Is a laptop a must?

Perhaps this should have been posted to the first person who made a post in this thread in 2009 (nearly 2 years after the original post), but I think it's still appropriate.

 

I think that's all that was needed, a little clarification. I will say this in support of what you had to say. Having run the Western 11 for the last couple of years relying on my Garmin 7200 StreetPilot; one day I dropped it and it broke. Garmin said it would repair it and have it back to me in 10 days. So reliant had I become on my GPS, that I had seriously considered taking unpaid leave until I got my Garmin back. I chose not to; but, what a rotten week or so I had, having nothing more than my rusty map reading skills to guide me. Just like cell phones; no longer do I know anyone's phone number, my cell phone has taken over the job of remebering my numbers. It does a great job, too; as long as I don't leave it at home; or, god forbid, lose it. While I have a record of my numbers, I didn't always and learned the hard way that relying solely on that cell phone is a catastrophe in the making.

So, that said; I believe your message is: use the technology; but, not to the exclusion of our God-given abilities. Thank you.

 

I am a repeat offender for posting to old, sometimes ancient, threads. I see that you have a lot of posts, so maybe you can help me out here. My screen theme is 'Desert Green', the date of the post is almost invisible, besides being extremely small. Is there a setting to address that?

But, all that aside, you make a good point. I see threads that are years old that in their youth drew minimal, at best, response. I wonder why they don't archive, if not delete them. Or, as the threads grow progressively older, change the background color.

If you have any suggestions I'd appreciate hearing them, if not, well thanks anyway.

 

I'm a 20yr+ fan of MACs but when it comes to lap tops and communicating with most of the world on the net, I have to surrender to Bill Gates. He has a monopoly with windws vista (which absolutely sucks!!!!) but it is what most of the industrys communicates with.

 

There are no GPS units that do truck specific routing reliably, although there are several of them that advertise that they do. All of them, however, so for have proven to be unreliable. Nonetheless, it is really not that big of a deal. If it were, no one would be using them.

What I use is Streets & Trips on my laptop and then I have another add-on product for Streets & Trips called the Truck Stops Plus. With the Truck Stops Plus you can quickly check your routes for restricted routes and low overhead clearances right from your laptop display. It is much faster and convenient than having to bring out the Motor Carrier Road Atlas, put your reading glasses on, and then having to thumb through the pages. This add-on also has all the truck stops, super wal-marts, weigh stations, rest areas, etc., etc., so no more truck stop directories are needed either and it is pinpoint accurate. My wife got it for me off of eBay, but they also have a website where you can get it too.

Another reason I use Streets & Trips is because of the Windows Live Local button. Since I have a Verizon aircard, I use the Windows Live Local button to find all my shippers and consignees via aerial photographs before I ever go to them. Then once I find them, I mark their locations on the Streets & Trips maps with a pushpin, and then route directly to them. With the Windows Live Local button I can usually find them even when I don't have final directions.

I do all my shopping when I'm out on the road at super wal-marts and the Truck Stops Plus has all of their locations too. In Streets & Trips I zoom in on the super wal-mart I want to go to if I haven't been to it before, hit the Windows Live Local button, and get an aerial photograph. By checking the aerial photograph before I go to them, I can see before hand where is the best place to enter them.

 

Today most companies supply the route via qualcom, which is really great because you can then just simply sync the route in your GPS utility with the route you received via the qualcom. Then use the GPS utility to provide turn-by-turn navigation guidance. You’ll appreciate that turn-by-turn navigation guidance the first time you have to make a delivery at night when the fog is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

You can get a cheap laptop, which is all you really need for trucking, for $500-$600, Streets & Trips with GPS receiver for $75 or less on sale, and laptop mount for about $40-$50 at mobile laptop mounts.