Rand McNally intelliRoute TND 500

I cannot compare to other companies units on a open forum. I stated this in the beginning. You may go to someone like DesielBoss and query him.

I will cover the strong points.

RM did listen to us professional drivers to as our needs and wants. This is not a simply rebranding of a unit. This unit was designed from the ground up.

The features that drivers need were given high priority, such as bigger buttons, POI's for drivers at the start of the POI menu. Logging of miles by state for O/O... conversion charts,,,, warnings that the user can select for distance before that state border for example. Tighter code and strict routing for trucks. Timers for the use of the driver to keep a reminder of how many hours you have left...3 clocks.. one for dest time, yard time and local time....

thanks,
Mark

 

Sounds nice. What does it do when you turn onto a restricted road?

 

Thanks
I sent the same questions to RM and was told to call.
I'm just a little gun shy at this point as I am sure others are
I will call RM monday and post the answers.
rag

 

Rag,, your questions were forwarded to the product manager.. He will be adding your questions to the FAQ.

As far as routing you on a restricted route. If the unit does then we want to hear about it. The unit is made to keep you on truck routes.

But as I stated before... data is ongoing. things do slip through the cracks, roads get changed,,, etc etc.... look at all the roads in the USA... could you keep track of all of them?

At RM... any data that is wrong they want to hear about it. Why complain and complain and bad mouth a company if you do not give the company the information to correct the issue.

If you would like to get a 3rd party's opinion, then by all means talk to DesielBoss.

I talked to DesielBoss and answered a few questions he had. I feel this is an honest person and if he finds problems with the unit then we would love to hear the problems. RM wants to have the best unit out there for the professional driver.

I will not talk about other units on an open forum nor in private. I test for RM as a Beta Tester and yes I do find bugs. But what I find is for RM only. So as far a the con's... I simply cannot judge...

thanks,
mark

 

Cc19427
I would never itch about a product that I have not tried and I understand that you will not comment about other vendor’s products.
From your first post about the TND500 you stated that you would be happy to answer any questions.
RM is very lucky to have yourself and other drivers Beta the product before it comes to market
I only hope that they listen. (Others have not)
I do know that at some point they must launch and deal with the bugs (and the itching)
For me routing is not very high on my list (states dictate the routes for OS/OW)
On the other hand poi’s are very important to me
A GPS is just another tool in my toolbox like my atlas(extra large print) and S&T
Depending on the refund policy I will probably pre order
Please don’t get your bloomers in a bunch
Thanks

rag

 

No, I mean what does it do when you turn down a restricted road? Like, exactly.

 

I'll be watching here, too. Hubby has been bugging me for a new GPS and after reading the reviews on the garmin and a few others, I'm not spending that kind of money to get a piece of equipment that doesn't do what it should do for the truck driver.

I'd also like to thank cc194217 the beta tester for sharing what he can share on the boards here. I think a gps unit for truckers is very helpful. Nothing is 100% perfect but I do expect better than what I've seen for reviews out a company like garmin who always in my experience was "the" gps to get if you were going to have one at all. At least that's what everyone told me before I bought my own for myself.

Anyway thanks cc194217 I will be watching for your comments on the unit. If it works as you say it has so far or better, I will purchase. It would be nice if other beta testers would also find their way to this thread and post their comments. I'm not saying you won't do a great job, but when it comes to spending several hundred bucks, I do like to have input from more than one person, so please don't take offense.

 

Rag,, never in a wad... I just wanted to stress some of the things I cannot talk about since I am a Beta Tester. I have gotten a few that want to keep asking me to compare.

Let me try to explain to some of those out there what a Beta Tester does. RM as do other companies, needs to field test any product before it goes to market. Field testing is time consuming. I average over 5 hours a day field testing... this is to include looking and testing the product, writing up reports, fielding questions from RM as in phone calls and E-Mails. Why so much? I, as RM felt that a good Navigation unit needed to be developed for the Professional Driver. I am a Professional Driver, RM is not. So a "testing partnership" was formed. Now since I am not superman and I cannot be all over the country each day RM has expanded the Beta Testers. One of the criteria for the Beta tester was that he/she be a Professional Driver. They could be local/OTR/OO/,,etc etc... They run the routes and see where corrections need to be looked at. 50-100 pairs of eyes can see a lot. Since drivers run constantly, RM obtains a vast amount of data in a short time. This was needed to get the product to the state of being ready for market in a set period of time. RM did not want to test for 30 days then toss it to the drivers, but then again two years of testing is well past a product being viable.

So RM set a date as they should for the product to hit the market. This is RM's decsion. Refunds, pricing, etc etc are RM's decsion since this is their product.

A beta tester has one function in this product. To find the "bugs". As such I know what needs to be corrected more that someone just picking the unit up and looking at it. I cannot state the "bugs" since I am under an NDA.

As far as you physically turning down a restricted route.. the unit will get you to the nearest point to get you safely turned around that is rated as a truck friendly road. Does the unit keep running you in U-turns at each intersection? Nope... Based upon your settings as in weight/height/length/twins/triples/hazmat the unit will route you to a correct area to turn around. It does not see parking lots. This would be your decsion. The unit sticks entirely to roads.

Now RM does understand that certain aspects of the business needs to be in cities. Show trucks need to be in cities. As such RM suggests that they then revert the unit to "car" mode. But then again common sense prevails. It does not hurt to look at the MCRA and double check your local route.

POI's, this was a major area where RM and the Beta Testers felt needed to be the most correct. Some other units list 12 million POI's.... you say a lot? But when was the last time you pulled your truck into a bank, barbershop, florist, etc etc... RM listened to the Drivers.

RM has shown POI's in such a way that you can select... the first screen you will see shows how you want to search your POI,,, your truck (where you are physically now), city, your route(will find along your route if you have selected a route), end of day (looks at your end of driving/on duty day and calculates where you should be in location), destination ( your destination if you have picked a destination). And once you have selected, the next screen is the main POI screen. Here you will see Truck stops, Cat scales, weigh stations, parking and rest areas, truck dealers...the buttons are BIG. the rest of the POI's are listed on a sublisting off the main POI screen.

POI's , the driver can rate the POI, this rating will also get uploaded when you update your unit to RM. Then as other drivers update the average rating of the POI (from other drivers input) will be displayed on your unit. Your personal rating will still be shown.

RM has from the CEO down has listed to the Beta testers. With the vast amount of Beta testers sending in corrections, RM does have to give a priority to what needs to be fixed. Code changes does cost money, so the corrections are listed but may take a few updates to show.

Will RM listen to you? Of course. That is why RM has on the unit given the driver a place under truck tools to "Tell Rand". You can input your information and when you connect to your computer (with internet) you can forward the information to RM. You may be contacted by RM if they need more information.

Road Contruction. RM will be showing road contructions areas.

Real Traffic, this is a RM decsion.

detours, you can select certain parts of your route by how much you want to detour.

The clocks, under truck tools, timers and logs. RM has inserted 3 clocks.. yard time(your logbook time), local time and destination. Since drivers run time zones RM felt this was needed to show the driver at a glance what they need to know. Esp if you run Central time, are stopping in MST and deliver in PST. I myself do not wear three watches.

logs, this keeps track of by year/month/day/state the amount of miles you have driven in a state.

Quick Planner, allows you to input from/to major cities, input the amount you need to earn each mile. then gives you a listing of hours to drive, cost of total trip(based upon your $ amount/miles) and mileage of the trip.
Mainly for O/O...gives you a idea of "is what the broker paying enough to cover your trip?"

MCRA listing... gives you emergency/hazmat/oversize, etc etc phones numbers taken from the MCRA listed by state.. a quick reference at your fingertips.

Warnings... you can set the distance you would like a visual/audio warning to show.. weigh stations, state lines, toll booths, speed limit alerts(above the posted limit), driving day, on duty day

unit can run in US standard or metric.

Log clocks, Off duty, On duty/not driving, driving. Manually set by the driver. keeps track of your 11/14/70. Will this become automated? RM question.

I extend to any driver if they want to see a unit before they buy, I live around Charlotte, NC. I would be willing to travel up to 120 miles to bring a unit for you to see. I would need a day or two notice of course. If given longer notice I could possibly make it to Atlanta or Richmond, VA.

if you google TND 500 you will see the first listing for the RM Store... once there, under the picture of the unit go to the support tap and then to the FAQ's.

From my heart... from what I have tested and seen of the unit, I truly believe that this product was long overdue. If anyone knows me they know my standards are high and I do not praise very much.

What is in the future for RM,, only good things for us drivers.

 

Sounds promising, thanks for the info! Im ready to order

 

CC
Are you able to turn off the logging and the miles by state?
I am not sure I want that info to be recoverable
Thanks
rag