Trukers GPS

I found my RM GPS followed company routing pretty close. There is a way to adjust the route to their specifics....just never used it.

 

Great question! I want to know too.....

 

Its called the trucker Atlas and paper and directions into pickup and drop off.

 

Glad to see someone else still uses those. I check the location on google maps or google earth to see what the layout looks like, and my ETA. Otherwise I still use the trusty ol' RM 2016 road atlas with laminated pages 99% of the time.
If you rely solely on a GPS, you're bound to get into a jam at some point.

 

You can map it out on google maps, but remember it is not totally a truck route and there are getting to be more and more roads that are restricted to no trucks, esp small roads. Then locate along the way street addresses on the map that you can program into the gps as a via point as if your were going to stop there. The RM sometimes can't find an address and husband has used the lattitude, longitude off google maps, this can also be used as you go along a route vs a street address, but you do have to have a computer to make it easier to track down.

Most company drivers are restricted to using the directions sent by the company, some may allow a percentage of being out of route, something like 10% or none at all. You would have to find the route numbers on the google map and put via points in the gps to match.

I don't like white roads on google maps, unless that is the only one available. Yellow roads are better, maybe slower and more towns than the main interstates.

 

A GPS is great if you have already determined what route you need to take due to either road restrictions or company routing. Just put in your start and end points and then add any via points to get the route the way you need it and... voila! You now have a dash nanny that will tell you where to go.

I did lots of oversize work that required lots of circuitous routing and I just used a plain Garmin GPS. You just have to be smarter than the device.

 

We only had a car Garmin years ago, it was easier to put via points in to get it to go the way you wanted, I think it would only allow one or two vias that way. Would try to stick to yellow big roads or route company sent, then close attention to the added notes to how to get to the place. Sometimes it wouldn't be able to pull up an address, so to get it in the general direction, I would look for Commerce St, Industrial, Main St, or something like that, most towns have one somewhere.

 

Sometimes the route a company gives isn't always a legal truck route, they will even put in the disclaimer at the bottom of the their routing which goes similar to this, routes may not be legal truck routes, verify with other before using. lol...Use common sense a GPS is a tool, verify as other drivers have mentioned here via Google Maps , RM Atlas, etc. Some of us cut the route given for mileage, truck friendly routes, traffic jam ups, etc. If your under forced fuel n routing can be more challenging but as long as you hit them fuel stops your most of the time good to go. Use a GPS as a tool not a do all, checking it against an Atlas, Google, etc is a good habit to get into.

 

The Rand McNally will pick its own route. It will likely not match the routing your company gives you.

Can't comment on the Garmin or others.
I'm willing to bet they will be the same way.

Just write down the route your company gives you and follow it and ignore the GPS unless it matches.
If you have the ability to use your Qualcomm for GPS it may do a better job at matching your company's requested routing.

That's actually a good point.
Just use a bunch of Via Points along your companys requested route. This way the GPS will have to send you a certain way.