ALK Technologies Launches CoPilot Truck 11

I don't know what thread to post this in... But has anyone tried or got some feedback on Garmin's StreetPilot 7200? I've read that it's supposed to have truck specific routing.

Thanks for the update, SQ609. Since you are not saying anything about the "regular" ALK CoPilot Laptop, I'm assuming we will have to wait at least till fall to see that one, too, just like the Truck version.

The 7200 isn't truck specific. Using that setting will cause the routing engine to use as many major highways as possible, but it doesn't take into account for truck specific items, such as HazMat, height, weight or length.

But is there any feedback on the Garmin's Street Pilot 7200 use? Has anyone used it and can give an evaluation or opinion on its use. I'm looking to purchase a hand held gps to keep in the truck as a back up to my laptop. But it has to have some sort of truck routing for the big trucks.

Like I said - it's *NOT* truck specific. It can and will get you into problems, mainly with overweight and low clearance routes.

I understand that its *NOT* truck specific. But have *YOU* used Garmin's Street Pilot in order to be able to give an honest opinion about it? For example, I use MS Streets & Trips and CoPilot Truck 11. Streets & Trips is not truck specific but it routes better than CoPilot which claims to be truck specific. I would recommend MS Streets & Trips to anyone before CoPilot Truck.

I've never used the StreetPilot 7200, but going by the nuvi I have with the Truck setting will route you exactly like I've claimed: across bridges with low weight limits, under low clearances, etc. Even CoPilot will do just that as well - I've had it happen. Right now there are no true truck specific gps programs/devices that I know of that can be trusted 100%.

Hopefully we'll see something soon in the US. NavTeq has released data for Europe that is truly truck specific (google "navteq transport"). However, I haven't seen anything from them yet for North America. When they do have the data available, I'm sure we'll start seeing programs/devices that truckers can trust to not get them into problems.

Navteq, if I recall correctly, have had data for truck routing (USA/Canada) for at least a couple of years, and so has Tele Atlas. I think it is just now up to software developers to decide there is enough market for it.