GPS

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Just buy a paper atlas?

You can use the Internet/phone for final mile.

 

Pick your poison. Both of them work. Both of them will just point you to the right direction. But still need an atlas/google maps to finish the last miles.

There's an cheaper route, copilot on a tablet or phone. I believe $130 with offline maps

 

They both have equal shares of pros and cons. The GUI is more liked or disliked by some drivers Vs other drivers. Neither is "perfect", far from it.

I like Garmin for my preferences, but it is weak with POI's and has some erroneous data that can cause poor routing decisions in a handful of routes. For some, this alone is a deal-breaker. But it calculates faster and has free traffic (in metro areas). The traffic is not perfect either but is better then nothing. If there is a major crash that occurred an hour ago in downtown Columbus, and traffic is still real bad, it WILL advise you of this incident before you arrive at the loop, but then it may be slow to reflect cleared traffic, later.

They all more or less use the same "map data" although I have a suspicion Garmin pushes out updates more frequently then Rand McNally, but regardless, they are both reliant on Navteq for the digital cartography they utilize.

 

I keep telling yall, Magic 8 Ball is all you need -

 

I just a regular car gps for general guidance, I use a map and Google satellite to plan the trip, and pay attention to signs

 

An atlas is good for the cross-country, 48 state, all over guys to get a broad overview of a cross-country route. But an [trucker] atlas is also good for seeing the more truck friendly cross-state routes when applicable in the east, where you're less likely to get busted for having a 53/102.

But I think you need a good trucker atlas and a good, updated trucker GPS and learn how to recognize when to double-check your route when there are things that don't look right or don't match up to what looks obvious, one against the other.

But when the carrier gives you a route, and you are paid accordingly, run their route. Something goes wrong, it's on them.