Download LorryMate

Before you download

Why a tablet

LorryMate runs on an Android phone too. But it is built for a tablet in the cab, and that is where it does its best work.

• You can read it from the driver’s seat. A bridge height, a street name, a sharp-turn warning — on a bigger screen at arm’s length they take a glance. On a phone they often take a second look, and a second look is time with your eyes off the road.
• Your phone stays a phone. Calls, the customer’s messages, the delivery app — and Google Maps as a second opinion on traffic, while LorryMate’s own traffic layer is still on trial. On one phone they all fight for the same small screen.
• Room for the maps. Working with no signal means keeping the maps on the device — for Britain that is a 2.1 GB map and a 510 MB routing file, plus the bridge data. A tablet usually has the room. A phone full of photos often does not.
• It lives in the cab. Mounted, on charge, in the same place every day, ready when you turn the key.

On a phone

It works, and it is fine in a car or a van, or as a spare on the day the tablet is not with you. In a lorry, treat the phone as the backup, not the plan.

And a ready-made sat-nav?

A dedicated sat-nav does one job and does it steadily — that is a fair reason to buy one. The difference is what happens afterwards. A sat-nav has what its maker put in it, updated on the maker’s schedule. LorryMate is fixed when a problem is found, and the fix reaches your tablet as the next version — often within days. A street you mark as unsuitable is avoided from your next route.

A tablet with a real GPS receiver costs about £60–80. Look for “GPS” or “GNSS” in the specification: many cheap tablets are Wi-Fi only and can never know where they are.

First time

Installing it

From Google Play there is nothing to do: tap Install, and updates arrive by themselves. To get a new version straight away, open Google Play, find LorryMate and tap Update.

If LorryMate was installed from this website, Google Play cannot update it. Uninstall it first, then install it from Google Play. If you use an account, sign in again afterwards and your places, vehicles and settings come back.

The APK from this website is the same app. Android will treat it as an app from an unknown source — this is normal, and the steps are the same for any app installed this way. To update it, download the newer APK above and install it over the old one.

1. Tap the download link above on the tablet or phone you will use it on
2. Open the downloaded file
3. Android will say installs from this source are not allowed — tap Settings
4. Turn on Allow from this source, then go back
5. Tap Install
6. The first screen asks for an activation code and shows This device: with a number. Ask for a free one-month code on the test code page and type it in
7. Open LorryMate, set your vehicle's dimensions, and pick your language

If your tablet blocks it entirely, that is usually Play Protect. Tap Install anyway — or send me a message and I will walk you through it.

Once it is installed, the driver's guide takes you through it a screen at a time. Save it to the tablet and it works with no signal.

Before your first run

Set the vehicle up properly

Height, width, length and weight — measured, not estimated. The whole thing depends on those four numbers being right.

If you carry a load that makes you taller than usual, change the height before you plan the route, not after.