PC Miler 430 GPS

[ATeam]

CoPilot Truck, a related product, shows most streets in Manhattan as truck-legal routes, which they are if you have a local delivery or pickup and use the local streets to get from a through truck route to your delivery address. But if you are using non-truck routes to just move about, you are illegal.

So what is the right thing to do, show the streets as truck legal or truck illegal? The five ton limit you talk about may be similar; no good for through trucks but good for local deliveries.

I do not envy the mapping people who have to try to keep track of all these jurisdictions and changing rules.

[ATeam]

Well we bit the bullet and bought the PC * Miler Navigator 430. We will be comparing the unit to a Lowrance iWay 500 dash mounted GPS and Streets & Trips PC software. We have enough to compare to that we should be able to do a pretty good test on the unit.

Without providing a full review, which I will read with great interest you write it, do you have a general sense of the PC Miler Navigator 430? A friend recently asked me about units to consider. I sent him a link to this thread. Do you know enough yet to recommend the unit to a big-rig trucker buying his first GPS device?

[RMMahoney]

Any update?

[needdriver]

Any update?

Yeah.....and it ain't good.

There were quite a few warnings left by users of the other ALK products here. Folks should know ya never jump on "new releases". It's looking to be pretty much junk, just like their overly priced software suite. [excluding PCMiler]

BELOW C&P'd from: Truckers' Trucking Forum | Message Board | Discussion - The Premiere Truck Driver Forum


report #1

Hi kwantz. Sounds like you might have read what I posted in another thread under Electronic Connection here on this forum. I made a similar comment about the rush for the Christmas season. Yes I have tried it. I got it at a Petro in Effingham, IL and let it route me from there to Pittsburgh, PA.
I'm not sure how to create a link but It is under "GPS with truck routes" if you would like to take a look.
I'm not saying it won't work for you but it made a bad first impression on me. Here are some issues I had.
1. The second I got on I70 (and I forgot to mention this in my original post) a message popped up telling me I was on a truck restricted road. I dismissed it and kept going.
2. It wanted me to go the long way around Indianapolis even though it's perfectly OK and faster to go straight through depending on time of day etc.
3.It demanded that I go around Columbus, OH and tried to get me to take every exit til I cleared the loop. I read about someone having the same issue with CoPilot Truck 11 software for a laptop. This device is simply a touch screen handheld computer onto which they have installed CoPilot Truck 11. If it's bad on a laptop then it will be bad on this device too.
4. The device announced that memory was full and after hitting OK it shut off. Had to restart it. Resumed my route but some custom settings were lost.
5. Did not have a Flying J truck stop located just West of Columbus, OH. My Garmin had it. This location has existed for many years. I don't believe that you can upgrade the POI database either, like you can on the Garmin.
6. Did not have a road that is a shortcut to my home shop. Has been there for 5 or more years. Wanted me take a much longer way around.
7. I was at a T intersection. If I turned left I would arrive at my destination in less than .2 miles. The CoPilot device wanted me to turn right! This was my home area so I knew where I was but for a driver coming here for the first time this would have been a nightmare. I'm guessing that had I tuned right as instructed it would have taken me down the road a few tenths of a mile and then announced "You have arrived at your destination."
Now you have to find a place to turn around and call the customer or someone and find out where it is.
I know that no GPS is perfect. My Garmin will sometimes tell me I am arriving at my destination "On left" when it is actually on the right etc. but that is rare and it almost always gets me within sight of my destination. Some GPS units don't even attempt to announce the side of the street but it can be usefull information.
So I don't recommend the ALK unit. But if you want to give it a try and post your experience I would love to hear about it.
Petro and TA I believe are parts of the same company and both have a 14 day return policy on electronics.
As far as the Garmin taking you down low clearance roads, yes you have to be careful when using it. I had a bad experience in WV once myself. I took an exit off US 19 because my brakes were fading. When I was ready to resume I blindly followed the GPS and ended up in a residential area with some really tight turns. I made it through without hitting anything but it was scary. When going into unfamilar territory you really need to preplan with the Truckers Atlas. For me sometimes just a mental note not to take a certain exit is all it takes and the Garmin will recalculate quickly. You just have to make sure it is not just turning you around to go back to the restricted route before you start following it again. If there are more than two routes that need to be avoided then I will write down some notes for reference.
The CoPilot software can be very difficult to enter addresses into. I had Truck 9 and often had to use other software to find my address then find a nearby address that CoPilot would accept. I find that the Garmin will accept almost any address in the US.
I recently had to go to a place near LAX that is nothing but an opening in a fence that leads to an empty lot but has a street address. The Garmin accepted it no problem. Just to see what would happen I tried to input the address into the CoPilot but it could not find it. 7350 Worldway W, Los Angeles, CA. It found the street but would not accept the number instead offering a generic alternative which is less than ideal.
Agree that the price is puzzling. How can a stand alone device cost the same or less than the laptop software with GPS receiver?
I paid $600.00 for my Garmin device and I feel it's worth every penny. Garmin has a laptop version of their software called Garmin Mobile PC and I think it sells for around $60.00 without a reciever.
I wish Garmin would make a truck specific GPS. I wish they would somehow team up with ALK and somehow merge the ALK truck restriction dataset onto Garmin's maps and the result would be the perfect device for truckers. I would pay almost any price for such a device.
I have a theory why more companies don't bring a truck specific GPS to market. They are afraid of law suits. If a device marketed as truck specific were to have a flaw that sends a driver somewhere he shouldn't be and a big possibly fatal accident occurs, the lawyers/insurance companies would be looking for someone to blame and file legal action against. Of course the people with the deepest pockets will be at the top of the list.
Well I meant for this to be a quick and short post but once I get started on this topic I can't stop.
Again if you decide to give it a try I'd love to hear about it.


Report #2

Here is a quick up date on the ALK GPS unit. I have now tried to route to 3 different destinations. It has failed 2 out of three times.
The first time I already talked about. It has the road my home shop is on but has the address about 3 tenths of a mile off. Doesn't sound like much but it's enough that it tells me to turn right when I should be turning left.
Years ago when I worked for a company that used Qualcom I would get directions and very often the last turn would be the opposite direction from the destination. They were probably using PC Miler to get those directions.
It then makes sense that if the CoPilot products are based on PC Miler data that many of the addresses are off enough to cause wrong turns if an intersection falls in just the right place.
I believe that the very last turn in my directions was wrong nearly 1/3 to 1/2 the time back then. And they still haven't updated their old data. I'm sure they've added new roads and addresses but they need to relocate the old addresses now that the GPS system is so much more accurate.
The next location I tried to navigate to was a Waffle House about 20 miles away from my home. I know that's a long way to drive to go to Waffle House but I wanted to go for a drive and test the CoPilot GPS some more. And I was hungry too.
I found it in the POI database under Restaurants/American. This one it got right. I was in my car. You couldn't have gone there in a big truck, but you could drive by it.
After getting home I remembered my printer is almost out of ink and this was a perfect opportunity for another test of the CoPilot GPS There is a K-Mart less than 2 miles away from my home but it was the middle of the night so I needed a Super(24hr)K-Mart.
I did a POI search and it found the close by K-Mart and after some more time found one about 11 miles away. The one I was looking for was only about 5 miles away but I really didn't pay close attention to the mileage and just picked the next one it found.
As I began navigating I soon realized that it was trying to take me back to the Waffle House. Appearantly It never thought that I had made it to the Waffle House even though I used it to navigate home. When you enter a new destination it just inserts it into the original route without asking you. My Garmin always asks me whether to insert a Via or to create a new route. Never any confusion.
So I pulled over to the side of the road and cleared the existing route and it did show the Waffle House still as the final destination. This is more of a situation of me not knowing the ins and outs of the device but still, the user interface is not very intuitive even for someone like me who has a lot of experience using GPS devices.
While clearing the route I realized that it was taking me to the wrong K-Mart. I used the Garmin to locate the closer Super K-Mart and tried to enter the address into the ALK since it was missing from the POI database.
It would not accept the street at all. So I drove up there with no route input just to see what it would do and it did not recognize the street the Super K-Mart was on. This store and street has been there for at least 10 years and probably longer.
One out of three ain't too good. I wish I had better news but in my opinion this device is not ready for prime time.

[TeamCaffee]

We are running the PC Miler GPS next to a Lowrance GPS and there are a few problems. The Lowrance has been over two years since an update and the Lowrance can still find more addresses then the PC Miler. We have also noticed the PC Miler calling roads no HazMat and they are clearing marked for HazMat. When the PC Miler finds the directions it seems to do pretty good. We are not going to be taking our Lowrance out of the truck.

[RMMahoney]

I am new and am thinking that my TomTom with a truck atlas should work well enough.

I figure I can plug into the TT where I want to go and then confirm the route with the atlas and makes notes where the TT differs from the Atlas.

That is funny about the device running out of memory. My TomTom is two years old and I have driven over 1000 miles from Austin, TX to Lexington, KY and I never had that problem.

I love technology, but wouldn't bet my life on it.

[Dakota]

I have a Garmin 250W and love it. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of the newer ones but the maps are the same. I heard the newer ones have lane assist which would be really nice in the larger cities. I would think between the Garmin and the Road Carrier atlas you would be set in my humble opinion!
I love the points of interest also very handy to find a good place for lunch or dinner

[Scuba]

i have been usint two gps program at a time one to back check the other because its new. I got the gps in the QC and for the most part it hasent medded up just 2 or 3 times it didnt make sence. But what i really like about it is it tells you which side of the road the place is not that its just on that road 1/4 mile out it tells you to start looking on the left/ right and when you are at the location it tells you. I gont know about you guys but several times the shipper or cons have forgotten to put a stupid sign on the building. Why make it easy for us lol

[TeamCaffee]

The PC Miler will tell you which side of the street the address is on and now many feet till address. I also like that when you need to make an interstate change and the exit is on the left hand side you are told a few miles in advance.

It amazes me how many businesses we go to that do not have a sign and then when get into the location no door is marked shipping and receiving. I have thought at time a can of spray paint might help the next driver that goes into that location!

[pelicn]

It amazes me how many businesses we go to that do not have a sign and then when get into the location no door is marked shipping and receiving. I have thought at time a can of spray paint might help the next driver that goes into that location!

I've had that thought many times! What also drives me crazy is when the shipper or receiver gets irritated because you don't know "their" procedures.
"You're suppose to park on the street"
"You check with Connie first, then you come over here"
"All the straight trucks back into door 3 then check in with us"
etc....

[TeamCaffee]

Wow Pelicn you are so right and we just ran into that. Drive here drive there and back up to that dock and they give you no details at how many different things you are going to see! I think the worst is usually going to a base as many of those guys I swear never go past the gate. The GPS is not any good at a base as often our directions are to the front gate and not to the commercial gate. Our GPS usually does not recognize that a base has fences so the GPS also gives us terrible directions.

[pelicn]

Linda, we've started calling the base that we are delivering to and asking for the address of the commercial gate. That way we can put it in the mapping program and find it.

[Scuba]

On my laptop i use earthmate and it has all of the roads on the bases

[TeamCaffee]

What is Earthmate?

[Turtle]

Earthmate is DeLorme's GPS receiver hardware (the little brick, like an XM satellite receiver, or the one from Microsoft). Plugs into the laptop same as the Microsoft GPS thingy. Works the same as Microsoft's does, and exactly the same as a Garmin's or any other GPS receiver. The GPS receiver simply tells you where you are. It's DeLorme's Street Atlas mapping and routing software that's telling him here the base roads are.

You can use Microsoft's GPS receiver with DeLorme Street Atlas, same as you can use the Earthmate receiver with Streets and Trips. It's the mapping and routing software that matters most. The GPS receiver merely feeds your GPS coordinates to the mapping software.