GPS systems for trucking.

Having that the 2013 edition has been out for 6 months, is there another edition coming out or how often does Rand McNally print their motor carrier Atlas?

 

DeLorme EarthMate for LapTop GPS ... kicks the crap out of every system I've ever seen. Gives you real time Detailed/street level maps and Regional maps at the same time without having to flip back and forth between the two, they are displayed on the screen in boxes at the same time... they can be adjusted to your taste. Has turn by turn voice if you want it. View is from the Top down.. just like a map. Which is superior to the crap Head on GPS systems that leave you without a clue if you miss your turn other than the voice saying rerouting.

I've used Delorme Earthmate to tell me if I could turn around on a street, if it had outlets, the info is right there ... invaluable tool, absolutely the best GPS... never seen it's equal for road navigation. These days you can get on Craigslist and get a good used laptop or netbook for $100 .. Delorme Software and GPS receiver are another $100 .. you'll pay for them the first time you get an extra load delievered cause time was crunched and you knew exactly where to go...

 

There is no such thing as a decent trucking GPS system, as calling GPS systems truck specific is a marketing gimmick used by companies to dupe gullible truckers. I use Streets & Trips on my laptop instead, which cost me a whopping $39.95. Many ill informed drivers on here will point out to you that Streets & Trips isn't a truck specific GPS system, yet Streets & Trips does something no so-called truck specific GPS system can do. It lets you manipulate the routes it generates in any kind of way. Thus, what I can do with Streets & Trips that those that use so-called truck specific GPS systems can't do, is I can configure my company supplied fuel routing in Streets & Trips, which are legal truck routes, and then save them. Hence, I don't need to spend mega dollars on one of those high priced so-called truck specific GPS devices that mislead drivers all the time at the most inopportune times. Meanwhile, for the truck specific POIs, I added the Truck Stops Plus add-on Template made specifically for Streets & Trips and all in all I have a much better GPS system. My trainer taught me how to do all of this during training and for that I will be eternally grateful.

Oh, by the way, the Truck Stops Plus add-on Template also has the same setup for restricted routes and low clearances that a motor carrier road atlas has and that you can also use to check your routes for restricted routes and low clearances, but you access it on your laptop screen much faster and easier than using a motor carrier road atlas instead.

 

Virtually all truck stops sell them. Nevertheless, I buy only the paperback edition, but only as a backup in the case my navigation system has technical difficulties, which is probably impossible since I run two laptops in the truck. Thus, needless to say I never use them, which is why I buy the cheapest ones I can. Since it is only used as a backup.

 

Most companies at the time of dispatch, i.e., when they send you your load assignment, will also supply you with a fuel routing that is also a truck specific route. Your company supplied final destination directions are also legal truck routes as well. I use Streets & Trips and all I do is add my start location, my pickup location, my fuel locations in between, and then my final destination. Then I click get directions and 99 percent of the time the route generated in Streets & Trips for me matches my company fuel routing, which is a legal truck route, and if it doesn't match exactly, then it is only a matter of dragging and dropping the segment of the route that doesn't match the routing to the correct road, street, or highway. Finally, once everything matches exactly, then I save it using the trip number and the cities involved, such as: 1234567 Bridgeview to Grand Island to Cheyenne. Thus, if I want to review the trip later on in the future, I can easily pull it up again.

You can't do that with so-called truck specific GPS systems. They generate routes that you can't manipulate and that may or may not be truck legal, and you drive them, and if those routes vary from your company supplied routes, then you have a decision to make, especially when it comes to fueling.

 

Motor Carrier Road Atlases just show major roads, while a GPS system like Streets & Trips has street level mapping for every village, town, and city in the USA and Canada. Plus you can make the maps as big or as little as you need them to be. Hence, no more using magnifying glasses to read your map.

Moreover, to find a village, town, or city you don't have to go to the back of the motor carrier road atlas to get the grid location to look it up. Instead, you just input it and hit enter, and the map automatically centers on it.

Finally, with street level mapping you can follow your directions directly to your final destination long before you drive it. Thus, if your final directions aren't accurate, you'll find out about it long before you drive it and have plenty of time to get those directions corrected.

In other words, it makes your job far easier. Now I'm not talking about all GPS systems, as I'm specifically talking about Streets & Trips alone, as Streets & Trips is very much like a digital motor carrier road atlas. In other words, it is a digital map but on a laptop screen as opposed to being a page in a book. Thus, the map can easily be manipulated, whereas a page in a book can't be manipulated.

 

Does it list low clearances, restricted routes, scale houses, highlighted truck routes, rest areas, hazmat overview, state access policies, state and federal weight and size limits, state related phone numbers, etc.?
While you are waiting on the laptop to start up I done looked at the Rand McNally and put it up. I have bad eyes and still don't have problems reading a RM. Yes you can change routing on a GPS to match known truck routing by either touching the spot or manually entering waypoints. Most companies forbid laptop tables and you sure don't need to be looking constantly over at the passenger seat. A laptop while driving at night affects your night vision.
I have Streets and Trips and find it bothersome to use with a bulky laptop. I bought it, used it for less than a month and finally stopped using it all together. Being a new driver I bet you've been using S&T since you got your own truck and haven't given Rand McNally a chance? If Streets and Trips was the bomb, schools and mentors would be teaching you to use it. All new drivers need to perfect the root basics before progressing to other means.

I would check out a Love's Travel Center. I noticed that's one thing they sell cheaper than the other truck stops. There are plenty from FL to TX.

http://www.loves.com/Home.aspx

 

Yes with the Truck Stops Plus add-on Template it indicates low clearances, restricted routes, and besides scale houses, it has over 15,000 truck specific POIs including all the truck stops, weigh/inspection stations, rest areas, parking areas, turnpike service plazas, truck washes, etc., etc., etc. With respect to the other information you mentioned, the answer is yes, but you have to have an Internet connection to access it, which I happen to have as I have a Verizon mobile hotspot which enables me to access all that information much faster than using a motor carrier road atlas. My Samsung Galaxy SIII doubles as my mobile hotspot.

What you mean...the first thing I turn on in the morning when I wake up is my laptop and trust me my trips have already been long planned before the laptop was ever shutdown for the night. Hence, it's just a matter of double clicking my saved trip to start it up, and if you can plan a trip with a motor carrier road atlas in the time it takes for a file to open, then you aren't human or from this world.

In any event, having planned trips using both methods, I can tell you that there is no comparison from using my system vs. a motor carrier road atlas. Trust me...you don't want to go there. That is not a good place for you to go to win brownie points.

Name one! I don't know of any companies whatsoever that forbid laptop stands and as for as I'm concerned, I wouldn't work for any if there are any companies that stupid. Moreover, I hardly ever look over at my laptop, as I generally try to keep my eyes on the road while driving. You can tell you never used GPS navigation before.

And with respect to it harming my vision at night, that's why Streets & Trips has an excellent night vision screen, so it won't interfere with your vision.

Bulky laptop? Come on now! That's hilarious! No you don't have Streets & Trips or otherwise you are extremely computer illiterate. Moreover, you were completely oblivious of Streets & Trips excellent night screen.

If you want to talk big and bulky, what do you think a big and bulky motor carrier road atlas that you have to flip through the laminated pages to use and also use a magnifying glass to read is? Give me a break! I can check for restricted routes and low clearances on my laptop screen with the Truck Stops Plus add-on Template in a small fraction of the time it takes you to flip through the laminated pages of a big and bulky motor carrier road atlas, as I can simply utilize hyperlinks and scrolling buttons, plus a laptop screen on a stand weighs absolutely nothing and takes up only a small fraction of the real estate that a big and bulky motor carrier road atlas in a truck takes up. Give me a break!

Actually, I had to do it both ways while in training and I would highly recommend for everyone to learn to use a motor carrier road atlas also. However, using a motor carrier road atlas relative to Streets & Trips is like using a covered wagon relative to a Corvette Stingray. I'd have to be severely mentally handicapped to use a motor carrier road atlas over Streets & Trips combined with the Truck Stops Plus add-on Template, as I can plan a trip in a small minute fraction of the time it takes to plan a trip using a motor carrier road atlas. Plus I can have a much better picture of my route in my mind when I'm finished. Now, I may have not been driving a truck very long, but I've learned already that in this business time is money.

Now that you mention it, I did learn how to use it from my mentor, as I already previously mentioned too. So it is the bomb!

Agreed, as I already mentioned above too. Indeed, I keep a paperback edition motor carrier road atlas in my truck for emergencies, but all it is is a dust collector as I have never used it since training. However, Streets & Trips is just like a digital version of a motor carrier road atlas, only it's about 100 times faster and easier to use. Plus unlike a motor carrier road atlas it has street level mapping for every village, town, and city in the USA and Canada, while a motor carrier road atlas only has major roads. I don't know about you, but my experience thus for has been that the vast overwhelming majority of my shippers and receivers have not been located on major roads. Which also means, by the way, that if your final directions are wrong and you are using a motor carrier road atlas, you won't find out about it until you are driving to your shippers and receivers. I hope you left early enough to figure out the correct directions and to still get there on time.

Now on late night pickups or deliveries when the fog is so thick you can't see the road much less read the road signs, will your motor carrier road atlas give you turn-by-turn directions directly to your shipper and receiver driver entrances the same way Streets & Trips utilized with Google Earth will? I don't believe.

Yeah right...you almost had me convinced to go back to using an antiquated motor carrier road atlas. Almost! Nah...not really!

 

exact, spot on, take it to the bank.