Don´t trust your Navi

;D
my satnav has said next left in 50 yards,whilst i am driving on the motorway,and its a field with no entrance to it,i believe this story,lucky escape

No Aussie I don’t own a sat nav and never will, nor do I ever carry any maps with me in my van. Over the years I have delivered to nearly every single town and Village from Swindon down to Lands End and also most of South Wales.

Once I have driven on a road I don’t forget it and I have a built in compass in my head that tells me if I’m going in the right direction should I end up due to say a road accident on a road I do not know.

If you ask me to drive to you Padstow then I’ll just drive you there without ever checking a map, you want to go to Christchurch? Hop in mate I know the best way to get there.

When I was off for a few days two weeks ago very unwell, my boss went and did my Dorset, Somerset and parts of Devon run on the Thursday. Now Paulr knows I hit Taunton at around 12.30pm and my boss arrived at RM Tools in Taunton at 3.35pm. He said to Roger the owner of the tool shop that he did not know how I got around so fast (no Merse its not thanks to those nice drivers who warn me about speed traps ahead ) He left the same time and like he said to Roger he did not stop and talk with anyone unlike me who seems to have all the time in the world to be able to talk all day, nor did he stop and check the Torquay Fans Forum on his way around.

Well part of my secret is unlike him I don’t have to stick to the main road routes like he has too, I learn the local rat runs in all the towns I go too, so handy to know if there are road works, traffic accidents or just very heavy traffic. If I have the time some days I will just try different roads and see where they come out, it may end up a road I will never drive on again, but it just may be the road that will save me half an hour when the main road has traffic problems.

I remember so well my fist week at Toolfix as young Pete was with me to show me all the calls I needed to call on. On the Monday after doing all the early morning calls in Weymouth (did you know its Weymouth AFC and not Town ) we headed for Dorchester. I can understand the roads he was using as they were the ones you would use if you had planned your route using a map.

I said to Pete that when we were here again on Thursday I would show him a much quicker way to get from Weymouth to Dorchester. When I got to show him he was amazed I knew the roads I took him on and on the odd times he has had to do the route again, uses the roads I showed him. Its knowledge and nothing else, much like the whole map of London merse has in his head, now having to learn all those streets and shortcuts in the City really is very impressive.

Well I ALWAYS carry a map of the British Isles, Large Scale A-Z of London (showing banned turns and one ways) and small scale A-Z of Birmingham in my car, because whilst I also have that photographic memory capacity; homing in on private addresses in the suburbs is not so retainable ~ especially if you have never been to that address before!

Sat-Nav is built into the equipment I carry in my car so that when a job comes through to me whilst I'm on the road, I can automatically "follow the red line" towards the pick up address without first heading off in the wrong direction ~ again great stuff if you are in the middle of a gyratory system or about to commit yourself to going over a bridge or somewhat ~ and at least I can get to somewhere safe to pull over and study just what I am about to do next, peruse special instructions, etc.

That's as far as it goes with Sat Nav though as it's based on the post code system and can often lead you to a parrallel road to the one you really want and it has no knowledge of those darned posts in the road to prevent through driving, but it DOES have an inbuilt recognition of oncoming speed cameras Dave!

Like you, I prefer to build up and retain my own knowledge of non motorway routes, and particular traffic flow levels appertaining to individual roads at certain times of day.

Anyone who has travelled the country with me in the past in pursuit of The Gulls will vouch for my love of the alternative road and knowledge of the pubs and cafes of Engand.

I did an early morning job recently for a gentleman carrying him from Brentford to Brentwood. He had setteld down for a snooze in the back of a car he had booked to take him home to Essex from a night out in the West End and awoke to his horror in the far West of London outside Griffin Park, more than sixty miles from home.................needless to say, he wanted someone more professional to finally get him home with the milkman and in time for an ear bashing from the missus!

That`s not a bad idea at all mate, if I was you I would be straight on to the DVLA with that!