Mandatory IQ tests for satnav users?

[TVC]

My all time favorite sat-nav numpty was the professional driver who picked up the daughter of a Chelsea FC board member, from Cambridgshire I think, to take her to a match. He typed Stamford Bridge into his moron box which promptly directed him north up the A1. It was only when he reached his destination that he realised there was no football ground.

 

[longers]

Didn't an ambulance set off for a trip across London following Sat Nav and end up in Manchester?

My mums Uncle was telling me about quite a few lorries that should be arriving at a small Cumbrian village but instead end up at an even smaller one in Yorkshire about seventy miles away.

Maps are good.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I've been a professional driver for ten years now, much of that involving multidrop work in an artic around strange cities all over Britain. I've never used a twat nav and I never will. I've got a big box of A-Zs under the bunk in my lorry and if I visit a town I don't have a map for, I buy one. I'm rarely lost and, while I have been down a few narrow lanes, it was always because there was no other way to where I was going.
I certainly have very little sympathy for the Pollock's driver in the news article above; what was he thinking, driving past all those signs in an artic? And as for the driver in the OP ... words fail me.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Someone lent me a satnav once - couldn't find out how to turn the fecking thing on!
Used the old trusty road map in the end.

 

[buggi]

and the Darwin award goes to....


you have to give it to lorry drivers tho. they must be pretty confident in their own skills to think they can negotiate some of those lanes.

having said that, you got to give some credit to Sainsbury's lorry drivers who manage to reverse into the loading bay in Solihull. they basically have to reverse off a high street, down a small slip road, and then reverse into the loading bay, in a Z shape maneouvre, all sides surrounded by high brick walls. i bet they dread getting the Solihull drop.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

having said that, you got to give some credit to Sainsbury's lorry drivers who manage to reverse into the loading bay in Solihull. they basically have to reverse off a high street, down a small slip road, and then reverse into the loading bay, in a Z shape maneouvre, all sides surrounded by high brick walls. i bet they dread getting the Solihull drop.

You'd be surprised how many places there are like that. Reversing an artic is easier than it looks ... but don't tell anyone that.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

... or the old Swindon Woolies depot. about three inches each side of the trailer with restricted space to swing the cab around. And backing into shadow.

 

[Globalti]

I used to drive a 3 tonner for Vestric. One of my deliveries was a warehouse where you had to reverse into the door then do a sharp turn in a narrow space inside. Not an artic admittedly but by using your mirrors and judging with the edges of the box it was easy to do to within an inch or two.

I borrowed a colleague's crapnav once and vowed never to do it again. Firstly I realised I had lost all track of where I was, then I arrived at my destination, supposedly a factory but actually a big gated house on an estate. When I rang the firm they laughed and told me everybody makes the same mistake - the postcode on their website was for the registered office at the owner's house! It was a nightmare from start to finish and I have never used one since. What really irritates me is people who use them even though they know exactly where they are going, like to work every day!

 

[alecstilleyedye]

... or the old Swindon Woolies depot. about three inches each side of the trailer with restricted space to swing the cab around. And backing into shadow.

not a problems these days though…

 

[PpPete]

I picked up a hire car with sat nav once. Turned the thing on but it was unable to compute a route or find where I was (Toulouse airport)

I finally went through all the options - find me the nearest hotel - gave me somewhere in southern spain (ooh err?) find me the nearest hertz location - gave me somewhere in corsica..(what ?)

Serious head scratch....

OK you b***d machine what's my latitude & longitude?




0º00"W 0º00"N


I went back to the rental office and complained they had only programmed the sat nav for European locations - and asked was the car insured for aquatic use? Blank looks.....

I had to show the girl at the counter where 0º00"W 0º00"N was on world map.

 

[Arch]

My all time favorite sat-nav numpty was the professional driver who picked up the daughter of a Chelsea FC board member, from Cambridgshire I think, to take her to a match. He typed Stamford Bridge into his moron box which promptly directed him north up the A1. It was only when he reached his destination that he realised there was no football ground.

Fantastic. You'd think he'd notice the lack of London on any for the signposts... Knowing Stamford Bridge (the real one, not the footie ground), I don't suppose a football board member's daughter would find much to do there.... There is a Co op, I think....

I did use a Sat Nav in France last summer, and it helped - but the alternative was trying to follow a back roads route, on my own with no-one to read the map - and it's much harder to memorise a string of village names when they are French, I think, than if they were English.

 

[Eat MY Dust]

I don't understand sat-nav use. What did people do before it's invention? I generally look at a map a couple of times and that's it. Once I've been somewhere once, I can remember the way, even on roads I haven't been on since I was a kid. Now I see almost every car on ther road with their sat-nav burning away. I imagine most of these people are on their way home from work (or vice versa). Do these people not know the way home from work? Surely they don't need the sat-nav on!!

I had a client call me once in a right strop as she'd missed (she blamed the sat-nav) the required junction and had made it into central London, she was really pissed off that I couldn't give her accurate directions. On another occassion a courier called me and said that his sat-nav had taken him to a dead end and could I give him directions. When I asked him where he was, he just kept saying "I don't know, just some dead end". Now I'm fairly good on giving people directions, but this guy couldn't understand why I couldn't help him!!!

 

[Arch]

On another occassion a courier called me and said that his sat-nav had taken him to a dead end and could I give him directions. When I asked him where he was, he just kept saying "I don't know, just some dead end". Now I'm fairly good on giving people directions, but this guy couldn't understand why I couldn't help him!!!

I suppose you could at least be sure of being right if you said "Well, first of all, turn round and come back up the dead end road...." After that, he'd be on his own....

 

[Arch]

As long as you use it with a bit of common sense then there shouldn't be any problems.

Well, yes, that's were so many modern gadgets fall down - common sense appears to be an oxymoron these days.

 

[Arch]

Aye, people put to much faith in satnavs these days. I look at mine as an aid, not an absolute necessity that has to followed. 9 times out of 10 I know where I am going but it is nice knowing when you have to turn down a particular road especially when you are in London and driving a big truck.

I can certainly see the benefits - like you say IF YOU ALSO USE YOUR BRAIN! sadly, too many people unhook their brains when they get into a vehicle (assuming they had brains in the first place).

I've just thought. Maybe the whole Hannibal leading elephants over the Alps was an early SatNav blunder, but he got away with it...