Best GPS for Truckers Reviewed

Good navigation units for truck drivers is absolutely critical. The latest GPS for commercial drivers include more features than ever before and make getting there safer and easier than ever.

A specialized and high quality GPS for truckers is essential and choosing the best one can easily pay for itself many times over. Even an expert map reader can appreciate an electronic assistant in the cab reminding him or her of upcoming turns and letting them know their exact location. Nothing beats knowing that you are on track to making your delivery on-time.

Using a standard car GPS, smart phone or tablet with GPS not designed for trucks can lead to some dangerous and expensive situations for even the most experienced truck drivers. Standard GPS and low quality truck driver GPS units can:

• Mislead truckers down small residential roads that are too tight.
• Route trucks though declared "No Truck" roads.
• Route trucks under low overpasses and across weight restricted bridges without any consideration of the overall weight of the truck and load, height, width or type of cargo.
• Instructing drivers to do U-Turns on roads to small to perform a U-Turn.
• Not giving enough notification for commercial trucks of upcoming turns or giving enough advanced notice to safely perform lane changes.

The best trucking GPS units save money and make driving a commercial vehicle safer.

Federal Hours-of-Service regulations already limit the amount of time a trucker can drive. Wasted time driving less efficient routes or getting lost translates to dollars. That's not even considering the expense of the wasted fuel.

If you miss your pickup or drop-off time driving in circles or driving out of the way could mean that your load is not accepted or financial penalties for being late. Enough times of getting lost and routinely driving blocks or even miles out of the way becomes very expensive for owner operators and could mean a company driver risks losing their job.

Not to mention that getting lost or being pressed for time can result in stress and speeding. Speeding increases the risk of a ticket or accident, which can also be detrimental to a CDL driver's career.

A good commercial GPS will consider all routes and your vehicle load and will find the most time efficient route to your final destination saving you hard earned cash.

The best GPS will easily and with out a doubt pay for itself time and time again.

• Free lifetime map updates.
• Truck friendly points of interest.
• Hours-of-Service end of day timer.
• Estimated arrival.
• Current weather and wind for route along with forecasts.
• Mileage alerts to aid with mileage specific maintenance.
• Fuel log tracking with bread crumb features.
• Displays your speed along with posted truck speed limit.
• Considers truck type, height, weight & length for routing.
• Wi-Fi connectivity.
• Easily submit feedback for updates.

Rand McNally has been involved with commercial trucking and creating commercial truck driving maps for professional drivers for over 70 years. They are without a doubt the undisputed experts in the industry.

The quality construction and solid build of this unit is impressive. It feels like it could take a beating in still deliver. The suction cup mount attaches securely to the windshield as if it was bolted in place. The GPS unit can be easily slid off of the mounting bracket and taken from the vehicle to prevent theft without having to remove the suction cup mount.

The TND 720 allows you to specify truck dimensions and load type for proper trip routing. While driving, the voice volume is loud and enables you to clearly hear directions over normal cab road noise and the 7 inch display is bright and crisp.

They didn't just leave functionality of the unit to driving and navigation, they also included truck driving tools to assist professional drivers with every aspect of their job. This includes planning and driving assistance with end of day timers to assist with Federal Hours-of-Service regulations, automatic logs of driving time and mileage notifications which are really handy to remind you to do required maintenance or remind you to re-secure your load.

They did not forget about fuel logging and even include a bread crumb feature so that you can look at where you traveled at a later time. You can also keep track of available driving time.

You can have it report your estimated arrival time in your local time, the time zone of the destination or remaining time in days, hours and minutes and keep you in compliance with posted legal speed limit for trucks. If you wish, it can notify you if you are speeding and can forewarn you well in advance of upcoming decreasing speed limits for trucks well in advance.

Need to stop for fuel or food? Truck friendly stops and other locations are listed.

With Wi-Fi connectivity, it can present you with current and forecast weather updates. This includes wind speeds along your route and storm specific information.

In the rare event that you do get incorrect information, they have made it easy to make update suggestions. It flags the location with your request to Rand McNally for the update. Once you connect to wireless, it emails them and they respond back to you.

While there are a few different branded GPS units available online to purchase, you really want to stick with a Rand McNally unit. The TND 720 the newest model and by far the best GPS for commercial truck drivers.