Support Thread for the TND 500, TND 700 or future Rand McNally products. (part two)

Along the same baseline, the GPS has a router that is tweaked for overall performance. If tweaked to one coast the other coast will not route correctly.

The roads segments also have a lot of data in them that will affect routing also. Roads are build into "costs" or "weights", if a "cost" of a road is "0" then you will never be routed on it. Your truck settings also have an affect on the road that will be chosen. If you are an STAA ( 53', 102"), then you will not be routed on an Non-STAA route, usually US routes and local roads. The STAA (Surface Transportation Assistance Act) came into affect around the 50's for the National Highway system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System.

Normally you are allowed One mile off an STAA route to pick up/deliver. I know many are beyond this that is why you are allow to pick/up deliver and use it as a through route.

The GPS is a computer. It takes into account all your settings, the attributes of the roads build into the segments and tries to get you from point A to point B on a legal route. It does not think that if you take another route you like better that the traffic is slower if faster, it only sees what is in the DB's based upon your settings.

If you like another route then take it, the TND will try a few times to get you back to your other route before it recalculates a new route based upon your settings.

Normally I suggest Prefer Freeways on the East coast due to the many small roads that are not truck friendly and Allow on the Mid-West/West coast since many US routes are truck friendly and can cut many miles off your route.

Maps that are not current may show different routes than current maps due to the many changes in the road systems. The same holds true for versions as the data is tweaked for better performance in routing.

There are many details I cannot go in depth on in how the GPS thinks in correlation to how it looks at the map data and your settings.

So if it "picks" a route you do not like, simple take the route you want or add Via points to force the route around.

Thanks,
Mark

 

No problem, the more a driver understands the inner workings the better they can run their business to make a profit

Thanks,
mark

 

The tablet has the MCRA on it. I do not know if they will come out with the MCRA as a standalone for the Apple or Android.

Thanks,
Mark

 

You are right, they snuck that in.. I asked my boss a few moments ago.

I just noticed, these are the car Road Atlas's. Not the MCRA's.

http://www.randmcnally.com/product/the-road-atlas-app

Thanks,
Mark