Techie Geek, Newbie - with quick question

An app that I could enter my destination and it would suggest routing options. I would also be able to tell it what route I am going to take (just like google maps). A list of each truck stop along the way, ordered by the next exit coming up. I should be able to enter my estimated distance to empty so it can calculate the last truck stop where I must get fuel before running empty. Have fuel prices updated daily from as many sources as you can get. Also have the fuel tax for each state, updated for the quarter, subtracted from the pump price to show the TRUE price of the fuel. Nothing is worse than just fueling and going an hour or two down the road to find it say .10 less (in same state).

This would be a similar app like large companies use internally to have their fleets fuel. However as an o/o I am not stopping three times a day to buy 25 gallons at a time. I typically wait til I can put 200 gallons or so in (300 gallon tanks).

I would pay for this.

 

The trouble with that is it would be so limited as to how many people would actually use it. For example I have some brokers I can text looking for loads or they text me with offers and everything is worked out like that. Then there are some who just don't work that way at all it's a phone call or nothing. I really like the ones who can deal with the finer details electronically like that and can see where an app like that might be appreciated by the ones who do things via text. But I don't really know exactly what the point would be. It's a pretty simple thing to do via text so why re-invent the wheel and over complicate things. And honestly even though I do have a smartphone and use it to check email and surf the web I never use apps, couldn't use one if you held a gun to my head. But I've never been on facebook and don't get all of that either although I have come around to seeing it might be a good thing for networking. But LinkedIn accomplishes the same thing so why? And I never use LinkedIn either. One area it might work I'm guessing is the ability to track a shipment in a truck via smartphone if that truck does not have a sat comm. But again there are also ways to do that already so why re-invent the wheel. I'm thinking that unless you have some real working knowledge of the industry and understand exactly where a specific need is at then you will likley be wasting your time. There are plenty of computer guru truckers out there who invent this stuff all the time. Some of it useful, some of it maybe not so. depends on one's needs. I'm thinking you've got a huge learning curve here.

 

Agree with gokiddo - if it hasn't already been done that is a good stab at something that might be useful. Although some fuel card's have websites a person can go to pulling up that exact info and also showing the best discounts. My thing about smartphones is that imo they are only good for surfing the web and checking email, not much more. They're just too small and I'm really slow on the keypad. For what they cost in a month's time these days, sometimes I just wish they had never advanced much more than being able to hold about 100 phone numbers more or less + texting. Anything more involved than that and I'm on the laptop. Something that was simple to read and easy to use might interest me but I'd have to be convinced. Have fun researching actual pump price versus what a truck really pays when IFTA fuel tax is figured in - they are two very different things - just to clue you in a little........ an actual on the pump price in one state that is cheaper than fuel in the next state does not necessarily mean the cheaper pump price is the cheaper fuel. When IFTA fuel taxes that have to be paid every quarter are figured in that is the true cost of fuel.... There is a sticky thread about IFTA fuel tax in here..

 

You're barking up the wrong tree. I have a "trucking" folder on my iPhone with a dozen pieces of crap in it that looked good until you actually try to use them. About the only thing useful are the truckstop chain apps (especially the TA/Petro one) and a couple of the locator features in the Trucker Tools app. The latter is a bit redundant to Google, so it's not that special.

What you don't know is that the real value providers in this industry are usually far from the internet. Word of mouth to find them, and if they even have a phone number half the time they don't answer it.

 

hey Dan, what you might consider is checking out the qualcomm systems truckers use. I say that because it's an expensive unit with proprietary software, satellite driven. See what it does and if you can design some apps to take the place of the qualcomm you would do very, very well. There are apps out there that do parts of what a qualcomm does, but nobody has really put the whole package together yet. When someone does and the major trucking companies start switching over from qualcomm it will be a real windfall.

 

A true truck stop app with all truck stops on interstates and us highways including rest areas walmarts diesel prices weigh stations etc the truxster app is good but currently doesn't play nice with ics update and I would hate to see how it acts when jellybean drops

 

Oh yeah and an app for this website would be nice