iPad GPS question

Ahhh yeah. Devils in the details. Thanks a lot guys!

 

The truck that is guided by a GPS has a fool for a pilot.

#1 you should never rely on a GPS without first routing yourself with a Motor Carrier atlas, and getting proper truck safe customer directions.

#2 The ONLY GPS you could consider getting is a Rand McNally. Why? Because who do you think makes the Motor Carrier Atlas? If you simply must use a GPS never consider using any other one than the company truckers have been getting atlases from for decades.

#3 are you serious? You are gonna stick a freakin IPad in your dash as a GPS??? DOT will love that. As it is not deemed a transportation assistance device you WILL be ticketed for it, in dash or your lap. Thats a 4 figure fine by the way. Not to mention you could kill someone fussing with it and not watching where you are going.

Bad idea

 

if that is the case, then how do truckers get away with the mounted laptops with their gps and/or ddl running?

just curious...

 

If it is mounted, as in it is bolted to the vehicle with an approved mounting device, and requires absolutely no physical contact to modify it while driving it can be considered legal, but only if it is directly built for transportation assistance. Using a Laptop, cell phone, or other none GPS specific device is illegal. Just because drivers do it does not make it legal. I see guys balancing a Subway sub on their knee, feet on the dash, reading their BOL which talking on a phone... Drivers are gonna do what they are gonna do. No way does that make it legal.

In fact, many states do not even allow in windshield GPS. It is considered obstruction of view. In Michigan you can get a ticket in a truck or even a car technically and I have seen many people get this ticket. Most cops are not that big of a jerk, but then again, we all know that one that is.

The point is, an IPad is the size of a laptop screen. A GPS is the size of your hand. The light emitted will be blinding while driving, impeding your reaction time as you will not notice dangers in the road as quickly. Nighttime driving with a lite up IPad screen in your dash will #1 make you a hazard on the road, and #2 will be ringing the dinner bell for DOT, cops and drivers who see it and try to report you.

If you have the money to buy an IPad, just get yourself a Rand McNally GPS. At least you know it will get you where you are going 90% of the time without an issue. Do you really want to trust some random app on an IPad to be accurate?

I used a GPS my first 6 months, it broke, and I never replaced it. I been driving a year no with no GPS and I am never getting another one. GPS makes you lazy, careless and you look like a #### fool when the thing breaks and have to ask for directions like a newb to dispatch. lol

All in all, go for the real deal and leave the Ipad in the bunk. DOT wouldn't care if you were developing a cure for cancer, they see you with it and you are paying a few grand in fines. It just isn't worth it, if you ask me.

 

I get it. You don't like GPS units. Apparently, you don't like other people using them, either. But unless you start citing laws... what you are saying is pure speculation. I fail to believe that all these trucking websites promote such an animal if it were so illegal.

Copilot, the app the OP is referring to, is an app specifically designed for truck navigation. There is also night mode. To expressly combat the "blinding" factor you are referring to.

 

which app? is there an iphone version?

 

www.copilotlive.com

yep. but its $149

 

copilot, btw, get's its information from PC-MILER

 

ouch, kinda steep

 

Just because I do not break the law books out, and spend the afternoon looking up all regulations on additional electronic devices in a commercial vehicle to cite the actually laws, and regulations in no way disproves what I said. I have seen people get these tickets, I have been in the court room with them, I have had DOT officers tell me the same thing...

You can dismiss what I say if you like, but that is only your mistake. We just had a driver at my company lose their job because they got a fine for a cell phone in their dash with GPS on and he did not pay the fine, got his license suspended, and thus fired.

I never in any way said I dislike GPS. I just find the drivers who must rely on one to be fools. GPS are a nice way to cross reference customer directions. Other than that, they serve no purpose. The driver who cannot simply remember to take I-75 south, not north is a driver who does not belong behind the wheel of an 80,000 lb mass of steel, glass, wood, fiberglass, plastic, ect.

I have seen drivers who hit bridges because their GPS put them there. Hell, there is a 13' 5" bridge on the East coast interstate, I wanna say I-95 and even Rand McNally routes you under it. Thousands of trucks go under it that are 13' 6". But that one day there is a good snow pack and DOT won't care that the GPS said to go under it.

You also have to consider length limits. These are commonly not on GPS. Hell, my Rand McNally put me on a 25 foot limit road in Virginia in the hills... Boy was that fun. lol

Oh well, people are gonna do what they want... I'm not gonna play teacher for you so you are welcome to learn on your own. Just make sure you have a few grand for the fines set aside. Putting a mortage on your house to pay a fine would really suck.