BY THE BOOK: Davis Removals’ Garry Davis said his drivers rely on a truck edition of the UBD because Google Maps and GPS satnavs are unreliable. Photo: JUDE KEOGH
THE rising popularity of smartphones has meant the use of web-based mapping and GPS services like Google Maps have increased, but at least one Orange business has chosen to stick to the old ways for navigation because of the time it takes for new streets to be updated.
Davis Removals owner Garry Davis said most of his drivers rely on the truck edition of the UBD rather than GPS satnavs and smartphones.
“The worst part of Google Maps is they send you in the wrong direction,” he said.
“The drivers would rather use the books. They’re more reliable.”
Mr Davis said unlike the more high-tech options, the truck edition of the street directory helps drivers avoid low bridges and other non-truck friendly areas, and with new editions published every year it is rarely out of date.
Orange City Council spokesman Nick Redmond said the council updates its maps as new suburbs and streets are established.
“We do our maps and we provide that information to the Lands and Property Information (LPI) in Bathurst,” he said.
“We don’t publish maps that regularly but it appears on survey maps straight away.”
The LPI supplies the data to online map companies like Google, but Mr Redmond said there is often a significant lag before it appears online even up to five years for some areas of Orange.
“It’s not ideal that they don’t appear on things like Google Maps that quickly but realistically it wasn’t that long ago that we went without those things,” he said.
Mr Redmond said changes to streets such as road closures were also reported immediately to the LPI but it was difficult to ask Google to fix problems or update new areas.
“There’s no real way of speaking to Google,” he said.
“More or less they provide a very good service but trying to talk to them is very challenging.”
McCormack Barber Real Estate agent Peter McCormack said some new estates have taken up to two years to be included on Google Maps.
“Anywhere brand new like in north Orange, Queensbury Meadows or the newer parts of Poplars Estate aren’t on the maps,” he said.
“If the first house went in less than 12 months ago it won’t be mapped.”