Ok guys and gals, all opinions welcome

My personal opinion would be a netbook laptop. They are real computers with a keyboard. You can isntall for free some software called Open Office, that will allow you to set up databases for their logs and forms that are continously filled out, they are fully internet capable as well.
Tablets are "cloud" based meaning that they have no hard drive and as such when there is no service available they are pretty useless. All their storage is on some server farm someplace.
You can get inexpensive printers/ scanners anything that a home pc has.

For network connectivity I like the virgin mobile 3g card, its 40.00 per month for unlimited usage, for the first 5 gigs you get the full 3g speed (1.5mb) and after that your throttled to about 256k up and down. What makes that nice is that no matter how much your drivers use it, your emails will go through no matter what, they just cant watch movies, lol.
The virgin 3g card costs about 70.00 and it plugs into any available usb slot.
A netbook pc costs about 280.00 (http://www.frys.com/product/6529253)

Any GPS unit that has USB connectivity should work, you will want to verify this before you buy it of course.
Any questions feel free to ask, I am pretty geeky and dont mind helping at all.

 

Just wanted to add after doing some reading.
The Android tablets dont have built in 3g or 4g connectivity, at least none that I could find, they rely on wifi which isnt available on the road. 3g and 4g are all available, albeit at really slow speeds, anywhere a cell phone can work and when you are in range they are pretty quick.

If you must have connectivity anywhere your stuck with satellite and I guess thats the qualcomm system.

 

I'd suggest a combination of an Android based smartphone that you could tether to the netbook/laptop.

 

Here's my suggestions ...

Android based phone with an unlimited data plan. (uDrove can assist in your selection.)

Then download and install ALK's Co-Pilot Truck 8

Then download and subscribe to uDrove . uDrove will give all that you are looking for re: logs, HOS, BOL's, DVIR's, and also tracking.

 

Google "3G store" and click on the first link. Talk to them. They specialize in dealing with solutions for businesses. The sell equipment from all the major cell companies, so they can match you to the best service.