GPS with Truck setting or CoPilot???

Awesome question and I was wondering the same. A few classmates of mine got the CoPilot 11 and use their laptops. It's nice because it seems to offer more features and the screen is way larger as well. My son broke my brand new laptop when he picked it up by the screen.. so I need to either A.) get a new laptop, B.) pay to have it repaired, or C.) buy a Garmin and hope it works out.

My choice would be CoPilot, and for $299 it's a great deal if you ask me.

 

I run with a Garmin 660 GPS and I love it.

I have used mapping software with a laptop but it just doesn't compare with the ease of use or the functionality the Garmin offers.

The Garmin is on my dash within easy reach at all times.

-Laptop is too big to be on dash and would be a safety hazard due sight obstruction and thus is relegated to passenger seat.

The Garmin utilizes an easy to use touch screen that one can easily change screens, zoom in or zoom out, add via point, have unit search for other destinations or several other functions without pulling over. Top end Garmins even offer voice recognition that allow spoken destinations to be routed.
-Laptop uses a mouse or touch pad to zoom, manipulate screen or switch functions, therefore you must find a spot to pull over. This is very time consuming and inconvenient.

The Garmin holds over a million points of interest. It can find closest Walmart and give voice guided direction there. Same goes for finding truck stops, rest areas, restaurants, movie theaters and many other destinations I might want to visit if I find myself on a restart in an unfamiliar city.

-While I haven't used Copilot I have seen and researched many software programs and none that I know of have anywhere near the database that the Garmin uses.

Garmin is not perfect it will make a mistake once in a while but I believe it beats software programs hands down and now that I've used it I wouldn't think of trucking OTR without it.

 

Wow, thanks for the post roadkill!

My friend has a really nice GPS unit that ISN'T a Garmin. I forget the brand, but it has 2GB of storage for MP3s, and Bluetooth capable. He has it wired into his head unit so when a call comes in, he answers on the GPS, voice from the caller comes through the trucks speakers, and the speaker on the GPS picks up your voice. It's a slick deal, I think his was normally $799 and he picked it up for ~$350 on Amazon.

I know I will get mobile broadband with my truck, so having GOOGLE maps
along with my GPS unit would be pretty rock solid.

 

We used the Microsoft 'Streets & Trips' program with a little GPS locator that connected to the laptop for awhile. The only thing I liked was having a large screen. One thing I didn't like was having to use the mouse touch pad. Bouncing around in the truck made it difficult to move the cursor around and sometimes caused me to click on the wrong thing.

I didn't mind putting it on my lap while my husband was driving, but once I quit coming with him he couldn't use it. And if I used it in the car I put it on the passenger seat and it wasn't safe looking at it while driving. Each of us accidentally stepped on the laptop after it fell on the floor, breaking the lid, so I couldn't use it anymore. We don't really need a big screen anyway.

I got a Tomtom recently from Walmart (because of the low price and I was familiar with it). We like it because we can tell it what we want to do or where to go, etc., by just tapping the screen. And the little unit can be suctioned to the windshield or on the dash.
It came in really handy last week when the truck broke down in Jackson, TN and I had to drive up there to bring him a turbo charger. We needed to find some fixit shops in the area and the GPS not only had the addresses, but the phone numbers listed. Another thing I like about it is the compact size (If I ever go hiking I can take it with me).

I still keep the 'Streets & Trips' program on the home computer and use it all the time to print out maps for my husband's routes. Those will give him exact miles from point A to point B, and I can save them in a file.

We're expecting to acquire a 2nd Pete soon, and want to put a GPS in that as well.

 

I am a rookie here, with 2 months experience. Just want to say that the best tool I bought for this job was my GPS - Garmin nuvi 350 - and I am soooo thankfull that I did. It's been making my job easier and saving me time and hassle. Even my trainer, who had co-pilot in his laptop, decided to use my Garmin instead and now he bought one to use with his students. There were a few times when Garmin sent us to dead end narrow streets or places where trucks were not allowed and we had to use our creative imagination to find our way out of there... But most of the time my GPS matches QC directions and if I miss a turn or have to take a detour, it helps me to find the way to destination. Also, if I need to find Walmart, or truck stops nearby, I just spell the name and it finds it for me. The only thing I miss on the screen is the name of the state where I am. Being from another country and still a fresh rookie, sometimes I forget in which state I am driving, specially after hours and hours behind the wheel...

 

I dunno, I guess I'm just too "old school"...I still use an Atlas, and call for directions to shippers/receivers. My main complaint with GPS is that they don't have one (that I've seen) that is truly truck specific. I mean jeez, $300 and up for a GPS unit? Not on my paycheck.
I have a laptop with Streets and Trips that I use to verify addresses and such, and to give myself an idea of what the area looks like before venturing in to a shipper. But that's about as "new age" as I've become so far....

 

My husband uses the big book and calls me with the address to confirm on the map once he gets it. If I'm not with him he doesn't use the Tomtom. I couldn't afford to get a GPS until now. Lately they've come down in prices. I only paid $169. for it at Walmart.

One thing he asked me was if it will tell you how far you've gone from point A to point B. I'm still figuring it out, but I would think it would have that option.
I'm at home most of the time now, so I will verify the addresses for him with the mapping software on the home computer. Once, when he was on his way to a new location in a city, I got on Google earth and was able to see the actual streets and let him know if he could make it down them or not. That was very helpful.

 

Yep, Google maps has the sattelite view option as well, although it is an old picture. I was supposed to pick up somewhere and when I pulled the address up on Google maps, it showed an empty field So I called and found out that it was a brand new DC.