June 18, 2021

The Best Promotional Items for Your Staff and Remote Teams

Due to the covid-19 pandemic, remote work has become increasingly popular globally. Likewise, most companies’ policies on remote work have changed as a result of multiple lockdowns. But, like your clients, you can keep your staff and remote teams happy through brand promotion even during this critical phase. Give them

Read More »
Latest Issue
Issue 324 : Jan 2025

June 18, 2021

Examining Truck Driver GPS Systems and How They Help the Modern Trucker

Commercial trucking is big business. At any moment, tens of thousands of trucks are at work all over America, hauling goods from place to place. They’re often active at all hours of the day and night. Trucking has existed for many decades, and it will doubtless continue to do so. There are self-driving trucks in the works, but for the moment, companies need human operators to drive these big rigs and get them safely to where they’re going. Technology is always coming out that can help truck drivers, and GPS is the perfect example. Let’s take a closer look at truck driver GPS and what it can do for the modern trucker. History vs. Today Before we get into what you want to look for in the best truck driver GPS, you should know about the not-too-distant past out of which truck driver navigation comes. Not many years ago, truck drivers would rely on paper maps to get around. They would stop to consult them at diners and weighing stations, sometimes taking into account construction projects and road closures. A trucker would have to learn the country pretty quickly. They would need to know how to shave minutes off their routes and what roads to take if construction closed a particular one. It was an imperfect system, but the average trucker did the best they could with it. They had no viable alternative. The Onboard Infotainment System Many vehicles these days feature infotainment systems, not just commercial trucks. These systems usually have GPS capabilities. However, the companies did not create all of them equally. Some of them can instantly find routes to virtually any destination within the continental United States. Others are slower, and truckers probably won’t care for those as much. Truckers make their living delivering their payloads as quickly as possible, and they chafe whenever they encounter a delay. The best onboard infotainment system that also includes a GPS feature is the one that allows a trucker to plug in the coordinates and hit the road with no delays. They should see a clear route materialize on the screen in front of them. They should never have to do anything more than glance at that screen to see where they need to go next. What Else Might a Trucker Expect from a GPS? The GPS should also give the trucker instructions on when and where to turn in a clear, understandable voice. If it speaks with a thick accent or garbles some of the words, that’s not helpful. The best unit will also feature information about where commercial trucks can and cannot go. In that respect, trucker ones differ from systems that someone driving a family sedan would most appreciate. A trucker’s GPS should feature real-time traffic information. If the GPS knows that there’s a traffic jam up ahead, it might be able to instruct the driver on where they can go to avoid it. Are There Any Other GPS Features a Trucker Might Want? Some truckers may also look for trip logging capabilities. If the GPS can log a trucker’s route before they leave, they will know approximately what to expect along the way. The trucker’s company can also refer back to the trip log if they want to know what route the trucker took and how long it took them to get to their destination. The screen size can be a more critical issue than you might think. Some GPS screens are relatively large, and that can distract a trucker and cause an accident. Commercial trucks are enormous, so distracted driving is not something the trucker or their company will ever want to occur. The screen should not be too small, either. If the trucker has to squint at it to make out when they should turn and where, that can be just as lethal as having too large of a screen. Some GPS options show places where a commercial truck can stop and refuel. Most truckers considered that to be advanced technology not long ago, but now, it is much more common. Knowing where to stop and gas up can save lots of time and trouble on a long trip from coast to coast. What most commercial truck drivers come to realize is that there is no single answer regarding what GPS to use. They may have to experiment with a few different ones before coming across the ideal model for their needs.

Read More »

The Best Promotional Items for Your Staff and Remote Teams

Due to the covid-19 pandemic, remote work has become increasingly popular globally. Likewise, most companies’ policies on remote work have changed as a result of multiple lockdowns. But, like your clients, you can keep your staff and remote teams happy through brand promotion even during this critical phase. Give them some practical and impressive promotional items. Such products will make your remote workers feel valued. Once they feel valued, they will work with increased enthusiasm and drive to take your company forward. Below is a list of some of the best promotional items to give your staff and remote teams. 1. Coffee Mugs and Tumblers Almost everyone needs a cup of refreshing coffee in the morning. Your employees will enjoy having it in an oversized coffee mug and tumbler. You can give away coffee mugs in a variety of colours, shapes, and sizes. In addition, a custom, double-wall insulated coffee tumbler can keep beverages hot/cold for even 6 hours. 2. Personalized Office Supplies Your remote workers tend not to have an entire set of ready office supplies. So, you can supply all-inclusive office kits as promotional itemsto customers, employees, and the target market. They consist of every small thing that your employees might need to be effective and organised throughout the entire working day. A stationery set can be a great option as it usually contains a notebook, touch pen, paper clips, small binder clips, and medium binder clips in different colours. Your workers can even fit it inside purses, tote bags, backpacks, handbags, and oversized pockets. You can imprint every set with your brand logo design. 3. Wholesale Desk organisers Remote working can be relaxing but also disorganised for some employees. They may even misplace or lose small items. You can mitigate these risks by giving them desk organisers. Employees can use them on their tables to keep an organised environment.  In addition, desk organisers significantly decrease clutter because they come with different storage compartments and are ergonomically designed. This way, your remote workers get a storage place for small, medium, and extensive office supplies. They can keep sticky notes, scissors, paper clips, rulers, pens, pencils, compasses, highlighters, phones, business cards, and calculators closely. As they are available in a wide variety of colours and sizes, you can easily win over remote workers by giving them away as promotional items. 4. Mobile Phone Stands and Chargers Mobile phone technology is omnipresent. Almost everyone uses a mobile phone these days. You can get your employees promotional cell phone stands and USB or lightning charger cables. These come in various colours, shapes, sizes, and styles. These will also help boost employee productivity. The phone stand helps people use phones when charging them. There are personalised phone stands and chargers that are compatible with almost any USB port, meaning people can use them with any laptop they have at home. You can imprint each of them with a logo to make them unique to your business.   5. Ear Buds and organiser Kit Remote working comes with another big challenge, i.e., staying productive in a homely ambience with plenty of distractions. Earbuds or headphones are a perfect solution to this problem. They come in various colours and sizes so you can make your whole team feel special. When you give away earbuds as promotional items, workers can hook these up to their mobile phones or computers, helping them focus on their work better. No employee likes to have background noise distracting attendees from listening to what they have to say on a conference call, and no employee likes getting too distracted by background noise to listen to what someone is saying. Earbuds solve both problems.  The earbuds are small enough to perfectly fit in a small tote bag, pocket, desk drawer, and purse and are thus an excellent item to use in a home office. You are fortunate to have a skilled team of remote workers during this global Covid19 pandemic. Giving them promotional items is one of the best ways for you to express your gratitude. As they strive hard to deliver their best performance and take your company forward, giving them something makes them feel special and valued. Giving away promotional itemsto your staff and remote workers can be a grand gesture of employee appreciation. As an added bonus, it also helps in brand promotion and keeps your business in their mind and the minds of their friends and relatives when they see what you’ve done for your employees.

Read More »