Tablets for O/O's

buy a tablet with gps. the most popular log app is bigroad. coplot is what i use for my truck gps unit on my tablet. you can buy the printershare app. using your mobile hotspot device. and print wirelessly to your printer.

i don't know if you can scan though. haven't looked into that. so, laptop might still be needed.

you can also do the same things with a phone. so, really no need for a tablet. except the added advantage of a bigger screen.

every quarter there's a survey release. android is the most popular operating system. with apple being a distant second. but that's all in your preference. do you want a cheap android or an expensive apple. for the basic functionality, they both do the same thing.

i use my tablet and phone for my emails. but if it's lengthy response back. i'll use the laptop. i can also receiver and print faxes from my tablet and phone. but if i have to send. that involves scanning using my laptop. the office talks about camera apps for sending in signed bills. but i don't see any difference from just using the regular camera app and emailing the pic. but for some reason. the office can't see my pics. although they look just fine on my laptop. so i use the laptop scan and fax send.

the tablet can also look at the load board. but if your leased on. using the company loadboard. they may not have an app for that. and your stuck with the laptop.

 

Check with your logbook software as most will not run on tablet including the new windows rt. I was going to go that route and found eclipse log software will on run on full operatering system and tablet have a smaller system. Not sure about other log book software.
Also HP wireless printing only works thru the internet so one can not print wireless when in areas without the internet. Just another reason for using a laptop vs. tablet.

 

I also wasn't real fond of having to open and turn on laptop for each duty change but after actually using it, really wasn't that bad. I just don't turn the laptop off but just close the lid while in the open application of the eclipse software. It saves all my work and comes right back up when I open it.

I did put a mount in to hold it in nice position to use from the drivers seat.

 

do yourself a favor and buy the most powerful tablet _hardware-wise_ that you can afford. technology changes so often and so fast that your aparatus may get obsolete by the time you get comfortable with it.
I'd recommend a samsung with the "android" operating system. the gps, tether, root, EL, and so on you can always get for it.

Drivers do yourselves a favor, and always take your tablet off of the mount on the cab when you leave your truck. leaving it on plain sight is just a great way to invite thieves to break into your truck and then some thinking we all got valuable stuff in our trucks

 

Screw Samsung super bloated skin and expensive. Go with the nexus line either 7inch tablet or the 10tablet. Both have and will get Googles Android faster then any other tablet. There also relatively inexpensive also.

 

I have a iPad and a Brother 4 in 1 Printer, Scanner, Copier, Fax combo. Brother has an App that allows me to both print and scan with my iPad. I have it mounted on the face of my dash and run CoPilot gps software on it. Eclipse has been saying for over a year that they are developing apps for both Android and iPad but no set date for release yet.