NAVIGATION TROUBLES

The company-provided navigation system has been malfunctioning a lot lately. Several of my fellow drivers have reported identical problems, so we know that the problem is companywide. This is a very uncomfortable situation, since navigation dispatches are the only source of company-provided directions we have. Directions are no longer sent via text over the QUALCOMM. If we were on a dedicated route, this wouldn't be such a problem. But we go to different customers every time. Some of these places are humdingers to find. While I do frequently use my iPhone for directions, poor cell service can make finding a customer extremely difficult. Plus, my partner often wakes me to help him find customers when the provided directions fail or are false.

I decided to go ahead and buy my own truck-specific GPS unit. Since the car-based Garmin unit served my previous partner so well, that brand was my first choice. The graphics are beautiful and I enjoyed a couple of the new features. During my first full work shift, however, I realized that there were some serious flaws in this unit. It's truck-specific routing directed me to places a big rig should never go; It's navigation turned a short trip into an unnecessary lengthy & convoluted trip around and through a Mississippi town. (Including residential streets). A well-established truckstop near the Walmart distribution center was not acknowledged in its directory; and addresses to frequent customers were spit back as "invalid". This GPS unit was not going to be a winner.

I kept my receipt and exchanged the Garmin for a Rand McNally unit, last night. One of my cousins highly recommended this brand. My partner has had the first real opportunity to use it, my turn will come up in about an hour.

We are currently bogged down in accident traffic on I-81 in Virginia. We are on our way to Mehoopany, Pennsylvania.