GPS Units in Trucks

In the front of your atlas, low clearances are noted. But the biggest thing is to pay attention! Low bridges are marked, pay attention.

GPS's are great, but only if you do your proper trip planning. They can be very helpful in telling you when to turn and such, especially when the street signs are missing or impossible to read.

 

Get rid of the GPS....you've got a large, bulky arse truck, learn the atlas because I've seen quite a few trucks in position they should never been in if they read the Drivers Atlas.

Or course if reading is a problem or you have a language problem then you'd best ask for help somewhere along the way.

 

Sorry, I don't agree. A GPS is a tool just like the atlas, a driver would benefit more using both and be much less surprised with upcoming road changes/turns/lane choice/merging/etc. conditions while using the GPS. Alternate routes are a piece of cake with a GPS when you need to make changes on the fly. The atlas is useless for things like that. If you are driving a CMV and are familiar with working with techno-gadgets and such, then get the truck one, it will make your life much easier.

I use my laptop to trip plan and it runs my GPS software. I check the route against my fuel route sent by the company, and any restrictions in the front of the atlas if it's an area that I'm not familiar with, then roll out.

 

Agreed. Nice post!

 

I'm a pre-hire with Central Ref, I will be starting truck driving school on Oct 5. I know the rand mcnally road atlas is highly recommended, and the basic truckstop atlas is extremely help for the noob to know where to stop for the night.

Are the basic gps units programmable to accomodate the occasional detour along the way? Do the basic tom-tom/garmin alert you to traffic accidents or contruction delays?

 

They will automatically re-route you back to your programmed route if you, say, pull of the road and exit at the wrong place. If you proceed, it will always try to route you back on-course until it is closer to take an alternate route, at which time it will route you that way. This is where it pays to spend the time to look at your route beforehand, and you can do this in the atlas AND on the GPS. The more you know about what's coming up later, the better.

Some do alert you on weather and traffic, although mine does not. Honestly, for traffic, that's what I use my CB for. Weather means nothing to me, as I would be expected to go that way regardless and keep running unless they shut the road down (and most company drivers pretty much are expected to do this).

There are great websites (unfortunately I don't think we are allowed to link to them) that will give you real time traffic reports and such, I tend to use those if I'm worried about weather. As always, 511 is available as well. Also, stopping at a truck stop and asking people who come in from that direction isn't a bad idea also, that has let me know ahead of time a few times.

 

I have the Garmin 465T which is supposed to be a truck GPS. It does pretty well but ignores a lot of routes that I use because it doesn't consider them proper truck routes. It does good with interstates, but oddly ignores a lot of truckstops, even though it has a setting for them. It's practically useless for Canada except for main roads. As soon as I cross the border it warns me the road may not be for trucks. But I go to Canada a lot right now. But the traffic and lane warnings are good, most of the time. I use the GPS, check my atlas, keep an ear (my bad one in the NE) to the CB, and pay close attention to signs. But right or wrong, when I'm getting close to a delivery in a congested area, it's nice to be able to see what streets are coming up on my GPS.

 

Does anyone have good results with the regular Garmin unit? Money is kinda tight right now. I start truck driving school next month. I'm just trying to find a happy medium with access to gps and coordinated use with atlas. I will definitely look into calling the receviers to see about special intructions. How far out from a delivery do you calll them for final directions?

 

I run a Nuvi 680. Bought my mom one of those cheapie Garmins. They have alot of the same features as the top models, but the voice command is robotic and it doesnt give out the street name in the turn by turn.

The nicer ones will say something like "TURN LEFTY ON SMITH STREET THEN TAKE RAMP ON LEFT TO I-90 EAST." The cheaper ones will say "TURN LEFT. TURN LEFT."

 

Thanks for giving the feedback. I appreciate the knowledge you guys are passing along.