Delivery optimizing tablet

[brokcanadian]

Mounting to my truck, so I consider this truck talk...

Currently using the free Navigator app on multi stop runs for a new customer as my company branches out in search of runs to keep drivers busy.

It does a great job, I enter in the addresses of all my stops and hit "optimize" and it groups everything in the fastest, most fuel efficient way so all I have to do is follow the gps.

Problem is, it's such a battery hog even leaving my android phone plugged in it kills the 3000ma battery in about 3 hours...

Anybody know of a better android app to group and organize multi stop runs that I can put on a cheap android tablet so I can still have a phone? If any gps units do this, suggest that too, I haven't really looked since my 2006 tomtom still works well, thanks

 

[scottm4211]

Here maps doesn't use data and works off of GPS but I don't know if you can do multi stops. Free download.

 

[brokcanadian]

I'll try it, I like testing new gps apps. In Brooklyn I had the tomtom for iq routes, Google maps for traffic, and Navigator for truck routes all going at the same time...

As for data, Wind now has canada and us roaming for data unlimited on their 60 dollar plan so no more worries

 

[brokcanadian]

Doesn't seem to be any way to do multi stop even with "collections" in Here athough I see users asking for it. Pretty responsive and quick as a GPS tho. Most apps want you to pay, which I won't unless I can try it out...

 

[brokcanadian]

How about I steer this to "what android app also lets you plan out unlimited routes with unlimited stops and optimize the routes with many options including avoid tolls for free"

Am I the only one that puts my routes into a spreadsheet and analyzes the profitability? I started because it was a must to plan fuel stops in my natural gas van, but its pretty useful to see what to say yes or no to...

Also when I get advance notice of a run, I can plan it and figure out when to leave, when there's time for breaks and take a look at gas prices along the way...

It's called "mapfactor gps navigation maps" on Google play, anybody who wants to try it, compare it to your stuff and tell me if you've got something better

The only disadvantage I've found is the "truck routes" option for the free maps version was outdated, tomtom maps are available for a huge fee

 

[Turtle]

There are several apps that do route optimization. Road Warrior, Sales Rep Route Planet, Copilot GPS...

Most Garmins will do it. I have the Nuvi 3597 and I can enter several stops by just adding them to my route without bothering to care what order they are in, and then use the Trip Planner function to one-button optimize the trip where it will reorder the stops based on my routing settings (faster time or shorter distance).

While phone navigation certainly has its uses, and I sometimes use my phone right along with the Garmin in some cases, the phone really isn't designed to be a GPS navigation device. Battery usage is a clear indication of that. I learned long ago that, generally speaking, it's best to use the laptop as a computer, the phone as a phone, and a dedicated GPS unit for GPS. It's what they were designed to do.

 

[BigStickJr]

Back to that The right tool for the right job.

 

[brokcanadian]

Well, Google maps with traffic or Waze threw that right out the window. There's enough people running them around me in the city that I automatically get rerouted before the radio lets me know.

Long trips I'd agree but I'm playing "courier", lots of intersections take 10 minutes just to clear the lights and there's LOTS of lights in Toronto.

I have the traffic antenna for my tomtom or you can connect it to Internet, but only long backups seem to get reported...

Does the Garmin let you preplan routes and drag around if you want to include, say a cheap gas station? How are the maps? Does it store every visited address forever so you don't have to retype or do you use voice? I've heard good things about the Nuvi but never tried it - maybe the traffic works better on them nowadays?

 

[brokcanadian]

Ok did some research. The HD traffic that comes with the Garmin is not rated very good, but it has the capability to connect to your phone data plan and give more detailed and current traffic as well as rerouting (for a one time fee, not monthly) Thanks for the tip...i've ve been told about the Garmin before but my stuff was already good for expediting, so I forgot about it.

Have to do some research on that Internet feature, the phone gps use Internet to give more detail on addresses, example one address I go to doesn't show up on gps's but Google maps has it and even a picture of the right entrance...

 

[Turtle]

Does the Garmin let you preplan routes and drag around if you want to include, say a cheap gas station?

Yes. Sort of. You can add a stop and place it in the order you want it to be. It's placement in the trip routing may or may not change if you add it and then tell the Garmin to optimize the route, of course.

How are the maps?

Garmin has the best maps for North American, TomTom has (probably) the best for Europe.

Does it store every visited address forever so you don't have to retype or do you use voice?

Forever? No. Mine can use voice. Some Garmins have voice command capability, some don't. You can store any location to the Saved Places and recall them easily. You can also save complete trips in the Trip Planner to make it easy to recall them and, if necessary, add or delete stops from them. That way you don't have to start all over for regular trips.

The HD traffic that comes with the Garmin is not rated very good, but it has the capability to connect to your phone data plan and give more detailed and current traffic as well as rerouting (for a one time fee, not monthly)

The two types of traffic that come with the Garmin (HD Traffic and Live Traffic) each cover different areas (different cities) and work in different ways. The included HD Traffic is not bad, per se, but it only works pretty much within a metro area. For example, it'll work in Chicago, but if you're in Rockford or South Beloit and are heading to Chicago, it won't tell you anything about the traffic in Chicago until you're almost into the edge of the city.

The HD Traffic updates "as often as every 30 seconds" which is like your ISP saying you can get "up to 20 Mbit" but you end up getting more like 5 Mbit. It's really more like every 5 minutes or so. It really only deals with major backups on major roads, and will tell you about a backup that it thinks is still there long after it's been cleared up.

The Live Traffic (it's I think $19.99 one time fee) updates every 2 minutes, but it's much closer to real time than that. It updates every 2 minutes, but receives like 1000 messages every 2 minutes, which makes it more real time. It informs you of minor traffic problems (you can set that for the level of alerts) and city streets, and in many rural areas where you wouldn't think you even need traffic reports. Construction backup in some little podunk town, it tells you about it. After having used it for, I dunno, a couple of years now, it's worth every penny. I'd pay $50 a year for it.


Most Garmins, you set the traffic source for Automatic, and it'll automatically pick the one that's available in that area. The Live Traffic isn't available in Detroit and Toledo, so it switches to the HD Traffic automatically, for example.

 

[brokcanadian]

Co pilot looks quicker, I'll try that for now, thanks Turtle. Can't remember what I had against it, think at the time it wasn't free...eventually I'll have to upgrade my GPS but it still works

 

[brokcanadian]

Co-pilot failed to find the first address I put in...after downloading both United States and the more local maps...oh well was free to try

 

[uriykir]

I use copilot daily, it has its issues. Sometimes you have use the us/state route number instead of road name. For example instead of 2378 oak street it might be 2378 us-9

 

[brokcanadian]

Too much time / hassle, the mapfactor uses Google to find the addresses, never had a miss so far