Hertz Never Lost Really Works!
Written: Nov 22 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to use & dead-on accurate
Cons: In short supply
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| Joubert's Full Review: Hertz |
My job includes regularly visiting customers throughout the country. Until now, I’ve relied on a laborious process involving guesswork and reading maps to find my way. On occasions when I’ve been particularly ambitious, I’ve mapped out my planned route in advance and used Yahoo! Maps to navigate from site to site.
That all changed when I began using Hertz’ Never Lost on my most recent trip.
Hertz bills this option as their In Car Navigation System. Available for only $6 per day, this marvel increased my productivity by no less than 20%. I no longer had to double back because I missed a highway exit or pull a U-turn because I was in the far right lane while the street I wanted to turn on came up fast on the left. Using Never Lost, I found over three dozen locations in three days with absolutely no problems.
So What Exactly Is This System?
The Never Lost system is a Global Positioning System (GPS) appliance mounted in the center of the vehicle’s dashboard. The unit includes a wheel used to select city, street and address numbers and a small, but very legible map display. The GPS uses satellites information provided by Magellan Corporation to track a vehicle within 10 meters. How close is 10 meters? How about a parking lot?
The entire unit is small, maybe four inches by seven inches tall, but the controls are easy to use and the volume and brightness are adjustable.
The system not only displays the route based on your choice, selected each time, of shortest time, shortest distance, most use of freeways, least use of freeways, but also relays instructions by voice. The system also provides instructions in seven languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian and Japanese.
Finally, virtually every attraction, store or service facility you could think of is accessible through a “Points of Interest” locator.
How To Find An Address
Let’s say you’re going to 123 Main Street in Whoville, Virginia. Yes, you’re going to see the Grinch. Hush and pay attention to the demonstration.
You’ll select the “Street Address” option by toggling the wheel’s cursor button there. A keyboard (alpha order) will appear on the screen and you’ll be prompted, “Do you know the city?”
Embarrassing confession time: I first thought that the system was asking if I was familiar with the city so that it could send me down minor roads. Sigh. Actually, the database moves much faster if you can identify the town’s limits.
For our purposes, scroll the wheel to the “W” and press the Enter key. Instantly, some of the letters are dimmed and no longer selectable. Why? Because the database knows, for example, that there are no towns or cities that begin with the letter W followed by Q or X and will therefore not allow entry of the Q or X.
As soon as the regional database (which you can change with a few clicks) can limit its results to a screen of eight options, the keyboard displaced is replaced with those options. Simply scroll down to the name “Whoville” and click Enter.
You get to repeat the process for the street name, but now that your search is limited to Whoville, the pace quickens. After selecting the street, you’ll often be prompted for a street address. Scroll to the address and you’re done. Never Lost now knows that you want to travel from where you are to 123 Main Street in Whoville. You’ll then get your option of time or distance and freeway or not.
The system calculates a route based on your specifications in just a few seconds and displays a map of your location. At the bottom of the display are indicators showing how many miles are left to your destination, an approximate travel time, and how many miles are left to travel using the road you’re currently on. Let me repeat that. Never Lost will actually tell you how much further you’ll be traveling on the road you’re currently on.
As you turn on to each new road, the system’s mellifluous female voice tells you whether your next turn will be a right or left turn and again, how far ahead turn lies. You’re even prompted to return to your route or calculate a new one if you miss your destination.
What Else Can You Do?
You can keep a trip log that shows high, low and average speeds, distance traveled and time driving. That’s extremely useful for folks who are billable and need to complete time sheets.
There’s also the Points of Interest function I mentioned earlier. Simply choose a type of attraction or store (say, a gas station) and enter a name if you want to choose a particular brand or simply click the “nearest” button. I used this feature every day to select the closest “local”, non-chain restaurant. I also used this feature to find gas stations and the Hertz location to return the car.
Are The Directions Good?
Man, they’re incredible. In fact, I was shocked to find myself in rural Indiana being sent down a little two-lane farm road. I was literally in the middle of a farm on unlined blacktop. It was County Route whatever, but it was faster than backtracking to the highway from the small town I was in to go to the next small town. Driving like a local appeals to me. I even found a small family cemetery on the road that had some amazing tombstones against a lovely backdrop of barns and silos. I never would have seen that on a highway. And I got there faster too!
Sounds Great. Any Problems?
I had two problems that were minor, but worth noting. The first was that construction information is not be up-to-date, nor are traffic conditions considered while routing. I pulled off one interstate only to find out that the entrance ramp to re-enter was under construction. Ordinarily, I would have been in trouble, but although Never Lost insisted there was a working highway ramp there, I was easily able to find an alternate route.
The other issue is one that is a bit more troubling. It seems that Hertz will gladly accept and confirm reservations for a vehicle with a Never Lost unit. According to staff at two airports locations, however, those reservation confirmations are requests only and the reservation center shouldn’t position them any other way. Regardless of the true policy, I’ve had to argue for a Never Lost equipped vehicle twice. The first time I was unlucky. The second time, I tossed my Hertz #1 Gold Card on the counter and told the manager to find me a Never Lost car or I would move my entire division’s rental business to Avis on a cell phone while he listened to the call.
Maybe I could have been nicer, but I had confirmed the reservation twice, I had no maps, it was early evening and I had to get going. Funny, but there were no less than three vehicles on the lot with Never Lost units. Okay, so one wasn’t washed. It’s not like I wash my car every couple of days so I wasn’t too worried.
The bottom line is that you should strongly consider using one of these units if you are traveling to more than one or two destinations when you rent a car.
Recommended:
Yes
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