AP Photo/Apple Inc
One of the best technological advances from the truck driver’s perspective is the cell phone. Drivers who’ve been around long enough remember the constant hunts for a functional pay phone and the resulting difficulties of keeping in contact with family, dispatch, shippers and others. The first words in the dispatcher’s handbook certainly must be “Call me back in an hour". That hour would mostly be spent driving twenty miles, finding a parking space and waiting in line for a payphone, only to be put on hold. Lack of phone access cost most drivers more money than breakdowns and shippers.
When the first true cell phones came out, drivers spent huge sums to be able to carry one that would work nationwide. In many areas, the only option was the prepaid cell phone, with costs as high as forty cents a minute. . .and you could spend eight to ten dollars on hold while dispatch did whatever it is they do up there in the main office. Now, if a driver is lucky, he can get a plan where calls to the dispatch number are unlimited and free. Same for the home number and other, often-called numbers. And with cell phone access came other perks, like email and wap browsers.
Now, cell phones function more like a computer than a phone: if you want to play games, listen to music, take a quick picture-all you need is your cell phone. Some have GSP direction abilities. And most have some kind of web access. But, with all the neat applications markets for cell phones, there were few that could be called trucker-specific. That has all changed. Variety announces The History Channel will release the “Ice Road Trucker” application for iPhone on Sunday.
Ice Road Truckers is a trucking video game where your skill keeps the dirty side down and your truck on time and first in line. A free preview can be downloaded from the iTunes store. The full version will cost $3.99. So far, the preview has been downloaded almost 700,000 times. It should be a good seller and great entertainment for those hours sitting in the dock. Check it out. Rather than hunting through the iTunes Store, you can link directly here.
On a more serious note, you can now get a trucker-specific application designed to make your life easier. The Trucker application for iPhone is less a ‘fun’ application and more of a useful one.
For the grand total of ninety-nine cents, if you have an iPhone ( or an iPod Touch 2.0 ), you can download an application expressly designed for truckers. Besides the expected trucker-related media, like videos and music, the Trucker app has trucking news, events and even Twitter. Many of these are RSS feeds specific to trucking. But one of the most valuable things in a pinch is the documents the application organizes for easy access.
If you need to find a truck stop because the road is closed ahead, and your truck stop guide is clear back in the bunk out of reach, you can find it right there on your iPhone. Need a CAT scale in a hurry? The list is there. Truck Wash? State DOT number? Road repair? Fuel prices? Traffic and weather? Low clearance? Regulations clarification? Bridge law? All of these, and a whole lot more trucker resources are neatly organized and updated regularly. It’s a quick version of all the booklets, pamphlets, directories and hand-out sheets you can never find in a hurry.
Allen Smith and his wife, Donna put this together to assist truckers with the growing number of regulations, changes and resources they need to access on short notice. With over thirty year of trucking experience, Allen is committed to helping the trucker, with his AskTheTrucker blog, ebooks and blog radio program. According to Allen, this is the first edition but there are others in the planning stages. Eventually, he hopes to have a similar application ready for other smart phones like the Blackberry. And he wants truckers who use the application to give him ideas for other information that they’d find handy.
The Trucker app hasn’t had the expensive advertising campaign of the Ice Road Truckers app, but popularity is growing by word of mouth. It seems that the RV crowd has been spreading the word that there are some useful things to be found here-particularly the low clearance listings. There are things here that would be useful for any road warrior. You can access it here.
So, if you’re an iPhone user, or thinking of getting an iPhone, you’ve got a fully justifiable excuse to get this latest ‘work tool’.
Comments
Another great trucker iPhone game is Maze Craze Trucker - featuring Big Ol' Trucker Energy Juice ....
www . mazecrazetrucker . com
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