CoPilot 11 has a lot of problems. Some of the features, like how the POIs work, have changed dramatically since version 9. Actually, in ALK's quest to "dumb down" the software to make it easier to use, they completely removed features like "Avoid/Favor" any road, the "POI" manager that allowed people to create their own custom POI's and to import/export easily those POI's, the ability to display ONLY the precise POI icons on the screen that you want to display, the ability to show more or less "map detail" at any zoom level, and the ability to set POI alerts for ONLY the specific trucking items that you want to be alerted for. In version 11 it displays a POI alert "icon" that you must click to see details, which is just an awesome idea for people to do while driving down the road, and when you do manage to click on it without crashing the truck, it then lumps together every exit, truck,stop, scale, and weigh station into that alert. Sooo, the new POI "features" are rendered useless for most driver.
There are lots of features that are talked about in the manual, but are no longer included in the software, too, which is always nice to see so you'll know what you're missing. It's database of truckstops is woefully inadequate with most of them missing, and the ones that are there are more often than not showing nowhere close to their actual location. Most of it's POIs are like that, where the GPS coordinates are off a little, some are just across the street, but some are down to the next exit.
It does not work on XP-64, Vista-64, or Windows 7 Home Premium 64, but it does work on Windows 7 Ultimate and Pro 64-bit IF you have the OS running in 'XP 16-bit' Mode. It only works in one screen resolution with many popular laptop video cards, well, 800x600 or lower. The maps are out of date by as much as 4 years in some regions.
Oh, and the GSP receiver that comes with CoPilot 11 is proprietary (not built to standards) and thus will only work with CoPilot 11. They have a really gnarly GPS receiver with many nifty features (16-channel (rather than 12 or 14) parallel and continuous satellite tracking, and simultaneous dual L1/L2 signal reception, and an internal electronic compass which eliminates the need to be moving to get a direction, among several others), most of which the software doesn't even use, but third party programs like Streets & Trips and DeLorme will. They found many people were using their receiver with other programs, and they didn't like that, so they made it proprietary.
But now they've come out with CoPilot Version 8, which is a later version than 11, which is just retarded by any criteria you choose to apply. And it's got its share of problems, too. For a major update, it's pretty bad, which is probably why they gave it an older number that they skipped.
But don't listen to me, I'm just a van driver who doesn't know how to use the software, and not a professional truck driver.
But for my money, and for safety's sake, use a laptop as a laptop, and a GPS unit as a GPS unit. For a truck specific unit, Garmin has the most accurate maps and routings, except its truck-specific unit has some routing problems (that will be corrected, some already have), where it weights too heavily and National STAA truck routes instead of common sense Interstate routing. But the Rand McNally is a new up and coming kid on the block insofar as truck-specific standalones are concerned, and the Rand McNally has better truck-specific features than the Garmin does. The Garmin, Tom Tom and Rand McNally will all have roughly the same mapping data, however, and none of them are perfect, so what it really comes down to is the user interface and the bells and whistles. In this case, if it's truck-specific features you're after, the Rand McNally wins.
Regardless of which unit you get, do NOT follow it blindly, especially under bridges. In New Jersey and New York especially, the Garmin has some nailed perfectly, but completely misses others badly, and the same with the Rand McNally. There are a lot of low bridges that the Garmin doesn't know about, but the Rand McNally does, and visa versa. Both are pretty good with truck routes, but don't bet on it. (CoPilot 11 is notorious for routing a truck onto restricted routes if it has to recalculate because you missed a turn. It'll go for quick and easy every time, regardless of the restrictions.)
Like Hawk said, don't let the GPS unit replace common sense. It's a tool, nothing more. Use the other mapping tools at your disposal, like Streets & Trips if you have it, or Mapquest and Google Maps. If you have an Android phone, you've got Google Navigator built into, so use that, too. It (Google Navigator and the online Google Maps) will often find an address or a business that the others cannot find. It's routing often sucks, especially for trucks (hey, that rhymes) but at least you can pinpoint the location and then find it on the GPS unit for the actual routing.
