and they don't know any alternative options.
Folk don't know there is a road that runs the length of the M74 which is almost deserted that can be used in the event of a jam. It sucks when you have to do it, but you can get from east-west by using the A69 when the A66 is shut. You can cut off the M6 and head past Bolton and Manchester and hop back on again further south.
There's all sorts of options available to avoid traffic trouble. A lot of diversion routes are picked up through experience and tips from other drivers and it takes time, but learning road network geography well is one of the best things a lorry driver can do, you'll be a lot more productive and have more of those 'good' days that make putting up with the [insert issue here] worth it.
Margins are cut to the bone in haulage, a productive driver (not pictured) can really make a difference by being able to get that last load of the week through intelligent route planning and time management
What does it matter? Those 'good' drivers - the ones hard to find - are the ones that get to those places before they close, have enough driving time to make it there today, only need a nine off so can be there for them opening, get places on time, help other drivers out when they're stuck, look after their lorry and can respond to problems effectively when they crop up.
They might not be the ones with the top mpg figures, but you can depend on them to get the job done. In a lorry, don't just follow a sat nav and hope for the best, and even when you know where you're going, stay switched on. We might have comfier, bigger trucks than ever, but there's a lot more to getting stuff from one place to another than most people will ever know.
And there's always satisfaction on a weekend when you read "Hey how did you manage to get back at that time, everyone else got stuck in that jam...."