Rand McNally Motor Carriers Atlas vs. The Rand McNally G.P.S.

Call me "old school", I prefer to use the Atlas. It lists almost everything, weigh stations, legal truck routes (which are highlighted in yellow), low clearance bridges, restricted routes, etc..etc.

The G.P.S. version will not keep you on those "truck specific" routes. It may lead you on a route that may be a lane and a half wide and is meant for 2 passenger cars (4 wheelers) to pass each other.

I recommend that the Atlas will be 99.9999% more accurate.

 

The paper atlases I've used for 20 plus year doesn't have street-level maps of anything but the biggest cities.

My GPS RM 740 will keep me on truck routes, even HazMat routes. It depends on what settings I use.

 

Google Maps + common sense.

 

All are tools to assisting in making part of the job a bit easier.

 

Rand McNally GPS is my primary.
Atlas (Large Scale) always handy to double check a route or a shortcut, and all the law/regs info.
Google Maps for satellite and street views and some traffic info.

 

The Plastic Covered Motor Carrier atlas is the foundation.

Now when you consider cities, I recall spending almost 200 dollars to have maps of the entire 5 boroughs of NYC down to individual alleyways and directions of travel on each ramp. You can plan to the nth degree with those on paper.

There was usually a book on low clearances to check against as well. However the antennas at 13.5 is the final judge. When they start tapping and singing, you aint gonna fit.

with that said, I have still to this day the original GPS antenna and DVD's related to rand mcnally streets and trips. and usually a physical address of a shipper or reciever is enough to find them. (It eliminated for the most part having to ask directions.)

 

Google Maps doesn't have a truck setting, as far as I know. I think it has car, public transportation (bus), and pedestrian. I used it for a couple of weeks before I got my GPS.

 

yeah, it does not have a truck setting. That's where the common sense comes in.

 

We're doomed!

 

I use a Atlas, you can see the big picture when planning a route.