I received the program yesterday, and even though I haven't given it a 'road test' yet, I'll post my feelings on it so far.

Routing in off-network areas:
This one is a major problem. I live in north-central WV, along a US route that is a marked truck route in the map. I made a sample trip, from my house to a truck stop less than 30 miles driving time away from me, along the marked truck routes.

The actual driving directions:
From my house, turn left onto US 250 South.
Turn right onto WV 310 South
Turn left onto WV 73 North
Arrive at the truck stop

No problem whatsoever - it's a direct shot.

CoPilots version - well, to say the least, is anything but direct
It takes you off of US250, and onto *numerous* back roads that have many, many, many underweight bridges, go through back-country hollows, through 7 different neighborhoods (most with 1 lane roads through them), across a bridge that has been *GONE* for the past 20 years. Literally gone - the bridge was torn down 20+ years ago. I even tried to force it to use the proper route, by 'avoiding' and 'favoring' to get the proper roads. Nope. It goes even deeper down the hollow. In fact, it's routing me across a covered bridge that not only has a 5 ton limit, but also has only 9'6" of clearance.

MS Streets and Trips 2006 - I put the exact same route into it, and it gave me the directions that I already know. Not some "let's go sightseeing on the worst roads in this area" type of deal...

Addresses:
CoPilot 9 is supposed to have map data as of March 2006. I think they need to sue whoever they got their data from, because it's WRONG. My home address had a name change about 12 years ago. S & T knows the correct address, but not CoPilot, just the old name.

Points of Interest:
Well, Not sure on this yet. Will have to wait on the road test.

Planning:
I'm not real impressed with the planning mode. In S & T, I can lay out my start/end addresses, put in how many hours I have left to drive for the day, and it'll show me pretty much where I'll run out for the day. I can then zoom in, find a truck stop/rest area, add a stop with the 10hr break, etc. With that, I can be usually within +/- 1hr of my appointment time, or know if I can actually run it.

Not CoPilot. You can't schedule the length of time for a stop. To change your driving time for the day is a major pain, etc...

GPS Display:
Now this, I do like. Especially the 3D view. Also, the display isn't filled with stuff on the screen that you don't need. Just the basics.

All in all, I'm glad they have a 30 day money back guarantee, because I have a feeling that I'm going to be using it.

 

Update:

I gave CoPilot a little 'road test' in my pmv yesterday, and other than the problems stated in my last post - I LIKE IT. The driving screen is absolutely great, especially the 3D view. There is only enough information displayed on the screen to give you the info you need, but not so much as to distract you.

I love the way the ETA will adjust according to the speed that you're driving. Also, it can be set to let you know about preferrered POI's up to 10 miles before you get to them. I set it to tell me about rest areas, truck stops, and fast food places. Not all of the POI's are in the system, but it knew of quite a few of them. If a POI you want to use comes up, 1 click will add it as a stop enroute.

I'll give it a better road test next week (orientation starts Wednesday).

I do know that if I'm going to be using this program, my next purchase will be a 7" widescreen touch-screen lcd monitor. It should mount perfectly to the back side of the sun visor, so I can just fold it up when I don't need it.

 

So, you've had it for a month+ now. How do you like it????

 

I just bought Copilot 9 truck and started to really use it in the past couple of days. First problem I had, I was meeting a customer at a truck stop to drop off 4 cars(i do auto transport) and I looked up the truck stop in the POI database. It was trying to send me into a residential area. The truck stop ended up being like 10 miles away from where it said it was. I dismissed this because I was in Waycross, GA.

Second, I left Waycross to go to Columbus, GA. On the way, it took me off the main road and sent me through the center of a small town and back onto the road I just come off of. I thought the road was new and dismissed that. I finally reached the road of which my destination was and it stopped me about half a mile before the actual address. I didn't know what to think.

Third, In Austell, GA outside of Atlanta, it completely put me on the wrong road and wanted me to turn on a road that didn't exist. At that point, I started using Microsoft streets and trips again to get me to where I needed to go.

I ve noticed that while I am driving and watching the map, the map is very inaccurate. Microsoft's maps are very accurate and even though it may not be completely truck friendly, its also a very accurate map.

I understand these things aren't perfect but ALK's Copilot Truck 9 is sure priced like it is. For $300 for a "truck" gps it is horribly worse than Microsoft's $35 software. I have completely lost trust in this software and don't recommend it to anyone who drives period.

My rant.

 

MS S&T has GPS ability as well right? Does it track your current ground speed like copilot does?

 

Yes.

 

I have used the copilot truck since 2003 and have gotten all the upgrades until this last one. I really used it going in and around Chicago and Detroit. It led me through some pretty weird routes. I wound up getting a Garmin C330 gps. I ran both at the same time and compared and the Garmin out performed the Copilot. Needless to say the Copilot truck program is off my computer.

 

The following is somewhat of a review of the new Co-Pilot 9 version software written by another fellow trucker.

Click

 

Yep it does and more accurately than your speedometer.