For many truck drivers, technology has greatly evolved and improved since they first began driving. Today, there are many types of useful tools and gadgets that a driver can take advantage of which make his day much easier. In this blog article, we will narrow our topic to 7 free smart phone apps. It is important to stress, however, that any use of a hand-held device while driving is against the law. Please utilize your phones or tablets ONLY while parked. Below are some popular apps that P&S Transportation flatbed truck drivers may find useful.
Waterlogged – FREE
Staying properly hydrated is critical for truck drivers. It helps with transport of nutrients, body temperature, digestion, circulation, and can actually help you to eat less. Waterlogged is a mobile app that will help you keep track of how much water you’re consuming. It will send you reminders on when to drink water, helping you develop healthy water habits. You can keep tabs of your water consumption over time (by the day, the week, or the year.)
MyFitnessPal – FREE
For drivers who wish to keep track of their food intake as well, MyFitnessPal is a calorie-counter app which has a database of more than 5 million foods, so that you can research the nutritional value of all your favorite foods, including foods from restaurants like Arby’s or Cheesecake Factory (among many, many more). Not only does this app let you keep track of the calories you ingest, but also the calories you burn during exercise.
Fooducate – FREE
This app lets you keep track of food quality, which is different from MyFitnessPal, which lets you keep track of food quantity. Similar to the MyFitnessPal app, Fooducate offers a huge database of foods, and grades them on a system from A – D with A = Healthiest, D = Least Healthy. It even allows you to scan barcodes on packaging to review food grades. But not only does Fooducate grade your foods, it also offers suggestions for healthier alternatives. And in another useful feature, it allows you to customize and modify it to suit your specific health goals.
HealthTap or DoctorOnDemand – FREE
In what is sure to be some of the best news you will get all day, truck drivers no longer have to set aside time and go out of route for common health care visits. The HealthTap and Doctor On Demand apps allow you to video chat with a doctor right from your phone, and consult with doctors who can call in basic prescriptions to a nearby pharmacy of your choice. The fee for a session is usually around $40, which is actually cheaper than using your P&S Transportation insurance plan, should you have coverage. All you need is data service, preferably a WIFI connection, and a bank card. Doing a little bit of research on surrounding pharmacies first in order to obtain their phone numbers will ensure that your experience with this app is as smooth as possible.
Trucker Tools – FREE
This free app is similar to Groupon, in that drivers can source coupons from more than 5,000 truck stops across America, find the lowest diesel prices in any given area, search for truck stops, and get turn by turn directions and contact info for each truck stop, among many other things. This is a very useful, all-inclusive app that thousands of drivers utilize on a daily basis.
NOAA Radar – FREE
NOAA Radar is a highly advanced weather mapping app which can use your phone’s current location to alert you to very specific weather events in your immediate area. This app has proven useful to truck drivers over and over, as no truck driver wants to unknowingly head into a bad storm that will quickly pass, and risk his rig or his life.
Skype – FREE
Truck drivers spend long amounts of time away from their friends and family. Skype allows you to stay connected to them while you’re on the road. It features free instant messaging, free and unlimited voice and video calls to other Skype users and low-cost calls to mobile and landline devices. Video calls work best with a strong internet connection, and will degrade quickly with weaker signals. Never miss seeing your loved ones faces again!
If you have any apps that you use on a regular basis or you think others could benefit from, please share them with us!