Taxi Driver Online

hi,i was wondering what...if any satalite navigation systems drivers like to use.I'm considering buying one to mount on the dashboard.Im needing one that will give street by street directions on a map and/or voice assisted.AND before anyone asks i can find my way around but a sat nav would be extra useful and quicker to find my way around some areas.im able to spend upto 500 pounds but ive seen some a for around 200 pound and over.which you think is the best to use or where to buy them thanks!

Why spend all that dosh,no need,do what the majority of drivers do.
Keep turning left,until a circle then turn right.
You will eventually end up in the right place.
Yours,
marcopolo.

You need a XDA 2 with Tom Tom Navigator. I've got one and it has never let me down yet.

looks good that thanks. does that tom tom do just main roads or is it for minor streets / closes/cresents/streets etc..

http://www.tomtom.com

im not going to buy that just yet i'll need to see what else there is

Tom tom is the market leader in Sat Nav, you will not get any better.

We used to use the Garmin StreetPilot-III in our company cars. What's good about them is they're pretty loud - you can hear the voice navigation with the windows down. Trouble is, its a navigator and nothing but a navigator and it's quite pricey.

PDA's however can run other programs as well as navigate. We're using TomTom on a number of PDAs but the first criticism is that the speaker on a PDA is tiny and works best with a headset or in a quiet car.

That's my old Landy series 2A out then...

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Having a picnic

This month's "PDA Essentials" magazine has a feature on GPS programs.

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Next time you wave, use all your fingers.

Don't forget Tom Tom 3 has just been released with the post code integration.
So don't get caught with too good to be true offers of Tom Tom.
It will probably be Tom Tom2

Checkout www.totalpda.com

These guys have the best deals in town...

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Diplomat Delivers
www.diplomat.co.uk

What system do you use on Diplomat's PDAs then?

diplomat do not have pda's

With regards Satnav in the cars, some of the new Data Units coming out from a few of the companies already have a satnav package in them. I know of at least one UK company that has a system based around the VDO Satnav units.

It seems that this is the way that data dispatch companies are going, providing you with a snapshot of the local map or in some cases you can have a full blown satnav package as well so that you can use it even when out of radio range or not even logged onto the system.

nothing is in real time, regardless of if on radio or moblie phones.

Sorry guest but your wrong. Satnav systems in cars are real time. They are constantly receiving information from the GPS sats and from this information the driver can see his/her position on their data unit and if the data unit has something like Tom Tom loaded onto it then the driver will be able to see where they are.

I think you are talking about what is displayed at the office and not in the car. The car is real time, the office is not real time.

I know where you coming from but will explain it so that others know about it. The office does not hold real time positions for the car and any company that claims that they do this is LYING. Simple as that.

There are a number of ways that the office knows where a car is and this is done by:

1. The office sends out a request to the car and the car reports back its position. This is done without the driver even knowing its happening. The position is then displayed on the office gps mapping system.

2. The position of the car is sent back based on some rules . i.e. car has moved xxx amount of meters within so much time, the car is reporting back over a period of time or the car has crossed a boudary.

The main problem with systems that report back the position of the car is the amount of data being sent and as it gets busier then the data channel can become clogged up very easily. This is why on various systems its best to make sure that the "Free" cars are reporting back more often than cars that are on the way to a job or cars on jobs. Cuts down traffic.

There are now other systems where the car position is not sent back to the base and when a job is sent out its looking for cars that are within a certain distance of the acutal pickup point of the job rather than 1st car ranked in an area. All the intelligence is within the cars data unit. This cuts down data traffic and its working on where the car is at that time and not where the car was XXX amount of minutes before hand.

Anyway, I hope this has cleared up some points.

regards
RadioMan

I really don't like that system.

You will have some drivers earning well, and others earning f*** all.

Then what happens when everyone knows that a good regular booking is due out? Do we fight each other to see who can get the nearest to the customer's house?

Or a supermarket free-phone? Will we have long ranks of PH waiting outside? And what happens if a driver has a no job/show?

I could go on, but I'm really not a fan of that. Oh no no no.

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IDFIMH