Before you write in

No. Android shows that warning for every app that does not come from the Play Store, whatever is inside it. LorryMate is not on Google Play today, so you install it straight from this site.

You can check the file is exactly the one published here: the download page shows an MD5 checksum. If your file matches, nothing was changed in between.

1. Open lorrymate.uk/download on the tablet itself, not on a computer.
2. Tap Download the APK.
3. Open the downloaded file. Android will ask permission to install from this source — allow it for your browser.
4. Tap Install.

About a minute in total. The driver's guide has the same steps with pictures.

Three usual reasons, most likely first:

• Your Android is older than 8.0. It cannot install below that. Settings → About tablet → Android version.
• Not enough free storage. The app and its map data need room.
• An older LorryMate is installed and was signed differently. Uninstall the old one first. You will lose your saved vehicles, so write your dimensions down before you do.

Two hard requirements:

• Android 8.0 or newer
• A GPS receiver — this is the one that catches people out

Memory: not measured yet. I am not going to quote you a number I have not tested. It runs well on the tablets used for testing; if yours struggles, tell me and I will put the figure on this page once I know it properly.

Plenty of cheap tablets are Wi-Fi only and have no GPS chip at all. Such a tablet can never know where it is, however fast it is. Before buying, look for “GPS” or “GNSS” in the specification, not just the word “navigation”.

A new tablet with real GPS costs about £60–80. That is the cheapest insurance against a bridge strike you will ever buy.

Either the tablet has no GPS receiver (above), or LorryMate does not have permission to use it. Check Settings → Apps → LorryMate → Permissions → Location, and set it to Allow all the time.

A first fix outdoors can take a minute or two. Inside a building or under a steel roof it may never get one — that is the sky, not the app.

Tap the gear icon, then your vehicle. Enter height, width, length and weight.

Measure them. Do not use the figures from the brochure — trailers, roof bars and aerials are all real. Everything the app does rests on those four numbers being right.

Change the height in the vehicle settings before you plan the route, not after. The route is worked out from the height at the moment you plan it.

Yes — a list of vehicles with names, switched in a couple of taps. Drivers who change lorries during the day asked for this, and it is why the app works that way.

Gear icon → Language. Turn-by-turn guidance is available in 26 languages, including Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Russian and Ukrainian.

Street names stay in the local language. That is deliberate — what you hear should match what is written on the sign.

Yes, in settings. Units follow the country you are driving in by default — miles per hour in the United Kingdom, kilometres per hour elsewhere.

Because the map does not know it is too narrow. Almost no map does — road width is one of the worst-covered pieces of data anywhere.

That is what the Street unsuitable button is for. Mark the street, give a reason, and it is avoided from then on. Your marks stay on your tablet.

House names are the hardest part of UK navigation, and the reason this app exists at all. Most map data simply does not contain them.

Two things help:

• Type the postcode first, then pick from the list.
• If the house is still missing, use Add house — put your finger on the building itself, not on the road, and name it. Next time it is found instantly, signal or no signal.

Yes, once you have downloaded the region you drive in.

Routes are worked out on the tablet itself, and the map is drawn from a copy stored on the tablet. Bridge and restriction warnings work offline too. You can drive a whole day with the tablet in flight mode.

What does not work offline is looking up a new address. That needs a connection. Houses and favourites you have already saved are found with no signal at all — which is the case that matters most on a delivery round.

Known, and being worked on. For now the reliable fix is to connect the tablet to the cab speakers over Bluetooth — louder than any tablet speaker will ever manage.

Tap and hold the spot on the map and choose the report option, or write to support@lorrymate.uk with the postcode or coordinates.

Reports about bridge heights are the most valuable thing you can send. Take the figure from the sign at the bridge — feet and inches, exactly as written. The metric plate is usually rounded.

Region	Vehicles
United Kingdom & Ireland	Every profile — rigid, artic, van, motorhome, bus, tractor, car. Ireland is newly added and has not been driven yet
Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia	Every profile
Cyprus	Every profile
France, Spain, Portugal	Every profile

Every region routes the full set of profiles — there is no cut-down car-only version abroad. Hand-measured bridge data is deepest in southern England and thins out from there.

Ferry crossings are included where the map has them, so a run to the Isle of Wight plans as one route.

No — and anyone who tells you their app does is selling you something.

LorryMate knows what is in the map data, plus the bridges and restrictions measured on the road by hand. Coverage is deepest in Hampshire and the New Forest, because that is where the driver who builds it works, and it thins out from there.

The sign at the bridge is the authority, not the screen.

The app is there to stop you arriving at a bridge you cannot pass. It does not replace looking at it.

One driver. LorryMate is built by someone who still drives a 26-tonne lorry in Hampshire every week, because the apps on the market kept sending him down roads he could not use.

That is also why it is honest about what it cannot do.