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Charlotte Haye 11th January 2017

Why HGV Drivers Need Sat Nav, And Why It’s Not Dangerous

While the news might have been full of Donald Trump and other political move really, a small story has started spreading through the tabloids that we want to address. According to these stories, there has been a ‘spate’ of HGV drivers driving their vehicles into low bridges while following their sat nav, instead of trying to follow alternative routes. These stories have resulted in several people calling for HGV drivers to be banned from using sat navs at all. As trainers of HGV drivers across the country, we wanted the chance to address these concerns and explain why it is essential for HGV drivers to have access to sat navs, and why this small number of incidents does not represent the profession as a whole.

Why Sat Navs Are Necessary

During all the talk, the most common question people have been asking is why HGV drivers, who drive for a living, need to rely on sat nav at all. The answer to this is really simple – because while they do drive a lot more than most people, and a lot further, their minds aren’t road maps. No driver can be expected to know the best route to every destination, especially if they come up against blockages, closed roads or accidents. This makes sat navs an essential tool in the HGV drivers’ arsenal. Without them, they would have to rely on paper based road maps, which would not only cause distractions at the wheel, but it would mean drivers being caught up in traffic and delaying their deliveries. If this were to happen to every delivery driver once a week, it would cause huge difficulties for retailers and suppliers across the country.

HGV Sat Navs

What isn’t being talked about is the fact that HGV drivers have specialist sat navs at their disposal, not your garden variety car model that you can buy from anywhere. HGV sat navs are specifically programmed to work with HGVs, and as such make a much more effective companion. HGV sat navs are designed to calculate routes based on a series of factors, including the vehicles height, weight, width, length and load variables. Drivers are able to program in the details for the vehicle they are driving (particularly useful for freelance drivers) before each trip, and the system will calculate the best routes for them. Thanks to this technology, HGV sat navs will avoid low bridges and weak or restricted roads. They are also typically installed with a larger screen to avoid peering at it while driving, and come preinstalled with specialised points on interest databased, which include secure and known spots for parking HGVs overnight.

The problems like the ones currently being reported occur when HGV drivers don’t use the tools available to them, like specialist HGV sat navs. This could be because HGV sat navs tend to be slightly more expensive, being a piece of specialist technology Or it could just be that they learned to drive HGVs abroad or in less sophisticated schools, so they don’t even know these tools exist. Whatever the reason, they use standard, car issue sat navs to plan their routes, and the results are HGVs stuck in low bridges.

Of course, like in any profession there will be those who cut corners and try to save money. And it is these individuals who end up causing accidents and creating headlines. But those drivers do not represent the majority of HGV drivers in this country. At Easy as HGV, we pride ourselves on providing the highest quality of training and support to all budding HGV drivers in our care. We cover the regulations, tools and best practices in detail, including the necessity of using specialist tools like HGV sat navs. For more information, get in touch with our experts today.

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