My recent introduction to GPS

[Goodbye_Hagstrom]

Hi all,
I am a long-time, old skool driver here on Long Island NY (taxicab, ambulette, tow-truck, ect) and have been at this, on and off, for the better part of 30 years. I've always relied on either my rather intinate and extensive knowledge of the streets here, backed up by my good ol' Hagstrom (or Rand McNally) in the event
an address eluded me. I did this for many, many years, rarely ever having any problems that couln't be solved by consulting the index for the grid of the street I was searching for, then going to the page and map indicated, to locate it.

Recently, times have been tough(as IF I have to tell anyone that), and I've been out of work for quite some time, so when an opportunity came up to drive for Edible Arangements, I applied(as did apparently, at least 25 other people for the one position available). I didn't get The Job, but I DID get called and asked if I'd like to work Mother's Day weekend (one of the busiest weekends of the entire year for this business), so of course, I said yes.

Well, I arrived Sat morning to work, and they were loading up the rented van to the point I couldn't even see the floor anymore, and to make matters worse, they were giving me one of the few "zones" I wasn't all that familiar with. I was getting a bit nervous, wondering how I was going to make all these deliveries in something resembling a reasonable amount of time. The owner handed me one of their TomToms, and gave me a very brief, 15-second crash course in how to use it. I had NEVER used a GPS in my entire life, so this did nothing to ease the growing sense that perhaps I had bitten off more than I could chew with this gig,
but as they continued loading the vanm and the tickets(orders) piled up, I figured I might as well try and see
how to work this GPS thingie, and figured out how to enter an address into it, to which to navigate to.

I pulled out and started driving across the big parking lot of the shopping center, and as I appraoched
the road, the GPS started talking "Turn right, then, turn left and stay in the right lane", and I just put my own
personal navigation noggin on "pause", and let the TomTom do it's thing - I just followed along.

After each delivery, I would enter the next address from the Mapquest-generated routing list, and simply
let the TomTom get me there. By the 3rd delivery, I was feeling quite a bit more at ease, and thinking to myself that this TomTom is causing my (navigational node of) brain to turn to mush, as there was little or no need for me to devote much of my personal CPU to navigation, leaving plenty for the driving, and even some extra for wondering what I'm gonna fix for dinner tonight - all the while I was knocking off delivery after delivery, and more and more of the van's floor became visible for the first time.

I discovered quickly-on, not to become complacent, because the TomTom was NOT infallible. Twice it
would have me turn into a dead end, and on 2 other ocassions, my personal local knowledge won the day when the TomTom told me "You have reached your destination" In the middle of the woods, some 1 1/2 miles from where my experience and instincts told me the address REALLY was, and on on another ocassion where the TomTom didn't have an address in it's database that Mapquest had. Again, my local knowledge prevented that from becoming a problem. (I hope to be able to contribute to/via the MapShare thingie to help remedy this sort of thing)

But all, in all? I was hooked!;-) SO much so, that even though I'm short on bucks and unemployed, I ordered me a refurb TomTom One XLS for $119+(which was shipped this morning. I figure this will help me both professionally(if/when I find another driving job), and also help me not screw up the next time I make the miserable trip to Newark airport with my own car;-p In short, I LOVE it!

Anyway, that's how and why I wound up here - a former Luddite when it comes to navigation, I am now a convert and a Believer in GPS in general, and TomTom in particular I'm sure there's a lot of info, updates, tweaks, et, and a whole lot I can learn from the community here.

Paul

 

[drledger]

The units certainly can help in MOST situations but like anything created by human hands there are sometimes map errors that cause rather strange routing specifics. Glad you are going to get your unit soon. You will find a lot of answers here if you need them.

 

[Malouff]

Goodbye_Hagstrom,

I noticed that you said you were entering in an address after each destination.
Once you get your TomTom you might want to learn about Itinerary Planning that way you can enter all your destinations before you leave.

This may disappoint you but a Garmin optimizes the Itinerary and a TomTom will just navigate to one address in the itinerary then the next.

I also wanted to let you know that a Garmin also uses Navteq maps so it would of had very similar maps to mapquest that you were also.
Using a TomTom on the other had uses Tele Atlas as the map provider and so does Google.

Both map providers have inaccuracies so if you don't find an address on one try the other.

 

[doctormstein1]

Welcome Goodbye_Hagstrom, to our tom tom forum. You just got a taste of tom tom now but as you use it more and more, your going to be a total convert like myself.. For me its more inportant then a cellphone. Enjoy

 

[eldorado]

Paul, that's a nice write up and a good story, yes these new fangled contraptions have a lot of advantages but as others have mentioned, sometimes the old noodle and paper maps come (still) handy. I live in a semi rural area and can gaurantee ya that none of them can get you to some of the out in the country roads and addresses, but they do help and I use mine quite alot, I also double check the map first then plug in the address, one place I went to today would not come up (the street) and couldn't use cross st and intersections either, so local knowledge is infallable..................BY THE WAY........WELCOME.........