June/July 2008

Truck drivers should beware of acquiring an 'invincibility mindset' by relying too heavily on truck-related satnav, says the Freight Transport Association.

Roads policy manager James Firth accepts that the ultimate goal for the transport industry might be a complete directory of all height, weight and width restrictions, but adds: 'The time it will take to develop a system which can be quickly, accurately and – most important – reliably updated means that such a solution is a long way off yet.'

Instead, the FTA is advocating an alternative approach, which would involve providing a commercial vehicle option on standard satnav units. This, it says, should have a greater bias towards motorways and major roads, and a negative bias towards minor roads.

It maintains that the technology to do this is already available, but that satnav developers are slow to take it up.

The organisation's comments were prompted by a Department for Transport report on a consultation regarding in-vehicle information systems (see above), and come just as the satnav market is taking advantage of truck-related data that has been added to the digital maps produced by suppliers such as Navteq and Tele Atlas. But neither company yet offers anything like comprehensive truck-related information for all roads.

Despite its somewhat reserved approach to truck-related satnav, FTA does acknowledge the general benefits that satnav can bring, and reports instances of members recouping the cost of their systems in a matter of months.