Trukers GPS

Nice discussion. Very helpful. Thanks. I'm another newbie (still in A-Z school in Kitchener, ON) curious about the state of the art in helpful gadgets. I wonder if there's an app that integrates route planning with itinerary planning, e.g. a mapping app that would also project what your ideal log book would look like at the end, revisable and updatable as contingency dictates, e.g. delays for weather, breakdown, border crossings, lunch, spontaneous sight-seeing break, whatever...

 

You try changing the road preferences and change that? Free ways set to your max speed of your truck and drop 10mph for divided highways then 10 more for each remaining. I can run 76 so my top is 76 then 55 45 35 and local streets is 25. My copilot is spot on on my iPad. Only thing I hate you can't keep it to your time zone. I run cali and it's always cali time. But eta is always right

 

My ETA using copilot was about as close as i could get it. But i was mostly cali for 3 years. So my highway speed was 55, 45,35,and 25 for the other roads.

I never stuck to that ETA however and trying to with any gps would really be worthless. It'll give you a rough idea but let's be realistic. Nobody can tell you what traffic will be like in the future. Not even gps.

If your close, and traffic alerts are active, then Yes. But not from the start of your journey.

 

The igo navigation just brought back the truck routes. I been trying it. As of right now it has old maps but they said next few weeks a map update is coming. So far I prefer it over copilot. Has 3D maps and terrain. ETA is spot on. Love to see it after updated maps come.

 

When you first put in a route the ETA will look at the distance/speed of what the map segments are based upon the route that is selected. This is going to give you a "rough" idea. Be aware that this usually will go on the "car" speeds since the map data is constantly catching up on inputting truck speeds and both are always changing. This will not take into account the weather, nor traffic. But this does give you a good "outside" ballpark figure to work with before you start your route. In testing I find that this is usually within one (1) hour of the actual ETA of arrival.

The GPS is based upon Lat/Long movement. So once you start to drive the ETA will adjust to the difference in the Lat/Long movement. If you are going slow in traffic, the difference in movement of the Lat/Long will cause the ETA to adjust to a longer time. Drive faster and the ETA will shorten. Again this does not take into account the weather nor traffic, but based solely upon the differences in Lat/Long Movement.

Time Zones - It does not matter what the time zone if you go across one or three, it is based upon the distance you need to travel and the movement of the Lat/Long of your GPS.

Now most GPS's will allow you to "adjust" the ETA setting. The "wording" is a little confusing, but in testing like on the TND's I find the "OK" is about 64mph, the "Increase ETA More" is about 60mph and the "Decrease ETA More" is about 68mph. But normally the "OK" is fine for a normal driving. Increase = add to, Decrease = subtract from.

Traffic, they do have a tool called "Predictive" traffic. This is taking past historical data gathered over time and "Predicting" what the traffic will be like at any given point in time. This data was gathered over time, not just a one-time shot. This is pretty accurate for any given point in time/day/hour/city. Now it cannot take into account the accidents, but this is taken on daily traffic flow. If you are wondering what the traffic will be in a certain city on a certain day of the week at a certain time, you simply put the city in as the Origin, and set the parameters on the Predictive Traffic. It will show you "Yellow" for slow traffic, "Red" for stop traffic. By adjusting the time you can then determine the "safer" time to enter the city roads for Pickup/Delivery or pick a route that will work you around the traffic.

Weather, some GPS that tie into the Internet will allow you to show a Weather Overlay on the map. You can pick what overlay you would like. Depending on the type of weather you can adjust your routing to go around the worst of it. If you know for a fact that a Tornado is in your route you can tell you dispatcher that you are going around it based upon what you see on your GPS. If you know a Heavy storm is in your path you can adjust your route or know that you will be going slower in that area of the storm.

Some items you can put as an App on your phone, but with the FMCSA only allowing a "one-Touch" of the phone and now CA making it unlawful to touch your phone when driving, this option is a "gray" area.

Before you used to have to pay for "Traffic" on the TND's, now that is included in the licensing fee. Predictive Traffic is also free for the TND.

No matter what brand you buy YOU have to remember the GPS is only a tool to assist you in planning your routes and allowing you to make decisions based upon this tool, but in the end you are the final say so in how and where you drive.

Truck GPS's have come a long way since they first started coming out on the markets about 8-10 years ago for the drivers. Base your purchase or information on what is current, not what was 2-3 years ago.