Which IS The Best GPS

My 465t really doesn't. It's got a lot of work yet to be done on it but it's found some clever and legal ways into places I never would have found. It's also picked up weight limits in places and routed around them before I would have seen the signs. It doesn't prefer interstates and there's no setting I've found to tell it to. That's ok with me, I like two lanes.

 

No, it doesn't... however Garmin states on their website that their equipment doesn't know anything about real "truck routing." They just use a preference for "big roads" as psuedo-truck routing.

There's enough holes in every one of the GPSs that have been touted as something that a commercial driver could use, that eventually, if relied upon without checking their operation you'd end up in trouble. If you read the fine print, they all have enough weasel words that you couldn't claim in a lawsuit that they didn't tell you so.

Get a Rand-McNally, and use it.

 

Rand McNally is coming out with a truck GPS. They call it a TND (truck navigation device). It has resticted routes and has references to their atlas as well as truck stops. Go to the Rand Mcnally web site to check it out.

 

I have one, it is not much use where I go. They're too vague. I'm going to a huge army base that isn't even in the atlas. It has no addresses at all, no truck stops, no repair shops, no local streets out side of a few big cities, half the towns aren't listed, you can't read it going down the road (you can try, good luck), etc, etc. The rand macnally atlas is not even close to all you need to find your way.

You also might want to check out the big disclaimer in the front of that altas where it warns you about missing weight limits, no truck restricted road listings, and no low bridge warnings. It's almost exactly the same one on the gps units. So much for that.

 

Em are the weasel words the lawyers put up front for when something bad happens. Rand McNally is great for between shippers and receivers. Beats the heck out of the little box. But just the same, I throw in a good dose of MapQuest and Google Earth for the local stuff.

Part of this is homework. When you drive these monsters into a congested area with small roads, uncertain turn around points, low clearances, weight limits and local cops, depending on a box of electronics some geek sitting in a cube programmed to keep you out of trouble is the height of stupidity in my mind. Doing the trip planning with a map (whatever form you like) gets you familiar with the trip - many less surprises, and having a plan B in mind is a great idea... well before you need it.

Yeah, and with all of that, you can still come around a bend in the road and find a new low bridge, restricted truck route, weight limit, closed road, bridge or any number of things. Part of the charm of the job...

 

Two days ago I'm picking up a load in Hannover PA. Usually start this deal up in Carlisle because we need a washout before showing... which means running south down PA36 and PA94 into Hannover, and hanging a left onto Eisenhower Ave.

So I'm in the turn lane waiting, and here comes one of the competitors in an ugly blue truck going slowly northbound in the left lane with his lefthand turn signal on. Got a great seat for this... only 4-wheelers in front of me. So the light goes yellow, lead 4-wheeler on my side sees the on-coming truck, assumes what anyone would - he really means to turn left, and goes. Except the dude in the ugly blue truck isn't paying attention. Got his head glued to the GPS screen. Goes through the yellow, nearly creams the 4-wheeler, and as Mr. Werner's boy goes by me he's screaming something (can see the mouth going,) one-finger saluting the dude he almost killed, and still staring at the GPS - not paying attention to what's in front of him.

Pick up some chatter on the CB a moment later... they guy is lost. His instructions must have been for a southbound truck (he's northbound) and he's looking for the DollarGeneral in the shopping center he just went by while staring at the GPS. Needed to make a righthand turn.

Ok... moral to story. GPS is nice stuff... on a dark night in the middle of nowhere, it's nice to have something to let you know your turn is approaching a quarter-mile ahead of you. But when you allow a necessary part of your job to be done by a machine with questionable capabilities at best - it becomes a crutch. And when you depend on it for something that could end up killing someone in the process, its unforgivable. My company has had two trailers destroyed by drivers who followed car routing on a cheap GPS instead of dealing with the canned instructions on the QualComm and a map because the stupid thing told them to go down a road with an unmarked 12' 6" overpass - same road, same overpass within two weeks of each other. End of careers. Werner could have killed someone the other day, and was arrogant enough about it to think it was the 4-wheeler's fault. GPS is a tool, and a fallable one at that. Nice to have, but you have to understand the limitations of the technology, and the possibility of built-in-errors in the technology.

 

We had a driver come into the shop a few weeks ago. He buys a GPS and heads out without turning it on yet. When you leave, you have a choice. Here it is:

Take a left: This is a wide sweeping turn and leads to back to I-5 and on your way. This is the way you came in too.

OR

Take a right. This is a 90-degree turn and there is a 6-foot deep gully directly on the right. This direction leads off to farmlands in case you want to grow some asparagus today in your spare time. Apparently the driver had not yet mastered the concept yet about the trailer "cutting" the corner that you are going around and just because you got the cab around it, the trailer isn't necessarily going to follow that line. The right-rear wheels of the fully-loaded trailer go down into the gully and lift the entire rear axles of his rig off the ground. The rig is suspended now and the 5th-wheel connection is the only thing holding the front of the trailer and the rear of his Freightliner together in the air. $800 tow truck bill and 45 minutes later he is finally on his way.

Moral of the story? Most 4-wheelers think that truck driving is done by individuals who are not willing, able, or motivated to get a "real job" and they just spend their day doing the easiest thing in the world, right - driving down the road. Now, we know that the reality is that truck driving takes a HUGE heaping of common sense and being alert constantly or you won't be doing it very long.

There greatest asset that a trucker has is under his or her ball-cap. Everything else is just a tool.

 

Well said .... no matter what tools you have, your noggin is the first and utmost tool .....

 

Pick the GPS that is the most user friendly with the best maps. I found that to be the Nuvi 5000. One problem, don't let it route you. You want to tell the GPS what route you are using so you know the roads aren't restricted. So you figure out the route the old fashioned way, then use the GPS to make sure you don't miss a turn and always have a good idea of how long it will take you to get here or there.

The Nuvi 5000 got the nod because it can utilize FM traffic and MSN direct to keep you out of severe weather of traffic jams.

Just remember, the GPS is only a tool.

 

Unless you've run multi-stop LTL, you'll never realize the benefits of having a GPS.

My GPS is not the know all, end all tool I would like. But it saves a lot of time. And time is all we really have that is worth saving.

Getting me within a few blocks of my customer in a timely manner, is more important than sitting on the shoulder of the road writting directions down on a piece of paper.

My phone works as well 2 blocks from the customer, as it does 700 miles from the customer.