Life on the road isn’t for everyone. And even those who are cut out for it can use a little help staying entertained and connected. So we have put together a list of the top apps for drivers (apart from BigRoad of course).
Ok, it’s not just an app, more of a stand alone product that most drivers are aware of. But if you don’t want to have a Sirius radio set up in your cab you can use your phone and the Sirius app to listen to all of the channels you want. The downside? A subscription is going to cost you somewhere around $15 a month. Not a bad price for something you will be using every day.
Know you’re going to have some down time on your next route? Or just want to find a good restaurant without going too far from the interstate? Roadtrippers is built for anyone planning a long drive and works great for commercial drivers. Just put in your route and check off what you want to find: hotels, restaurants or my personal favourite weird stuff. Roadtrrippers shows you all the spots within a set distance of your prefered route.
Thought that Sirius was great because you didn’t have to constantly change stations or wait through commercials? Welcome to Spotify. No matter what your preference in music is you can find it with Spotify, plus it will make suggestions on songs and artists for you based on your preferences. The best part, if you don’t mind a short ad every once in a while it is free. Hate ads? A subscription will run you around $10 a month with bonus feature such as being able to download music so you don’t use up data.
It’s hard to stay healthy on the road. A lot of the time that is because it’s hard to keep track of everything you eat in a day. MyFitnessPal is like any other calorie counter, except with almost any food imaginable pre-programmed into it. Not only does it have full nutritional values for all the big chains, it had the fried apple fritters from my local farmer’s market. Set intake goals for yourself and keep on track.
Music not your thing? Audible may be your answer for staying entertained on the road. Audible lets you download your favourite books and have them read to you while you are on the road. With a few hundred thousand audiobooks to choose from you probably won’t run out of entertainment material for sometime. The downside? There is both a subscription fee and a per audiobook cost (though you get one book free per month).
This one definitely has applications outside of work. But whether you are trying to keep your overhead down or just trying to keep you family vehicles filled up for less GasBuddy will help you save. Put in your location and GasBuddy will pull up a list of nearby stations with the lowest price.
When we hear about what the hardest thing about being out on the road is the number one answer is almost always “being away from my family”. Things have come along way in recent years and the best way to stay connected now is with Skype. Sure there are other video chat apps out there but skype is universally accessible, meaning as long as the other person has a computer, or other device that can use skype, they will be able to chat with you.