BEST GPS & TRIP PLANNING

Rand MCnally truckers laminated road atlas is your best trip planning tool. I have a rm530 gps that i use only as a reference. Use the atlas to check your route and do not completely trust your gps because it will get you in trouble eventually.

 

Trip planning comes with experience. When setting a good eta use 50 ro 55 mph as a starting point. Always factor in your 30 minute break as well. It will come with time but do not place complete trust in any electronic device.

 

The most widely used GPS units for truck drivers are the Garmin 770 and the Rand McNally 740. They are both 7 inch screens with similar features. They cost about $400,new. I have the RM 740 for about 2 years. In my opinion the 5 inch screen units Garmin 570 and RM 540 do just as good larger units and cost about $120 less and take up less space. All of the important info on both units are big enough to see easily, such as turn direction, etc. All units will speak the directions through their speaker, so the smaller screens really do everything as well as the big screens.

All GPS units will calculate a primary and secondary route between 2 locations. Mine is set-up to show me the shortest/fastest route and the next best alternative for trucks, and also HazMat approved routes since that's what I haul.

Neither unit it perfect but their mistakes are generally small and irritating not hard to notice and dangerous. For example my GPS is frequently wrong about the posted speed limit where I'm at. Say I want to drive I-40 West, sometimes at certain places the GPS will say "keep left to enter the ramp for I-40 West" when the truth is I need to keep to the right to enter I-40 West. SOMETIMES, maybe 5% of the time or less, it is wrong about whether I should stay left instead of right. But it is ALWAYS correct about joining I-40 West, for example, instead of I-40 East. If you keep your eyes looking outside for important information, and listening to the GPS, you always follow what you see outside and see if it confirms what the GPS is saying. Never the other way around.

The paper road atlas is excellent at seeing the big picture. It does nothing for street-level directions except the biggest streets in the very biggest cities. Everywhere else the maps are only good for "big picture" type info and the very important, and you are responsible for knowing it, information at the front of the atlas about prohibited roads for trucks and low clearances, etc.

You will have trip planning described to you during CDL school. They might even spend a little bit of time showing you how to do it. Then, if you get hired by a trucking company, you will ride with a trainer for weeks and see how he trip plans in real life. The GPS is a very smart tool, but it cannot pay your fines. The cops won't take it to jail. You are responsible for your actions. Use the GPS to help you, not lead you by the nose off a cliff. Most companies that hire newbies also require them to drive the route they are told and fuel where they are told.

 

Rand Paper atlas
Google Maps
Trucker Path - for planning stop points.

Only recently got a dash ornament - and that’s exactly what it is - 770 DEZL.

 

Do This:


On your next load, before you load, post your starting points and times at the shipper and points and times for receiver. If there are any set appointments or any other pertinent info, lists those also. And those that want to help you will post it and plan it as if they were doing the run themselves, fuel stops included. And you pick the plan you like best, and we will go from there.

Sound like a plan?

 

The Rand McNally and Gramin Dezl are both very good truck gps'. Which is better seems to depend on which you're familiar with, either will do the job just fine.

Not sure about an app for trip planning but it ain't rocket science. You're at point A and you're going to point B. It's 904 miles. Figure 18 driving hours (average of 50 mph though you'll learn to adjust that depending on where you're running-straight interstate out west or back roads or up north.

Add in time for breaks, fuel, pre trip etc. Add a buffer for unexpected delays. If you're going through Chicago during the afternoon add an hour for that and so on.

You're not going to do 904 in one day so look for where you can stop for the night after about 500 miles.

GPS is great for knowing how far you have to go and for street level directions.

Rand McNally motor carrier atlas is great for an overview and has tons of useful information. Get one and learn how to use it.

Google earth street view is great for getting a look at the final destination. Where is the truck entrance? Which direction do you want to going to enter the place? Sometimes a right turn into a shipper is a bad idea for example.

Lots of threads on here about trip planning and which gps is best.
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I use the road atlas to check my route for low clearances and to verify that it is indeed a truck route . Gps is handy for turn by turn directions but it is not always accurate. I will call the customer to get accurate directions to their facility. I find myself using google directions if I am unsure of my directions. Also google any customer i am not familiar with to see the reviews so i can prepare mentally for what's in store for me.

 

Wet fingertip in the wind, then write your plan on a ####tail napkin... you did bring a pen...???

 

I use google maps.

Point A to point B. Add 15% to the time (google routes are obviously for cars and trucks are slower). Add 1.5 hours per day for pre/post trip and fuel. Then add 10 hours in between.

In the picture here’s an example. Says 25 hours to drive. 15% makes it 29 hours rounded up. Now that’s more than a 1 day trip so you add 1.5 for each of the 3 days. That brings it to 29+4.5=33.5 hours. Now because it’s 3 days we add two 10 hours for a break making it 53.5 hours. So if you leave at 8am on Monday you’ll get there at 1:30pm (2:30pm eastern) on Wednesday.

This is how I do it because it’s always accurate and I can figure out when I’ll get to my destination extremely fast to see if I can make apt time.