Who knew trucking professionals of today would need to be as tech savvy as any business person? The first truck I ever drove cam complete without power steering, without air conditioning, without fm radio or an 8-track player. That was a long time ago.

I used a log book, a run sheet and not much else in my day to day business. Pay phones and smoke signals kept us in touch with dispatch. Our CB’s had 24 channels.

Today, well things have radically changed. Thanks to technology, today we have power steering, a/c, in dash DVD players, computers control each and every function in our engines and braking systems etc. We have laptop computers in our bunks, ipods on our dashboards, and, many of us, with more following suit everyday, are toting the latest in RIM’s arsenal of Blackberry Smartphones.

Since I moved to the Blackberry smartphone about 6 months ago, it has fast become, next to my truck, the most important tool for running my business. It provides me with all the communication and organizational tools I need. Unfortunately it doesn’t arrive in the box with all the tools I need. The following is a list of the tools I use on a daily bases to enhance my Blackberry Curve and thus my business.

I am using a Blackberry Curve 8330 on the Telus network. Being on the Telus network does have it’s drawbacks, but of course they didn’t fill me in on these before I signed the contract. While most people would like to use the internal GPS in the Curve, I don’t. I won’t pay Telus so they can force me to use THEIR GPS software platform. Also, I am running a pre-release of Blackberry OS 4.5(.0.51). All of these apps run smoothly with this operating system.

Now for the list:

Windows Live Messenger 2.1.32

The messenger website available from Microsoft for use on cell phones is a pain in the keister. This application provides full access to Windows Live Messenger as if you were using it on your computer. It even allows for GROUP chats. As soon as my computer WLM is shut down, my Blackberry WLM kicks in. Instant and constant access to family and friends wherever I am.

WeatherEye from The Weather Network.

This is probably one of the most used apps on my Blackberry. In the winter it gives the ability to plan our routes around the weather. In the summer it simply serves to depress me as I know when and where the headwinds are going to cost me precious fuel.

Viigo for Individuals

This app is another my absolute favourites. It is literally information on the go. A client that provides access to news, sports, weather, stocks info, and virtually any information available via RSS feeds on the net.

Facebook for Blackberry

Of course this isn’t an absolute necessity, but hey, we all need a little fun in our lives. It is exactly as the name states, Facebook for the Blackberry. It takes the IMPORTANT aspects of Facebook and puts them at your fingertips. Poke, write on walls, send email messages etc. all from one simple app. Setting up your notifications on Facebook and utilizing this app allows the full Facebook experience wherever you are.

Blackberry Wallet

Just what it says, a virtual wallet for storing personal and credit card information. The ideal and secure method for protecting your information while having it at your fingertips for online commerce. With the ability to store all your credit cards, personal information, and passwords, the net experience is as seamless and simple as it is from the home computer. Security isn’t an issue as even the OWNER or the Blackberry has to enter a password before it will open the vault.

SmartConverter for Blackberry

This handy little app provides all the conversion calculators you could ever need. I use it on a daily bases for converting my l/100km to Gallons Uk for monitoring purposes. It calls home at intervals decided by the user so that the exchange rates on any currency in the world is at your fingertips.

Wikipedia Application for Blackberry

This is a nifty little application for doing searches of information from Wikipedia. Wikipedia does not render very well on the Blackberry browser, and they haven’t, as yet come up with a decent mobile site online. This little application provides the front end you need to easily search for all your wiki needs. I know, it has very little to do with trucking, except when I need to prove my co-driver wrong on some mundane issue.

Documents To Go

A nice little app that allows editing of .doc, .xml and even .ppt files right on your blackberry. I use it for creating contracts on the fly, maintaining exel spreadsheets for tracking my fuel, credit card, cash and other purchases while I am on the road. This application will come packaged with OS 4.5 when it is finally released.

There many other great apps out there. I have tried many. For one reason or another they get removed. It isn’t always due to being poorly written or any other negative reason other than it just wasn’t a n app I really needed.

As I find new and exciting apps to play with, or actually use to the benefit of commerce, articles will appear here.