Need a decent GPS

Discussion in 'Trucking Electronics, Gadgets and Software Forum' started by kilroy2963, Sep 13, 2009.

  1. kajidono

    kajidono Road Train Member

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    What we need is a gps that plots a safe route. No frills, no bs. Enter the address and it takes you there. In this day and age, that is entirely possible. Maybe google can make one.
     
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  3. snowbunny

    snowbunny Medium Load Member

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    Please let me know how this works out...bought my hubby Garmin 255 last year...claims he HAS to buy the new trucker version, but I can't justify $500!
     
  4. LSU Tiger

    LSU Tiger Banned for spamming

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    With the laptop mount that I use, you unbolt the inside of the passenger seat, lift it up, and place the predrilled base under it. Then bolt everything back together. However, it also comes with a quick connect/disconnect that is situated about an inch above the base. Thus, to remove and replace the stand to get it out of the way or to bring it home takes about 2 seconds each way, as the base remains in place. Not to mention it cost me a whopping $40.

    In addition, the stand overall has a very small footprint, so it doesn’t take up much room in the cab at all and it doesn’t prevent passengers from sitting in the passenger seat. In addition, with my setup, when you put the screen in the down position, you can’t see that I even have a laptop in the truck from the outside, and because it is bolted down to the floor, my laptop is extremely stable and only rarely shakes.


    With Streets & Trips, once you learn how to use it and know what you are doing, you can create a route and make sure it is legal for 18-wheelers in a small fraction of the time that you can with any standalone GPS device, since there are no menus to cycle through and all you have to do is simply point and click.

    Not to mention, that it doesn’t matter which GPS solution you are using, whether it is Streets & Trips or any of those so-called truck specific GPS devices that only do pseudo truck routing, you still need to make sure your routes are legal for 18-wheelers.

    If you are completely relying on any solution, even those so-called truck specific GPS devices, without verifying your routes are legal for 18-wheelers first, then you are in effect playing Russian Roulette with your driving career, and it will only be a matter of time before it will bite you on the ### and believe me inevitably it will.

    Just because drivers today use the latest GPS device as a tool and a navigation aid, it doesn’t absolve drivers from their responsibility to ensure that the roads they travel on are legal for 18-wheelers to be on. Indeed, I talked to a Canadian guy with an English accent today and he told me he got a $2000 something fine the other day in New York City because his so-called trucking specific GPS device with the latest updates led him down a place he wasn’t supposed to be.

    In any case, if I were you and if you go to the same places repeatedly (I don’t know), but I would push pin all of my consignees, shippers, stops, or whatever locations you go to repeatedly until you get all of them or most of them push pinned. Then it would be just a matter of right clicking the individual stops you are dispatched to and choosing “add to route” from the quick menu, and then hitting Control/F5 to get directions and you would be ready to go and start driving.

    In my setup, I have every consignee, shipper, company-terminal, drop lot, etc. push pinned and setup in Streets & Trips that I ever went to since I have been using Streets & Trips. I also set up avoid area rectangles so that I can route to them without having to check for restricted routes and low clearances. In addition, I have tons of restricted routes, low clearances, and roads with low weight limit bridges blocked off with avoid area rectangles, and the beauty of it all is when I upgrade to the new version of Streets & Trips each year, I can carry forward all of this growing database with me and don’t have to start over.

    As for as making sure if your routes are legal for 18-wheelers, you don’t have to check all of the roads, because you already know from previous experience most of the roads that are legal since you have drove on them before. You only check anytime you are going to travel down new and unfamiliar roads.

    Nevertheless, if you go to the same shippers, consignees, and stops repeatedly all the time, then what I would do is set up a bunch of avoid area rectangles to block off all other routes but the one you already know is legal for 18 wheelers and the one you always want to take, which would then force Streets & Trips to only route that one particular way every time, then there would be no checking of routes involved period. Thus, in that case you could plan a trip and be ready to drive it in less than 30 seconds or less if you were racing.

    Let me reiterate once again, I can plan a trip in Streets & Trips and make sure it is legal for 18-wheelers in a small fraction of the time that it takes the fastest power users of any standalone GPS devices to plan the same trip. Of course, I have been using Streets & Trips for years and I’m a power user. Not to mention that Streets & Trips is far more powerful and can do much, much more than any standalone GPS device.
     
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  5. Big Don

    Big Don "Old Fart"

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    You need to take a reality check here. You are a truck driver, not an emergency services worker. This is NOT a put down, just a fact. Even emergency vehicle operators do a bit of "pre-planing" when they get a call.

    I don't care who you drive for, or what you haul, if you are not familiar with your route, take the time to pre-plan it. It doesn't take that long.

    Something else to think about: If you don't have time to plan your route, you sure as hell don't have time to be delayed by having an accident...

    Think about it.
     
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  6. kilroy2963

    kilroy2963 Light Load Member

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    If I get a call to cover a route due to a sick driver or whatever, it can be a hour before I have to dispatch. It takes me half a hour just to get to the terminal, which leaves me half a hour to get my stuff together, maybe have a bite to eat, shower, get dressed, make a lunch, etc, etc..........now please explain where I fit in planing a 10-15 stop route?? I think you OTR guys dont have any idea what being a spare driver is. We have our bids coming out soon, so hopefully I will be able to get my own route, then I can plan all I want. But right now I barley have time to get my crap together, get to the terminal and jump in the truck with the paper work and go.
     
  7. LSU Tiger

    LSU Tiger Banned for spamming

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    Yeah right...Google gets it maps from NavTeq just like Microsoft and Garmin.

    In these days to the contrary it is not currently possible and for what it is worth I highly doubt that it will ever be possible. I mean the maps when released in the best devices or software are still 2 to 3 years old at the very best at the time they are released for sale and all of the maps even the ones compiled from the most reputable companies will always contain thousands of map data errors, omissions, and other errors because the way the data is collected is beyond the control of the companies that compile the maps.

    For instance, the various map compiling companies collect the street numbers for residences and businesses they use in their maps from the Tax Assessor’s offices of all of the thousands of individual counties throughout the USA and Canada, and a lot of the time these offices will have the street numbers listed for a particular street or road ##### backwards. Thus, in the thousands of GPS devices that are sold every year, the street numbers will inevitably be listed wrong in all of those thousands of devices too, and this same error occurs not just one time but many times in each individual Tax Assessor’s office and then you have to multiply this sort of error by the thousands of Tax Assessor’s offices around the country to get an idea of the magnitude of the problem. And this is just to cite one simple example of the complexity involved with compiling maps. There are hundreds of additional examples that I could cite to also illustrate how errors occur and why it is literally impossible for all the information to ever be completely accurate.

    Not to mention also that we live in an ever-changing environment. Thus, exits that were on the east side of the road three months ago may be on the west side of the road today. Routes that were legal for 18-wheelers last week may be restricted routes today. Where there was no low clearance six months ago, there may be a low clearance today.

    Thus, because the data involved is first collected by thousands of individual hands all across the country in all the thousands of various Tax Assessor’s offices and then subsequently collected, collated, and then compiled into map data by the various competing mapping compiling companies, it is inevitable that hundreds of thousands of errors will therefore inevitably be contained in those maps that they then sell to the various software or standalone device manufacturers, and then factor in the fact that we live in an ever changing environment, then it is easy to understand why that monumental task is impossible. Hell, it takes at least 2 to 3 years and most of the time longer, for new streets and roads to be compiled into the maps.

    Hence, there will never be any product for truckers that will ever reliably do truck routing. At least for the foreseeable future, and if there is, then the trucking companies will just get rid of the truck drivers and go to robots because robots are not constrained by Hours of Service rules, can work 24/7 around the clock, and will never get sick.
     
  8. LSU Tiger

    LSU Tiger Banned for spamming

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    Print out all the glorious reviews of those so-called truck specific GPS devices from just this one website and give it to him to read the next time you see him, and I think you won’t have to worry about throwing away that $500 anymore.
     
  9. kilroy2963

    kilroy2963 Light Load Member

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    Dude.........I am in a different truck every night. I really dont want to be bolting and unbolting a laptap every dispatch.
    For a decent laptop you will pay at least $800 and up. I could get a crappy Dell for about $500, but why bother. So about $800, plus $60 or so for Street and Trips with GPS, and another $40 for this mounting device?? So Im already up to $900 for your solution, not including tax and shipping. Forget it!!


    My solution is to continue using the GPS, get the Rand Mcnally Atlas........and possibly Street and Trips for my home computer.
     
  10. LSU Tiger

    LSU Tiger Banned for spamming

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    I don’t care how much time you have or what the situation is, if you don’t make sure the routes you travel or legal for 18 wheelers, then you are playing Russian Roulette with your driving career, and if your company is unreasonable and doesn’t allow the time for drivers to confirm their planned routes are legal for 18-wheelers, then it is time to go look for a new job because no company is worth losing your driving career for and any company that operates in such a manner is going to inevitably be put out of business in a matter of time in any event.

    Not to mention that multiple stop routes are exactly what Streets & Trips excels in. Thus, I promise you if you knew what you were doing, that you could easily create your multiple stop routes in Streets & Trips and ensure they are legal for 18 wheelers in a small fraction of the time that it takes the best power users of standalone GPS devices to do the same routes.

    Furthermore, even if you were using Garmin’s antiquated Mapsource software on a laptop to create your routes beforehand and then upload them to your GPS device, it would still take exponentially far longer to do than in Streets & Trips.
     
  11. Pawnd

    Pawnd Medium Load Member

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    Streets and Trips will run on a crappy lap top, I run it on a 8 - 10 year old Dell just fine. $50 bucks at a yard sale. Bungee corded in the right seat. NIC card and battery is bad, use my air card for updates and a 175 watt inverter for power. This is this units only purpose. Total investment 150 bucks.

    Your original problem is most likely antenna related with added weather interference.
     
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