Rand McNally intelliRoute TND 500

I send your question up to RM. That is a business type question.

As for the listing of bad roads/exits. We only hear about the ones that are wrong... how many are right? lol

What everyone may not understand that once new construction is finished it may take awhile to filter to the mapping companies.

Even roads that are in place for 10 years. I looked up what one user send me. On Mapquest... was not showing on mapquest, yet this was a concrete road... who's error? hard to say. But, oversight is not uncommon.

RM cannot verify each and every road/bridge/freeway/intersection. The manpower would be huge.

Local governments/towns/states send in updates/corrections/new construction to the mapping companies.

It is a long process sometimes.

I know of a US route.. 4 lanes...yet Garmin, Cobra, RM all avoid it as a truck route... DB error somewhere..

But, RM is taking all mis-directions and the steps to get the database corrected due to oversights.

Will this affect the other navigation companies, - no.. RM is correcting RM's Database.

Their is a lot to input to the database as to if a truck can travel on it. Each street is given a weight and based upon that weight tells the program how to handle that road. it is not a simple yes/no. it is on a sliding scale. Exits are also this way. A truck weighing 40,000 may be able to take it but not at 42,000...

The staff at RM have to take each one and look it up and see what it is given for strength, then run the emulator to see how the program will handle the issue at hand. Then they have to verify that street or exit.

If the database is not correct then they have to correct it., They just cannot change the street because you say a truck can run on it... verification is important.

Human's are behind this whole quagmire, so Friday comes and oops...forgot to forward the report... monday comes and it get shuffled to a drawer...mapping companies never see it..

Another US route in PA runs through a National Park... the MCRA shows it as a good route... but it is restricted to trucks... construction took the truck warning signs down.. so I ended up at the gate... was turned around... after 2 hours of phone calls, finally got a supervisor who said for two years she has been trying to get the MCRA updated... pointed her to the right people and now it is corrected.

Are the other navigation companies plaged also with incorrect routing, yep... are they asking the users for their input, prob not.. so, who do they rely on to get their mapping data base corrected, not you the driver. Someone sitting in a cube.... who sees more of the roads?

RM is comitted to get the Data Base correct for you and future drivers.

Only about 100 beta testers... do we see every road in the U.S. -nope..

but with your help Rm can try to get the data base corrected. RM knows their are mistakes out there.. they are not that Naive to believe otherwise..

All RM is asking... if you see something that is not right, let RM know. They will update the data base. Not use you as a Beta Tester. But get a problem resolved quickly.

Thanks,
Mark

 

I carried the 465T for the first month that it was out. We picked up this unit (as did many, many drivers) based on the Garmin name and reputation in the GPS industry and were very excited that they were making a trucking version. After the initial tests to ensure that the way it looked, clicked, sounded, features, etc, it passed muster and went up on the site. We call that "phase one" testing in house before something goes up on the site. Several other brands never made it through this phase.

Then comes the second phase: road testing and driver feedback. This is the stage that the RM unit is in right now by the way. Since we support any product we sell, and invite anyone to simply "yack" at us about any product we either HAVE on the site already, or maybe a suggested product or idea that you would want us to test, etc. We have hundreds of hours every month simply talking with drivers on the phone or in person about what things make it easier (or harder) to live in the cab of the truck. Since we started this company in 1999 as truck drivers, we relate speak the same language of the road. Doesn't matter if it's how to use a gadget or how to chain up at the bottom of the Rockies.

During the road testing phase of the 465T I found a couple of "show-stoppers" for us (random reboots during off-route recalculating, and simply the wrong roads to use in a big truck) on too many occasions. We sent feedback to Garmin on our findings who did reply with the fact that they realize that it is the first revision of the unit and to stand by for software updates. Since then, the world has indeed seen 3 software updates (one for actual new maps and 2 for "programming" bugs.) We did find that the re-routing shutdowns and "dementia" got indeed better with the second program software update, but not go away entirely at this point. The routing was not modified at all that we can tell yet at this point. For one thing, it tells me to use Parkways in NYC - the fastest way to get a fat ticket there - and it is using a "STAA" overlay onto NavTeq maps which is a good start, but far from complete - or the required accuracy for a true truck GPS.

So the bottom line on the 465T is that after too many routing issues started becoming apparent, and combine a $499 price for only a 4.3" screen, we have taken it down for the time being. I still include it in my comparison testing and in my online comparison chart. I still will keep checking it as they provide more routing updates (whenever that is going to be again, even though they charged me $80 for the last one.) Garmin is big, really big, in the PND industry and therefore there is promise if they dump a lot of resources into the "trucking segment" for their units, but ROUTING DATA IS KING, no matter what the bells and whistles there are. I don't "dis-like" the Garmin because it has good maps and better than average features. But, when there is a more accurate truck GPS at a much lower price... well I wasn't able to justify in my heart asking a driver to pay $500 for this one yet.

 

ALK doesn't make a "TeleType." ALK makes PC Miler. TeleType is the company that makes a truck GPS called a "WorldNav." Just wondering which one actually made it under the tandems...

 

Then don't buy one. Why buy a Kenworth with a Dodge will do the job for you?

 

I can't thank you enough for your post!!!!! NOW you see the reason WHY we (the testers) stand so firm behind this unit!! The guys that we have been working WITH such as Dave Marsh are just GOOD people and are very sincere in building this FOR TRUCKERS. This is why People like Ted get on our nerves so much. It IS personal. We put allot of ourselves into this product (through RM). If (and when) there is a prob PLEASE give RM a chance to MAKE IT RIGHT.

 

All the testers have put a lot of work into this unit. I am not paid, yet I have been working for 3 days in conjuction with RM to find a solution for Mac users. Did we find one? yep... I tried it out on a Mac user and got him updated... spend at least 8 hours working on this... not-paid..

Do you see other companies bending over backwards without being paid? nope..

One customer may not seem much with 3 million professional drivers... but to RM, that one customer is very important.

And Yes, I spend 3 hours working with David Marsh and Danny Sacks the night before to get this driver his unit.... UNPAID...

When I do demo's at truck stops..for 4-5 hours, 2-3 days a week...drive 70 miles one way...am I paid? nope...

Never seen other companies do this for the professional driver... because to them you are just a money machine... they go home at night an could care less...

So for all the nay-sayers,,, spend a week with me and you will see how the Beta testers for Rand McNally care about this product.

Have a nice day.
Mark

 

Mark, i agree that none of the maps are perfect and likely never will be. And I believe RM has the only viable solution for correcting the maps ("tell rand"). My fear is that it will be a year from now, and will cost $80 to finally have the corrected (with our help) maps.

 

You mean you can determine HazMat routing for each *city*, but you can't do speed limits by state?? I am surprised. I would have thought that it was already included in the device!

 

Hi cc,

I have a couple questions about the TND500.
My first question concerns the "commercial grade address book". I saw in a previous post that you can save your current location, but can you add addresses to the address book by current location?

Can locations be added to the address book from inside the office (without satellite signal) by simply entering the address or coordinates? Can these addresses be recorded under custom names (we use customer file numbers)? Are the names searchable? Can the address book be updated through the dock (edited with the PC)?

Every database that has ever existed has an error in it. The bigger the database, the greater the likelyhood of errors. I am not terribly concerned, therefore, with Easter Bunnies "review" or others like it. I am concerned about another comment about the address book folders. Since we have customer "zones", it would be *very* beneficial to be able to enter customers by group. Were those comments valid? Do the new addresses appear wherever they like and do deletions cause multiple addresses to disappear?

Sorry this is so long, but the company is looking for a single unit to equip all of our vehicles with and the address book is an important feature. I would hate to be on the hook for picking a bad one!

Thanx in advance for your help!

 

Yes.

Yes - by address only. No coordinate entry at this time.

Yes. The unit calls them "Groups." You can add, take away, or jot a note associated with anything in your address book or your groups.

You can click on a "# sign" to sort them by numbers (like if the first character in the name you saved was actually a number instead of a letter.) Or you can sort alphabetically in "sets" of letters (i.e. all of the A-H, all of the I-Q, or all of the R-Z beginning letters. There is no "search button" where you can enter a query so to speak.

Not that I have found in the current version. Good suggestion though. I doubt Mark can elaborate on things "in the works" - but they're listening...

You can take any address that you have put in the book into a group. It sorts alphabetically. No, I haven't had he database corrupt or delete anything accidentally to date in my tests.

In my evaluations of 5 "trucking" GPS units the address book in this one is by far the most versatile and easy to use. I have some customers that don't care at all about adding anything into "favorites" or an "address book." Then I have others that want to save all of their "recurring" delivery addresses into something sortable and "groupable" and this unit does that admirably.

Sorry I'm not Mark, but I've been beating the snot out of this unit for weeks and have been in that screen dozens of times in my testing. Hope that helps.