Best Truck GPS: Optimize Your Driving

Best Overall: Garmin dēzl OTR710

Best Value: Rand McNally TND 750

Honorable Mention: TomTom Trucker 620

Best Premium GPS App: Trucker Path

Best Budget GPS App: CoPilot

In a world of Google and Apple Maps, buying a separate GPS unit might seem unnecessary, if not counterproductive. While standard navigation apps do a good job for the average car or SUV, semi-trucks are a different matter. Truckers need to be able to customize their navigation based on cargo, height, weight, and more. I started the search by reading through forum posts of professional truck drivers talking about their experiences and preferences when it comes to navigation options. 

Beyond that, I employed The Drive’s review methodology to evaluate an array of other features including things like real-time traffic updates, hardware durability, mapping updates, and cost. For my primary picks, I included the best GPS units on the market today, but I also included two of the most popular trucker navigation apps that more and more drivers are using in place of a separate unit.

If you want a dedicated GPS unit that does a good job at everything, the Garmin dēzl OTR710 offers the best combination of features packed, reliable software with well-built, durable hardware. If Garmin’s price tag is a bit too steep, Rand McNally’s TND 750 offers incredibly competitive software at a big discount.

For our best overall and best value picks, we opted for the seven-inch versions of the Garmin and Rand McNally units. This is a popular size among truck drivers for its ease of viewing and compactness. However, the ideal screen size is ultimately going to vary depending on what you want out of your GPS and how you use it. Some drivers say they turn off turn-by-turn voice directions entirely, opting instead to look at a large screen. Other drivers are exactly the opposite, buying the smallest model available since they rely entirely on voice directions from their GPS. Screen size is a big factor in determining the overall price of a GPS, so it’s worth considering exactly what size you need.

Considering that a mount is one of the simplest pieces of technology you’ll find in a GPS unit, it’s surprising to see how many drivers complain about their shortcomings. Without a solid mount for your GPS, you’re going to be catching it as it falls from your dash or awkwardly rigging up a DIY solution. If you’re looking at physical GPS units, you may not have many mounting options at your disposal. That’s one of the upsides to apps like Truck Path and CoPilot. Since you can use them on whatever Android or Apple device you want, you’re free to select from an entire marketplace of mounting options.

A GPS is only as good as the database of information it has to work with. If a GPS doesn’t receive periodic updates to its maps and POI list, it becomes slowly obsolete for the drivers using it. When buying a GPS, it’s worth reading the company’s policy on continued mapping and software updates. As part of this process, you should seek out actual user experiences. Not all updates are useful, some users report them making a device less useful than it was before. An application like CoPilot is notable in part because of its ability to let users generate new POIs, allowing the software to expand and stay relevant to the reality on the road.

A physical GPS device can run anywhere from $200 to $700 depending on the features and screen size you want. The smallest, simplest GPS will still provide you the truck-specific routing you need, but will lack the large, easy-to-read screen and some of the helpful added features found in higher-end models. Depending on your uses, this may or may not be an issue.

Pricing changes when you look at GPS apps. Subscriptions for the ones we listed can run anywhere from $119 to $299 a year, but those prices become more significant across years of use.

You’ve got questions. The Drive has answers.