Rand McNally's IntelliRoute TND 500 Trucking Navigation Device Now Available at U.S. Retailers

[Orafice]

double post lmao, just thought I would throw that in to lighten up the mood.

[Mark]

Fifth Wheel,,, you are missing the point here... It is a tool along with everything else the truck driver has. Do you rely on your brain alone? Or do you look in the MCRA for information about upcoming roads? AH..that is a tool.

My first question is,,,if you have this vast knowledge then why are you driving a truck? And not putting your talents to works at one of the navigation companies, or are they below your standards?

World Nav is selling for over $700,,, yet you do not pick on their pricing...

You may have some insight to certain things, but have you looked at the cost factors of what goes into a product? All the way from conception to public offering?

According to you all navigation devices should be banned till 2025 or till you have given it your blessing.

I admit their are a few issues that need to be resolved.. But do not read into my words and put false statements out when I did not say those things. It is easy to criticize someone,,but it is not easy to offer solutions.

Oh btw,, the MCRA does have some errors too, should all truck drivers throw them away till they are bullet proof? Of levy high fines on states for not being forthcoming in submitting data to mapping companies?

Mark

[big road wake up]

sounds obsessive and marketing over load....but hey whatever shifts ur gears

[Orafice]

You just don't give up do you mark and by the way as a beta tester why was the product not ready out of the box like it should be and why does it have to be updated because what if someone doesn't have a computer and can't update the gps then they are out 500 on a worthless gps maybe you should go beta test child restraint systems so we can have our children fly out the window in an accident. That's the problem nowadays is these companies are so greedy that they push products out the door that aren't ready, look at the game industry as an example, get it out the door then fix the bugs later so we can make our cash.

[RadioDave]

Mark wrote:

supervisor? do not work for Rand... and if you believe because it is navteq, then it is 100% correct... nothing is 100% correct.
You want a unit that is 100% error proof... I am saying that will never be, because humans are involved.
I point out other things, such as computers, airplanes, cars,,, do you return your car because they put out a recall?
I had other navigation units... they as your does have some routing issues..
you will not find any navigation on the open market that is 100% bullet proof.
RM is trying,,, I do not belittle anyone, but some people expect a mini cray computer in their truck.
This unit is a tool, to be used along with your MCRA and common sense..
what version is your TND 500 on?

Cray Computer! I am a driver who is a geak at heart and I sure that most drivers do not know about Cray Computer.
A little too deep into the tech world for most. I also agree with your comments for the most part.

[Orafice]

RadioDave wrote:

<quoted text>
Cray Computer! I am a driver who is a geak at heart and I sure that most drivers do not know about Cray Computer.
A little too deep into the tech world for most. I also agree with your comments for the most part.

yes yes the Cray-1 in 1976 but if you are a true geek then spell it right lol

[big road wake up]

code overload just black coffee hold the nutmeg,whip cream and sprinkles

[Easter Bunny]

I had planned to purchase a truck routing gps one way or another but I spent over a year procrastinating and researching and was looking for the one that would be the least troublesome. When i discovered that Rand McNally was putting out thier own GPS I simply put aside any thoughts of any other GPS. It was in the name that I was assured Id find the quality I wanted. Even still I questioned the company before the purchase and they assured me this was trucker tested but I have my doubts especially having gone to some of the trucker forums and read the comments of the so called testers. "It has the look and feel of a gps that had truckers in mind" What the hell does mean? Its a pitch for those who most likely are hoping for a deal to sell these items and get a large wholesale discount for promoting the item. So the testers are if scrutinized carefully, biased. Stupid things that we deal with daily are simply not addressed. Common things that we cope with. The Daily log bit is pretty useless unless you want to duplicate your efforts entering and editing in 15 minute increments the logs. Why bother when you already have to log. The calculator works great!
It does some very strange routing often attempting to take you off the main freeway to some rural route to access another freeway. It tried to route me to a freeway then back to where i was to my delivery. Roads were not named correctly heading to them but heading back on that same road it had the correct name. Comments on trucker forums have said well you cant expect them to have every local route for every state. Well thats kind of the point people. We can use a 60 dollar cheapy gps to route us on the freeway and feel 90 percent safe that we are not going to encounter any dangers. Its not the big freeways we care about. Its those last few turns to the pickup and the deliveries that we are concerned about. It is the local routes that should have been the focus. Between all the mapping companies surely theres enough data to accurately map main hwys. Yahoo and google who dont do this as a business seem to have discovered some source and produce pretty good maps. So if your in the business and you actually used truckers to beta this bugger then it would be obvious where the focus should be. On local routing. I am pretty sure I can get an overall agreement on this from say about a million or more people. I put on one of the first reviews here and it was taken up on some of the trucker forums and mostly my credibility was attacked versus the problem thus my earlier comments none where intended for folks posting here. Some of the trucker forums are quite unwelcoming critiques and comments contrary to the local trucker guru. If you study the characters carefully you will get a sense of what thier really about and that is preserving thier posture and position of guru status amongst thier minions and if you can see throught that, as many have, you will look elsewhere for opinions and views that help you better understand whether you should make this purchase or not. So i havent wasted my time there and you have to sign up for all this balogny that doesnt interest me. So this was an easier place to post a quick honest warning to potential purchasers.
I am not saying or suggesting that Rand McNally is out to screw any of us and that they may in fact hold true to thier claims and endup eventually creating a true gps that works and eases our jobs. I will say that I DID NOT make this purchase as a trivial item and that i spent my hard earned money expecting this to be a tool like any tool i purchased and I expected for the price it to work just as well as any tool of this class. THere are tens and thousands of drivers out there willing to buy a quality tool if it helps ease the strain of our jobs. Just as many willing to buy a gadget to play with in thier truck. Is this GPS going to end up as a tool or a gadget?

[Easter Bunny]

Thanks to all who have added thier comments. The internet is a wonderful tool that gives us a place to spread the word about crap and or quality. It puts the companies in a place theyve never been before in history. In the past you could sell a million products that didnt work and pay off the media to keep down the criticism. With open forums such as this word is spread fast and people are forewarned. The upside is if you produce a quality product it works the same. People are informed and will buy it and more will buy it than ever before in history. So be wise and look at any product you put on the market and make sure it does what you claim because all the lovely marketing in the world wont hide the truth. People will know and quickly. I am on the road posting this and i have limited internet and time for proofing and editing. I have to post this before i loose my connection. Hopefully i started some effective critiques and they will be used wisely.

[f stik]

I need a gps to alert me to the closest Asian Spa so I can off load a delivery of salty dick snot into some slanty eyed cuties baby oiled hand , UUNNNH you go get wet wash cloth , Kim .......

[Easter Bunny]

I must comment that I read the truckers forums and saw postings that made me even more uncomfortable with this guy who claims to have this INSIDE connection. Well I will go through the front door and if i cant then lets not do business. This same guy was asking people who were having problems to trust him and to send thier gps to them and hed use his super secret magical insider connection with these untouchable power figures to remedy the buyers issue. Posturing himself constantly suggesting that he was the MAN you can rely on to do the right thing. Looks to me hes trying to create niche for himself to be the sole liason and maybe we will see him as he sees the executives over there with some guru like aura. I think i am onto something here because thats how hes viewed on the forums. And anyone who views are contrary get a verbal berating. Common when the ego overtakes the intellect.You get enough people around you telling you how terrific you are and you start believing it. When that position is challenged you get a hostile reaction panicked that someone might see through you. So its not worthy much mental aerobics with someone whos motivation isnt on the level.
Thanks to all those who are posting what is what and that being what they are actually experiencing with the product itself. A special thanks to those who are lifting the marketing veil and telling it like it is. Those questioning peoples credentials are showing thier own in contradictions left and right. Like they say give em enough rope.

[big road wake up]

ditto what he said

[Fifth Wheel]

Easter Bunny wrote:

Between all the mapping companies surely theres enough data to accurately map main hwys. Yahoo and google who dont do this as a business seem to have discovered some source and produce pretty good maps. So if your in the business and you actually used truckers to beta this bugger then it would be obvious where the focus should be. On local routing.

Companies like Navteq, Tele Atlas, and other various companies compile digital maps and sell them to the various GPS manufacturers and software programmers. In addition, some GPS manufacturers and software providers (ALK and Delorme) compile their own digital maps for use in their own products. Google and Microsoft buy their maps from Navteq, as does Garmin and other leading manufacturers, and it is generally accepted that the Navteq digital maps are the state of the art and the industry standard.

Even so the Navteq maps are at best 2 to 3 years behind when they are released to the various GPS manufacturers and will also contain thousands of mapping data errors for various reasons that are beyond their control.

Thus, even the best of the best maps will always be outdated and will also contain hundreds of thousands of errors. Then when you combine the above reality with the fact that we live in an ever changing environment where nothing ever remains static because what wasn’t restricted today may be restricted tomorrow, then it is very easy to comprehend that building a GPS device that will be good enough to do truck routing reliably is beyond the reach of technology.

In other words, a truly bulletproof truck specific GPS device that is good enough to be relied upon for truck specific routing by truck drivers in reality is a wishful thinking myth. There is no such GPS device and furthermore there never will be such a GPS solution because building such a trucking specific device is impossible.

Thus, if you spend your hard earned money on one of those so-called truck specific GPS devices, you are in effect throwing your money down the drain and worse if you make the mistake of stupidly trusting those so-called truck specific GPS devices, you are in effect a walking, talking, and incompetent accident or major ticket waiting to happen, because those devices can and will route you down roads that are illegal for 18-wheelers as easily as they will route you down routes that are legal for 18-wheelers.

Therefore, because today most trucking companies supply the truck routes they prefer their drivers to take anyway, instead of throwing your hard earned money away on buying a GPS device that falsely claims to do truck routing, driver’s should seek out GPS solutions instead that allow drivers to add as many stops as necessary and to easily optimize those stops, that allows them to easily customize and sync their company supplied truck routes in their GPS solution, and that allows them to save those synced up truck routes so that they won’t and can’t be changed every time drivers pull into rest areas or truck stops like what happens every time with the current iteration of so-called trucking specific GPS devices today.

--Continued below

[Fifth Wheel]

--continued from above

Further, any device used by truck driver should also allow drivers to turn off the auto-rerouting feature. While auto-rerouting is a great feature for 4 wheelers, for drivers of 73 foot long 18-wheelers it is an accident, major ticket, or worse waiting to happen, because the feature can route drivers down roads legal for 18-wheelers as easily as it can route drivers down roads that are illegal for 18-wheelers.

Not only that, but with the auto-rerouting feature turned on, every time a driver will turn into a rest area or a truck stop, the entire route will automatically get recalculated, and every time the route gets recalculated the route could be change, making it absolutely impossible for drivers to sync their company supplied truck routes in their GPS solutions.

Hence, the absolute best GPS solution would marry the above flexibility with a truck specific POI database that is comprehensive, tailored specifically for truck drivers, and that has been geocoded for pinpoint accuracy. Pinpoint accuracy is absolutely critical in a trucking specific POI database because inaccurate POIs could cause drivers of 73 foot long 18-wheelers to inadvertently have to drive for many miles out of routes looking for a safe and legal place to turn around. Not to mention that sometimes there are no safe and legal places to turn around.

[Fifth Wheel]

Easter Bunny wrote:

Between all the mapping companies surely theres enough data to accurately map main hwys. Yahoo and google who dont do this as a business seem to have discovered some source and produce pretty good maps. So if your in the business and you actually used truckers to beta this bugger then it would be obvious where the focus should be. On local routing.

Companies like Navteq, Tele Atlas, and other various companies compile digital maps and sell them to the various GPS manufacturers and software programmers. In addition, some GPS manufacturers and software providers (ALK and Delorme) compile their own digital maps for use in their own products. Google and Microsoft buy their maps from Navteq, as does Garmin and other leading manufacturers, and it is generally accepted that the Navteq digital maps are the state of the art and the industry standard.

Even so the Navteq maps are at best 2 to 3 years behind when they are released to the various GPS manufacturers and will also contain thousands of mapping data errors for various reasons that are beyond their control.

Thus, even the best of the best maps will always be outdated and will also contain hundreds of thousands of errors. Then when you combine the above reality with the fact that we live in an ever changing environment where nothing ever remains static because what wasn’t restricted today may be restricted tomorrow, then it is very easy to comprehend that building a GPS device that will be good enough to do truck routing reliably is beyond the reach of technology.

In other words, a truly bulletproof truck specific GPS device that is good enough to be relied upon for truck specific routing by truck drivers in reality is a wishful thinking myth. There is no such GPS device and furthermore there never will be such a GPS solution because building such a trucking specific device is impossible.

Thus, if you spend your hard earned money on one of those so-called truck specific GPS devices, you are in effect throwing your money down the drain and worse if you make the mistake of stupidly trusting those so-called truck specific GPS devices, you are in effect a walking, talking, and incompetent accident or major ticket waiting to happen, because those devices can and will route you down roads that are illegal for 18-wheelers as easily as they will route you down routes that are legal for 18-wheelers.

Therefore, because today most trucking companies supply the truck routes they prefer their drivers to take anyway, instead of throwing your hard earned money away on buying a GPS device that falsely claims to do truck routing, driver’s should seek out GPS solutions instead that allow drivers to add as many stops as necessary and to easily optimize those stops, that allows them to easily customize and sync their company supplied truck routes in their GPS solution, and that allows them to save those synced up truck routes so that they won’t and can’t be changed every time drivers pull into rest areas or truck stops like what happens every time with the current iteration of so-called trucking specific GPS devices today.

--Continued above because the first post somehow disappeared into Internet oblivion.

[mr cucuy]

can someone help i need to restart my logs i bought my tnd and has some miles on different states and i need to restart this to take my own control of miles by each state

[FSB]

mr cucuy wrote:

can someone help i need to restart my logs i bought my tnd and has some miles on different states and i need to restart this to take my own control of miles by each state

LMAO Newbie Dumbass

[Mark]

mr cucuy,

E-mail me at rmleadbetatester at gmail dot com.

In your version you cannot reset, next version set to hopefully release this week you can.

Thanks,
Mark

[Junior]

I have both the 465t and the TND500, i have updated this to the most current software, its a very very very good unit. I llok forward to using all the functions of this unit which Garmin does not provide!!!!

[Fifth Wheel]

Junior wrote:

its a very very very good unit.

Okay then let me ask you a couple of simple questions? Can you trust this device to provide truck specific routing that is good enough to always be relied upon by truck drivers? Can the unit find trucking specific POIs and is the POI database accurate?

The reason I ask is because if the answer is no to either one of the two questions, then the unit is certainly not worth the $500 premium price tag.

Now the Rand McNally TND 500 may indeed be a better unit than the Garmin 465T, but that isn’t saying much since the Garmin 465T was also a disaster.

And what about all the reports from our fellow drivers we hear about the unit freezing up and not being able to perform a simple reroute every time a driver enters and exits a weigh station, rest area, and truck stop? What about the unit repeatedly telling drivers that there is no available legal truck routes and then shutting down while drivers are driving already on a legal truck route? What about the reports the unit routes drivers to minor roads only to redirect them back to major roads over and over again? What about all the reports that the unit’s POIs are extremely inaccurate and that the unit repeatedly is unable to locate nearby truck stops and other truck specific POIs, even when there is another truck stop across the street?

Now I understand that Rand McNally has made a sincere commitment to customer service, although numerous drivers report their calls are never returned. In any event, I hope you like their customer service a lot as you will be using it often since you will unwittingly be a glorified Rand McNally beta tester out in the field, and never mind the fact that most people don’t have to pay $500 to become a beta tester.