Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

I have a friend who had his laptop throw a shoe the other day-his hard drive died right in the middle of downloading his load information. A few frantic phone calls and I got him his load information and numbers and a mileage-friendly route. Since he won’t be home to get a replacement for a week or more, we’ll be doing that regularly til he heads back to Michigan. But, I got to thinking there should be an easier way for him to get his information on the fly in an emergency like this-and maybe I found it!

I haven’t seen much about this item: it looks really interesting and I sure wish one of you guys with an iPhone (or even an iPod Touch) would download it and check out. If you’re reading this, odds are you’re an experienced laptop trucker. But, all that information you have saved won’t help you much when you’re stuck in a traffic jam or need a scale in double-quick time. Or, you’re sitting in a dock for what seems like waay too long and bored out of your skull, needing a diversion.

I’m not too up on smartphones, never having ventured into the field. I figured I was doing good to actually be able to read my email and possibly look something up on Google with the old Nextel brick. But, after looking at the reviews of this application, I’m beginning to see the true value of the smartphone to the trucking community. This one is iPhone-specific but we can hope, if it’s successful, that it gets modified for some of the other smartphone services out there.

Trucking News, Videos and Driver resources!

I haven’t figured out what all this Trucker app includes-you probably need to play with it to find out all it’s capable of. Apparently, the home page features a different scenic shot from a trucker every day (when do the truck wrecks and favorite waitresses start?). But the bottom bar has keys for News, Events (trucker-interest), Media and Twitter. Media has a selection of YouTube videos to occupy your time while sitting and features things like trucking music media and trucking blogs. You can access current trucking tweets with the Twitter key.

But the real value of this application is the Driver Resources bar. Here, you have at your fingertips info on every state’s DOT listing, repair services, truck stops, scales, security information, low-cost fuel, load boards, truck wash locator, mileage calculator, accurate driving directions, traffic alerts, low clearance directory, weather updates and all sorts of necessary stuff you may have to locate in a hurry. PDF files of updated information are added as needed. The developer of the app is a trucker who knows what we need out there and is always looking for items to add to the mix to make it more useful.

If this thing works as promised, you could survive with the Trucker app and a GPS if the laptop takes the big dump on you out on the road. It would sure get you out of a tight spot in a hurry without firing up the laptop and finding a wifi signal. And, for the entirely reasonable price of ninety-nine cents, you sure wouldn’t be out much if it didn’t suit your needs. It’s available in the iTunes App Store.

Check it out at http://crazymikesapps.com/trucker-app-delivers/apps/ and at http://www.truckerapp.com/