Rand Mcnally 710 GPS - should I buy one? Pros and cons...

Dear Friends, thank you for your input. After digesting the info, I have decided to buy an I-PAD2 to use with Google Maps and an atlass.

 

With some of the directions I've received from shippers/receivers that doesn't help much either. You're not using google earth for directions, you're using it for a bird's eye view of the area. It gives you a great heads up for what you're getting in to.

Case in point: The other day I called a receiver for directions. I looked them up beforehand on Google Earth and could see they had 3 entrances on the east side, with the northern most entrance looking like the docks. I asked him if the northern most entrance is for the trucks. He says no, the entrance is on the east side. I say yes I know, but is it the northern most entrance on the east side, he says no it's on the east side. Lot of help...

Or the other day I get directions while calling that says take Nor street. I asked do you mean North? No Nor. So I ask N-O-R Nor? Yes Nor. All I see on the Atlas is a North Street there so I finally just go with assuming it's North and hope for the best as I'm 99% sure there is no Nor St. Atlas said North, GPS said North, Google Earth showed North. Sure enough it was North St. Luckily the only English he spoke clearly was long fence then entrance so I saw that and knew I was in the right spot. I had 3 different tools confirming my gut feeling. If I only had one, I wouldn't be to hopeful of what I was getting myself into.

The key is not to rely on any one thing. Using any tool in conjunction with others is your best bet to getting somewhere. Could you get around without it? Yes. Why not though? I've yet to really hear any good excuse not to. Why not use an atlas, gps, called in directions, google earth all together? Just because you buy a GPS or use Google Earth doesn't mean you have to stop using anything you had before.

 

shippers/receivers are IDIOTs often times they cant even tell you how they got to work that day....


I'm not taking any info from them


True story: november 2010

Im in NJ just unloaded, next shipper is 3 miles away, i call them and ask "are there any low bridges between here and there?" the shipper says "they arent any bridges on the way here from there to here"

i DID check my RM road atlas nothing listed, i get 1.5 miles LOW BRIDGE, went under 6 YES 6 bridges on the way there, and had to reroute around that low one.....shippers sure are smart





American Trucker

 

Yep, I used to be a receiver with my old business and new very little about trucking. Luckily our deliveries were close to the highway in a yard that got regular truck traffic. I basically told then how I got there and figured it was their job to make sure they could get their truck there. I didn't know any better, so I do not generally trust shipper directions with one exception, if I get connected with a shippers dispatch office I can usually trust their directions since they route their own trucks too.

And you can't always trust your own dispatch directions. I had to t-call a load and meet another truck. Dispatch was giving me directions on the fly as my hours were running out. He was using google earth maps and the route looked good...until he tried to route me down a 10 ton weight restricted road.

 

Yep, I swear by Google Earth. I have a smartphone that is pretty pricey at $80/month, but it's worth EVERY penny when I'm out there because I can look at aerial maps from Google. If you're not sure what kind of intersection/median/gate etc. you're gonna run into, you can just look ahead of time. I could think about what kind of backing I'll need to do days before I even arrive at the receiver! As we all know you can only get so much detail on the local level with the atlas.

I'd much rather spend 30s on my phone and get the actual aerial maps then spend 5 mins on the phone trying to reach some security guard doofus who may/may not know how to route trucks in there.

Of course, for safety's sake I use all tools at my disposal including Google earth, atlas, fuel routing directions and sometimes I'll call the place anyway just to see if they have construction going on or something.

 

I know thats right...never trust a gps 100% and always check the batteries if it has them.

When I was 17 I decided to fly down to a little Fly In down on the other side of Okechobee down in Belle Glade. I didnt have my pilots license at the time so I was big into ultralights and took one down there called a javelin...you should really google this thing..lol. Anyway, my gps went out somewhere south of sebring....with no gps and no way to pull out a sectional cause the plane was open ####pit...actually there wasnt a ####pit...anyway i had a crosswind from my right at about 15 knots and with no gps and over nothing but everglades and sugarcane I couldnt figure out where i was and was running way low on fuel...I actually ran out of fuel and landed on a dirt rd that ran down the middle of cane field.....got out unbunjied the other gas can and filled her up...lol. Then I just followed the rd and found a airport and changed the batteries...lol.

Long story I know. All im saying is that if I wouldve studied my sectional I wouldve had a idea where I was at and couldve made corrections to my flight plan to counteract the wind drift. So sum that up to lack of flight planning and not checking to see if the batteries were charged enough for the trip...something that couldve killed me.

So always check the GPS against a map...it might save you from going down the wrong rd. or hitting a bridge or something.

 

I understand that you guys want to have as much info as possible before getting somewhere, therefore you use as much available gadgets you have. In the last 6 months I have taken a new approach to my driving, i have put my gps away and stopped looking at the internet for directions. I do everything by manual checking, atlas, exit numbers, phone directions and making a route plan for each day of my trip.I even make a back up "if i miss a turn what do i need to do to get back on track" plan. May seem tedious to a lot but i have found my confidence and ability has really taken a big step up since i started this. I have also found that i am able to recall alot of my driven route and also am more attentive to were i am and were i am going. i have also had a few moments of geographical misplacement and times were i have had to get out of some tight spots because i missed a turn .... BUT.... this is a much better way to gain experience than following gps and computer imaged directions. I feel that my decision making and evaluation of a situation, be it a dock or street problem, is becoming better as i have previous experiences to base my current decision on. Its great to allways have things going in your favour but the real experience is gained when you have to call on your own mind to figure out your way and make the right decision on what your going to do.

 

BRAVO!

If I had it to do over I would get a laptop, put Streets & Trips on it with the truck stop add-on and use that in conjunction with my basic cheap Garmin Nuvi. Throw in a MCRA, my Thomas Bros. guides for LA and a cell phone to call for directions and you should never be lost.

Perhaps locationally challenged on rare occasions.

My Rand GPS is the worst purchase I've made in recent memory.

 

Sounds pretty intelligent to me.

What I like to use my GPS for is to give me the names of the streets I am approaching before I get close enough to locate/read the signs. I find I move a lot smoother through traffic when I know which street is which.

Otherwise I find that looking at a map gives me a way better orientation and sense of where I am.

Different approaches work better for different people, something that many truckdrivers seem incapable of grasping.

 

I have a 700 and 710, the 710 replaced a broken 700 (power port issue) after a month the 710 developed the same problem, I have since sent in the 700 and received a replacement, I will try it out this week, if all goes well, ill send in my 710 as well, going to the Suppport Thread for the TND 500, TND 700 or future Rand McNally products. its fairly obvious they have a problem, when I said this to their tech support dept, they just said they are unaware of any power port problems, clearly they know its a defect, how soon they correct it is anybody guess, but I will say, after researching and comparing all the trucking GPS'S Rand wins hands down, I don't rely on it 100% for routing, but rather use it for its other great features, such as ETA, mileage tracking, state border mileage, alternate routing, hours of service logging.

"I only really have one complaint and that is you can't see the final destination ETA if you have a via point loaded. Or if you can I can't find it. Well one more too. Many times if I look for a POI it won't show any until you select services and filter."
Not sure about what Dirty Bob means, he might have the preferences wrong, both the 700 and 710 have these features, they are customizable too, you can add or subtract time to suit each situation.