Dedicated GPS vs GPS app?

I’ve been using Trucker Path it’s an app that run IOS and Android . It usually will route you to the truck entrance at most places that other drive have been. It come with truck stop parking prediction and 7 day history. It’s $9.99 a month or $99 for 1 year and has 7 day free trial.

This big thing it’s missing is live traffic backup warning. It shows you all the truck stops along your route and you can then you can see what the parking is like. The parking information come from other drivers using the app also. Most times it pretty good info. You can also look at past 7 days to see what time the parking lot is usually full.

 

I bought and used a Rand McNally 740 for 5 years. I eventually loved it. The Garmin Dezl 780 I replaced it with looked better, had a better screen, but I retired and never got used to it in the few months I used it after the RM died. A trucker GPS, not GPS/tablet/entertainment system/accountant/bluetooth hub, etc costs about $450 and will hardly ever just stop working. The do-everything devices are twice as expensive and huge. I used my reward points to buy both truck GPS and would do it again. Garmin has more frequent updates than the RM, even though both advertise lifetime free updates. RM stopped providing my updates exactly 2 years afte my unit was new. I think they have since started providing updates again. The GPS isn's a co-pilot, trainer, supervisor, expert. It depends on you to use it responsibly. I would buy the 5 inch version of a truck GPS or pay for a subscrption to Trucker Path, the free version doesn't do truck routing just car routing. You won't get out of a ticket by say "my GPS said yo use this road."

 

I'm going to have to check out the Trucker Path, that parking feature looks very useful.

I have a Garmin and it's a good tool for reminding you of what you already know...familiarize yourself with your route during trip planning so you aren't ever blindly following the GPS. That is asking for trouble and this board has many examples of why.

It's also good for keeping track of remaining miles and giving you a visual picture of the road ahead and when you're supposed to turn. It's a good tool to have onboard.

 

I have a Garmin and truckers path I let both give me my routing options and pick the path I like the best.

 

The 5 inch versions give the same info and I found the voice prompts from the GPS were the most useful, so the size of the screen is largely unimportant. "Downsizing" to a 5 inch truck GPS will save you $150-200.

 

Trucker Path on the $9.99 or $99 for year plan does have HOS warning that will show on map when you would run out of HOS. I don’t use it much but can be fun to test. I just mention it because they advertise is more for the more expensive plans. Not sure if it’s better implemented on the higher price plans or the same. But it on the cheaper plans just a little difficult to find in the SETTINGS menu

 

Stand alone Garmin or Rand McNally are time proven and reliable devices. Garmin is better at updating maps and software on a regular basis. TruckPath requires a subscription fee. Read the reviews for the TruckPath app and choose carefully. Sort them by newest to oldest to get the a good feel of others experience.