Time to read Sat-Nav instructions perhaps

In order to make sense of things going on around me and further afield I like to get as much information as possible, the only snag being that I could do with a 30 hour day! We really are into the information age aren't we but the problem can be taking on board the things that really matter.

Listening to the midday phone-in on Radio Devon yesterday the topic of sat-navs misdirecting lorry drivers down country lanes was raised. I don't have a sat-nav, have never knowingly seen one and was never really aware of all their capabilities. A listener phoned in to say that he has a sat-nav for his car, his sat-nav isn't a top of the range model but it can be set to suit different types of road users. Now this is fascinating stuff because it would appear that if only the instruction book was read a lorry driver's sat-nav could be set up so that his juggernaut is not sent along a car only type of route.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the manual that comes with a sat-nav is 60 pages long, today's technology is so sophisticated that we tend to just utilise a minute part of it. This laptop on which I'm presently typing is I know capable of doing much more than I am using it for and sometime I want to explore some of these possibilities.

My guess is that the sat-nav when purchased has a default setting for normal car usage. Surely if it can be reset for a heavy commercial then that should be done. I would very much like to see lorry drivers and/or haulage companies fined heavily if they are using the technology incorrectly. If property owners or the highway authorities are having to pick up the bill when a lorry causes avoidable damage in a road where it shouldn't be well that is totally unacceptable in my book.

Another listener had phoned to say that a sat-nav could be set so that it followed motorways, 'A' roads and 'B' roads only, perhaps that is the same option that I had previously referred to. I have to say that I'm very disappointed but not surprised that journalists haven't investigated this subject properly. The media take a very superficial view on these sort of things which is very poor indeed in my opinion.