This app was mentioned in 14 comments, with an average of 3.00 upvotes
I have an iPhone so I'm not sure, sorry. I did check that I spelled it correctly so it may just be an iPhone app.
Edit: this is the one I have, it says for skiing but it's has maps for state parks and such. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.maprika&hl=en
I've always been a fan of Maprika (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.maprika) put it in plenty older phones and it works well. The app it's self is only 11mb, although obvious if you store maps offline that will take up a bit more. Sadly no option to put them on the SD cards.
That said if you want actual navigation it's to slimed down for that. Just a map with a compass, and a dot to show where you are. The search is almost totally useless (it will only do restaurants and cafes) and there isn't any routing. Although you can bookmark locations. Personally that's never been a problem for me and I prefer the fact it's a small file size. Also a handful of other nice things like location sharing.
Maprika is an interesting app. It's more into map and group communication rather than tracking. The interesting concept is that it tracks your location on a scan of a paper ski region map.
It can record a track. And then divide it automatically into runs and lifts with some basic stats for each.
And it's also free.
Have a small clipboard for credit card slips (if your store uses them, of course) and keep a pen attached to it (here's mine for fun the magnet for the curious came from this shake-up flashlight whose circuit quit anyway), and a spare or two in your pocket. With a clipboard in hand customers do not have to take a few moments to "hunt" for a place to sign the slip or use your hot bag as the writing surface, which keeps you from unloading it while they sign as you should be.
It may seem like a small thing, but minutes add up over time, coupled with other time-saving methods it can add up to more deliveries per run.Additionally if your store has red pepper packets, and especially if they have parmesan cheese packets, and don't charge for them, keep some on hand on every run. Clamshell phone holsters work pretty well for this, in a pinch older style iPhone cases aren't too bad either. Either solution is far better than keeping them in a pants pocket, and being able to have them for a customer instead of having to apologize for not having them can result in a bumped up tip. Not often, but it can happen, but could also bolster future tips potentialy.
If you have a lot of gated communities (with automatic gate systems) and / or apartment complexes with gate codes, be sure to keep notes of the gate numbers for future reference when you get good ones, as not every order going to that place may include it. If your memory is not strong enough alone I like to use Maprika on my phone for it (all the stars on this map are gates in our delivery area, tapping the star in the app brings up the attached notes, available for free for iOs or Android.) If you have troublesome to navigate apartment/condo complexes, their maps can be added to the app as well if desired. Not terribly difficult to do if you have a little Photoshop (or similar app) experience. If that's too complex or slow for you can always keep the codes on a Google Sheets spreadsheet (which you can optionally share with your co-workers too and allow any of you to edit codes for each place) or just a piece of paper if that works best for you. But key point having the gate codes can save you several minutes of waiting, all too frequently people who moved in recently (even up to several months ago) often end up not being shown in the gate box's directory, or they sometimes just don't pick up the phone if they are listed. Having a gate code handy means getting in, now rather than "soon™."
As far as apartments go:
I've put the tip out here before, but I'll do it again. Most of the drivers in the store I'm at, as well as several of the Jimmy John's drivers two doors down from us, use this app.
Maprika, GPS for ski maps. Available for free, with no ads even, for both iOs and Android. App for the PC for setting up new maps with GPS markers is available on their website as well, a lot easier than the process on mobile.
It will require some effort, but if you have a lot of apartment/condo complexes it's well worth it in the long run. My store has about 50 complexes in our delivery area, and several more are going up too. I've completed most of them at current.
It's quite handy to be able to look at the map even before you depart the store, as well as being able to see your location on said map if you get turned around in the complex.
Once a map is set up and uploaded to Maprika's server anyone with the app can download and use the map as well.
In addition the app supports putting notes at locations, making it handy for storing gate codes as well each star on that map can be tapped to bring up the note as a small popup window. Each of those stars is either a gated apartment complex, or gated subdivision in our delivery area. The notes will appear on the custom apartment maps as well, as long as the note is placed within the confines of that map. The notes are stored on your device and aren't automatically shared. You can, however export the notes, "my places" as a gpx file on android phones, and send the file to another android user to import, allowing new drivers to start with most codes off the bat, rather than having to accumulate them themselves. Can't be done with iPhones sadly as the iOs doesn't allow for such file usage. One can drop the gpx file into Google Earth and manually input the information into their iPhone though.
As for getting and setting up new maps, a good photo with a decent cellphone camera is usually sufficient. (My Note 4 camera does the job nicely) Typically apartments will have a map somewhere around the main entrance, though if it's not present, or badly damaged, there may be a map in the office as well, or at the very least office staff may have paper copies of the apartment map. As of current we only have one out of the roughly 50 complexes in our area that does not have any maps at all available. And I keep swearing once it cools down enough out here, I'm going to work on drawing one up myself between a satellite image, and walking the entire complex to get the unit numbers when I'm on a day off. (I can use the exercise frankly anyway)
From there I bring the photo into Photoshop (similar apps should work too of course) and put the image into greyscale mode. This ditches the color information, but can drop the file size to about a quarter of the original. Then I use the perspective tool, lining up on 4 corners of the map, to flatten the image. Tweak the brightness/contrast if needed, and invert the image to make the background black and building outlines and unit numbers white. We've recently found this to be a lot easier on the eyes at night, and I'm slowly updating maps to reflect this last step.
With the image adjusted and flattened, open it in Maprika's pc app and pick at least 5 common points on the map image, and Google or bing maps. Locations of fire hydrants, corners of buildings or curbs are usually the easiest to pick out on both the map and the satellite image.
Typically I can set up a new map in as little as 15-30 minutes depending on how much tweaking is needed, I've had one or two maps that were so messy visually that I opted to spend a few hours in Adobe illustrator to redraw the map to use.
I think that covers the basics at least, feel free to toss any questions my way if you (or anyone else) decide to start using this app.
I've put the tip out here before, but I'll do it again.
Maprika, GPS for ski maps. Available for free, with no ads even, for both iOs and Android. App for the PC for setting up new maps with GPS markers is available on their website as well, a lot easier than the process on mobile.
It will require some effort, but if you have a lot of apartment/condo complexes it's well worth it in the long run. My store has about 50 complexes in our delivery area, and several more are going up too. I've completed most of them at current.
It's quite handy to be able to look at the map even before you depart the store, as well as being able to see your location on said map if you get turned around in the complex.
Once a map is set up and uploaded to Maprika's server anyone with the app can download and use the map as well.
In addition the app supports putting notes at locations, making it handy for storing gate codes as well each star on that map can be tapped to bring up the note as a small popup window. Each of those stars is either a gated apartment complex, or gated subdivision in our delivery area. The notes will appear on the custom apartment maps as well, as long as the note is placed within the confines of that map. The notes are stored on your device and aren't automatically shared. You can, however export the notes, "my places" as a gpx file on android phones, and send the file to another android user to import, allowing new drivers to start with most codes off the bat, rather than having to accumulate them themselves. Can't be done with iPhones sadly as the iOs doesn't allow for such file usage. One can drop the gpx file into Google Earth and manually input the information into their iPhone though.
As for getting and setting up new maps, a good photo with a decent cellphone camera is usually sufficient. (My Note 4 camera does the job nicely) Typically apartments will have a map somewhere around the main entrance, though if it's not present, or badly damaged, there may be a map in the office as well, or at the very least office staff may have paper copies of the apartment map. As of current we only have one out of the roughly 50 complexes in our area that does not have any maps at all available. And I keep swearing once it cools down enough out here, I'm going to work on drawing one up myself between a satellite image, and walking the entire complex to get the unit numbers when I'm on a day off. (I can use the exercise frankly anyway)
From there I bring the photo into Photoshop (similar apps should work too of course) and put the image into greyscale mode. This ditches the color information, but can drop the file size to about a quarter of the original. Then I use the perspective tool, lining up on 4 corners of the map, to flatten the image. Tweak the brightness/contrast if needed, and invert the image to make the background black and building outlines and unit numbers white. We've recently found this to be a lot easier on the eyes at night, and I'm slowly updating maps to reflect this last step.
With the image adjusted and flattened, open it in Maprika's pc app and pick at least 5 common points on the map image, and Google or bing maps. Locations of fire hydrants, corners of buildings or curbs are usually the easiest to pick out on both the map and the satellite image.
Typically I can set up a new map in as little as 15-30 minutes depending on how much tweaking is needed, I've had one or two maps that were so messy visually that I opted to spend a few hours in Adobe illustrator to redraw the map to use.
I think that covers the basics at least, feel free to toss any questions my way if you (or anyone else) decide to start using this app.
I've said it before on this subreddit, and I'll say it again: I love using Maprika.
Here in southwest Las Vegas our delivery area has nearly 50 apartment / condo complexes inside of it, and I expect it will exceed 50 before the end of the year, or shortly after it as several more complexes are going up.
Maprika gives me, and the other drivers in our store that use it 3 nice little advantages.
1) You can add notes via "My places" that are then tagged to a location. We use these to store gate codes, whether they be for an apartment complex or gated community. This is a screenshot each star is one of these notes, tap one and the location name and it's gate code are displayed. In addition the 'My Places' locations and notes attached to them can be shared via gpx file from one android device to another android device, allowing newer drivers to start off with the collection, rather than having to build up their own notes from scratch. Sorry iOs users, the file system iOs uses doesn't allow the Maprika folks to add this functionality and you have to add them in manually.
2) Maprika allows you to upload images to their servers, and I've used this to upload apartment maps. This means we can preview exactly where in an apartment complex we're going, even before the order is ready to be packed up and head out the door.
3) Furthermore, if you go all the way with setting up the maps, and match points on a google or bing map to points on the apartment map Maprika will be able to show you where you are when you're at an apartment complex (Android shows a blue arrow, iOs shows the usual blue pin) particularly handy for those that can get turned around, which can happen especially at night when the signs on the buildings are obstructed or unlit.
The best part: Maprika is free for both iOs and Android, and there's an app for PC as well for adding maps, though you can do it via the iOs or Android devices, I find it easier to do it on the PC where you can see both your map and bing's or google's map along side when pinning common points.
Now the one downside, maybe, while Maprika is free to use, uploading maps is free as is downloading them... somebody has to actually set the maps up. I've spent in excess of 40 hours in the last few years setting up maps for use, and still have yet to go back and update some maps, as we've found some errors on the apartments original maps, like this error on a nice brand new complex's map. The stars are my notes as to what the actual unit numbers for building 17 are so I can make the corrections via Photoshop.
Yes... sorta... but you have to put in some work.
Maprika (GPS for Ski Maps)
But here's the catch, you'll need to get the map for the apartment yourself, asking nicely in the apartment office can go a long way. After that you scan it, or get a good quality shot with your smartphone. Photoshop can 'flatten' the image with its perspective tool, as long as you can see the four corners of the paper in the shot. Then you use Maprika's PC app (you can do it in the mobile apps too, but I find it a lot easier on the PC) and once uploaded anyone with the app can download the map as well.
I used it extensively in Las Vegas while working for Domino's for 7+ years... our store had about 50 apartment/condo complexes in our delivery area. I'd aquired and set up the maps for about 47 of them. It was also quite handy for storing gate codes in GPS based notes at the location of a gate... there were 'a few' gated communities in our area, both apartments and subdivisions.
I have this Imgur album with example maps, basic instructions, etc.
Edit: Nearly forgot, I also used Photoshop to convert the pics to greyscale, to reduce the overall file size, and usually inverted the image as well (making the "paper" black and the "print" white) to reduce the intensity when using it at night.
Maprika is still free, but doesn't have some of the functionality. I used to use it when I worked for Dominos. Side benefit: when you've set up a map it's shared with other Maprika users (works the other way around too, if someone else uploads a map you can just download it and use)
Home page which has guides for things, like setting up maps and such.
Also handy: long press to add position-based notes. I used that to log Gate codes when I acquired them, only need to tap it to bring the note up and see the gate code later on, appears both on base map and any specific map.
If you're in Southwest Las Vegas in particular you'll find a lot of apartments done out there already by me, in my old Domino's delivery area.
GPS on ski map. Aka Maprika
Try Maprika. A somewhat large database of custom overlayed maps, and you can add any map yourself.
On the point of learning apartment complexes, colleges, and similarly complex areas, I found a nice app for assisting with them.
Available ad-free and for both iOs and Android (though the android one is decidedly better as you can share notes by file transfer) is Maprika (shows up in the app stores as "GPS on Ski maps" by Maprika, but only displays as "Maprika" under the app icon when you install it.
It does require a little know-how on the computer to set up the images as maps, but once done anyone with the app can download them. Properly set up the images are geotagged, and will display your position on the map. Can be handy when it's dark out and you get turned around in an apartment complex.
In addition you can add notes tied to GPS locations (the vast majority of those stars on the map are gate codes, a tap on the star brings up the note. Some are notes where an apartment map has an error on it) which will appear on the basic Google map, or on any custom maps (provided the note is in that location somewhere) which at my store we use to keep gate codes handy. Android users can export these notes as a GPX file, and share it via bluetooth to another Android user, allowing new drivers to start with a set of gate codes, rather than spending weeks or months accruing them themselves.
If you only have a handful of apartment complexes or a single campus in your delivery area, it'd probably be easier to memorize layouts, but at our store, we have just about 50 apartment/condo complexes in our delivery area, so having the maps is far more handy than trying to memorize that much information.
I use Maprika. http://www.maprika.com/index.html Totally free to use on Android and IOS. The app records your speed and vertical height into pleasant graph as well as overlaying your tracks onto a piste map. If your in a compatable resort then it will even split your track automatically into a per run basis to view your individual speeds and weighting times at lifts. Very comprehensible resort coverage (I have never had any problems) or you can add your own map. While primarily for skiing/snowboarding the app also has many cycle maps, them park maps ect. Finally you can save OSM maps for use offline to navigate anywhere. Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.maprika&hl=en_GB IOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gps-on-ski-map-by-maprika/id404686699?mt=8
Note: I have only ever used it on Andriod and in Europe. My understanding is that the IOS app is that same and that US resorts work then same but I don't know for sure.
Edit: spelling.
#2 shouldn't grind your gears, you should be too. Whether it be in a suburban subdivision or driving through the woods your vision is very much more impaired versus daylight. Something can easily come running up and enter the roadway in front of you without ever being illuminated by the headlights until the last second.
Unless they're doing like more than 10 under the limit, that would be a bit excessive.
As for most of the apartment stuff, get Maprika (GPS for ski maps) for iPhone or Android. It's free, but you'll need to set up your own scanned or photographed maps (can do it from the app, but the PC app works so much better). When the maps are set up correctly they will act similar to a regular map in that your position will be shown on the map, even if it's just a scanned map.
When I worked at the Domino's in Las Vegas we had about 50 different apartment/condo complexes in our delivery area, many of them gated and customers frequently didn't give the code on the phone or through the ordering app. I had the vast majority of the apartment/condo complex maps set up and uploaded to Maprika's servers. And here's the big benefit of doing it: Not only did those uploaded maps get used by me, but the other drivers in the store could grab them as well (anyone can, actually as long as they have the app) and I'd used the app's note system, which tagged the notes to GPS coordinates, to keep all the gate codes I'd accumulated stored at the location of each given gate. These notes can be exported and shared with other Android users of the app in your store, too if they're needed.
A quick example of how the app looks
Where I'm at now there's a lot fewer apartment complexes, but I still use the map for several of them, but primarily it gets used for the college campus, the map for which I set up in the app already to help me find the various halls.