5 Crucial APPS for Smart-Phoning Truckers Posted by DC Cargo Mall on December 02, 2013

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

That’s what’s been evolving in the trucker’s world and everyone else's world in these modern times, regarding smart phones that is. 

Texting while driving will always be a no-no but the critique of actually owning a smart phone has gone down from ‘Smart phones make stupid people’ to ‘Let’s use these Smart phones to wizen everyone up.’

In a recent survey by uShip, more than 6,000 owner-operators reported how they use their cell phones and mobile apps on the road:

* 57% use their phones more for daily business this year than they did last year.

* 37% use their phones to book loads, and 35% use them to bid on loads.

* 33% use mobile apps to monitor the weather, gas prices and traffic conditions.

* 20% no longer travel with a laptop.

* Nearly 20% use social networks such as Facebook and Twitter on their phones to keep up with family, friends and colleagues.

Clearly, mobile phones and tablet computers have already become a crucial part of life on the road for truckers. In fact, cell phones are so important to truckers that when asked what they'd be willing to give up to keep their phones, 20% said they would give up their CB radios, and sadly enough, 16% said they'd give up their spouses and 8% said they'd give up their pets. Now, that's dedication to a mobile device.

Here are 5 apps that will get you rolling in more convenient, money-saving and time-efficient ways:

Trucker Service

 

Professional truckers can utilize this app to find thousands of heavy-duty service locations across the country via listing their city, state, or current location. The service providers are listed by category, roadservice, repair shops, towing, OEM dealers, and more!

GasBuddy

 

This Diesel convenient app saves you accumulated money from gas guzzling causes. Find the cheapest diesel fill-up option in your area by joining this app’s community of dedicated informers, who provide up-to-date diesel prices, nearest stations, and gas station features across the U.S. and Canada. FuelDawg is another great app option for gas-saving.

Skype

Now this one’s a classic – if you don’t have Skype, get it, NOW. Being away from home is more often than not in the life of a trucker and seeing your wife/children/parent/friends faces in real time can make the long separation that much less painful. If you’re on different time zones, you can easily record a video message to brighten their day when they awake.

FatSecret Calorie Counter 

Being a trucker can make a healthy lifestyle close to impossible. Exercise? You’ve been sitting or lying down for the past 30 hours! Healthy food choices? From where, McDonalds or Burger King? It’s almost a joke. Aside from that first night of departure where you left with your wife’s heavenly home-baked goods, the rest of your food regimen is fast food, fast food, fast food. You can’t afford that extra hour of parking constraints and highway exits. So download this app and feel the relief from the first day. With it, instant nutritional information from foods found at most restaurants can be found, bar codes from nutritional info and packaged goods can be scanned, and total daily calories, fat, and carbs, can be tracked. Now that is a way to stay health-conscious and not waste your precious trucking time.

FleetSafer Mobile

The danger of texting while driving is an ever-present reality and while writing or reading just one text, a driver looks away from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds. That may seem trivial, but not until you discover that during that time, at 55 miles per hour, that trucker's vehicle will travel the length of an ENTIRE FOOTBALL FIELD. This app promotes prevention by eliminating the temptation to text back while driving. It simply allows you to automatically have texts and emails blocked while driving, and offers a robotic response to incoming texts and emails with an ‘I’m driving’ message. This app can literally save your LIFE.

Co-Pilot Live Truck

Use this voice-guided GPS navigation to give you safe and reliable routes that are convenient specifically for truckers, to help you avoid low-clearance and weight-restricted roads custom-calculated by the size, vehicle weight, and load type of your truck. You can also create custom route- profiles for easy switching between varying vehicles, view and plan efficient routing options, and help avoid out-of-route miles. What’s more is that your map can be downloaded for use offline, so driving anywhere without service will not interfere with your route directions.

* * *Bonus App!* * *

 

EasyCargo 

This app is not just an app, its a complex software that is easy to use and makes safe loading all the more easier. It will calculate a load-plan for you and save you space and time, essentially. The visualization is phenomenally clear and 3-D, and almost makes a tedious loading plan fun.