Anyone use GPS to find your jobs?

[Jngrbrdman]

I'm picking up Microsft Streets & Trips from a friend tomorrow. I do some web design work for him and his geocaching business, so he was the first person I went to when I had some GPS questions. He said he bought it last year, but found that he didn't travel with his laptop as often as he thought he might. So he is giving it to me. I travel with my laptop all the time. It is a tablet pc, so it has a little different functionality than a regular laptop. Something like this would be really sweet I would think. I could mark my jobs on it and it would be a lot easier to find my way around. I get lost without a map up here even though most of the streets are just on a grid. lol Once I get on the east side I am so lost...

So what do you guys think? Does anyone else utilize GPS for their detailing? I've never really needed it for anything since I don't do any traveling to places I haven't already been normally, but some of my clients are turning up in some areas of town that I've never been. I just think it would be handy. And to top it off, it isn't going to cost me anything to find out. You can't beat free, eh?

[Stephan]

I have it built into my car and I have had by refferal a few clients and they were places I had never been and around here in some of the more rural towns not all the streets are labled...so it came in handy.

[Reddwarf]

I have one built in the car and I use it more than I would have thought. I went on a road trip with a guy that had the MS software on his laptop and an antenna we stuck on the inside window. It was way cool. It has a lot more information that the one in my car. But I would find it difficult to use a laptop while driving.

[Jngrbrdman]

I used it this weekend and it worker out pretty well. I only used it to trace our route and to listen to directions, so it wasn't too bad. It will be nice to not have to go to Map Quest everytime I need an address in the future. I can get what I need without having to go online now.

[Reddwarf]

I think it should work out pretty well for you. It is a pretty cool software. It tells you altitude and speed too.

[Way2SSlow]

I've got a Garmin GPS that I use to get around town. It's a newer really small unit, which is great. I have some friends that live in town and a few wrong turns can put you in places that you really dont want to be at night. If I dont know exactly where I'm heading, I'll use my GPS. Even if the location you're heading to isnt recognized by the GPS, I love the fact that the GPS will usually be able to tell you what streets you're approaching, because sometimes you just cant see the signs.

[Jngrbrdman]

Originally Posted by Reddwarf

I think it should work out pretty well for you. It is a pretty cool software. It tells you altitude and speed too.

What I really wish it would do is allow me to see the information after my trip. Things like average speed, highest altitude, highest speed, and things like that. It would be cool to see your speed or altitude on a line chart.

I've read that the jump to Streets & Trips 2008 isn't worth it since now it requires product registration that forbids you from selling the software once you have installed it. If that had been the case with 2007 then my friend wouldn't have been able to give me this. I hate it when companies force you to marry yourself to software. Leave it to Microsoft to do something stupid like that....

[Reddwarf]

Originally Posted by Jngrbrdman

What I really wish it would do is allow me to see the information after my trip. Things like average speed, highest altitude, highest speed, and things like that. It would be cool to see your speed or altitude on a line chart.

I've read that the jump to Streets & Trips 2008 isn't worth it since now it requires product registration that forbids you from selling the software once you have installed it. If that had been the case with 2007 then my friend wouldn't have been able to give me this. I hate it when companies force you to marry yourself to software. Leave it to Microsoft to do something stupid like that....

I think you can see that type of information. I'm not sure, but I think you can. That would be cool.

[Jngrbrdman]

That's what I assumed, but I have been unable to figure out how. I even broke down and read the instructions to no avail. lol

[jaybs02]

All of my drivers use Garmin GPS's now the sad thing some of these guys rely on it so much, that if the fuse goes, it's like they forgot how to be drivers and don't/can't pull out a map.
Many of my drivers in the past could get around, because they had the roads committed to memory.

"J"