If your truck navigation tells you to cross a bridge, should you do it?

What's the use in trusting a GPS that isn't designed for your truck's specific features? There are better and safer solutions, and they're powered by location tech.

“It was quite a fall," Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP), Sgt. Scott White said about an accident that involved a twenty-six-ton semi-truck and a bridge in Westphalia, Missouri in August of this year.

The historic Pentecostal Bridge had a weight limit of five tons, posted via road signage. Expectedly, the bridge collapsed when an Iowa-owned, 2020 Freightliner Cascadia attempted to drive over it. The truck and its load were more than eight times heavier than the bridge's maximum capacity.

Because of the oversight, forty thousand pounds of animal feed spilled from the truck's trailer into the riverbank below and the driver faced legal charges. Not to mention the cost of delays, loss of goods, and repairs.

The 55-year-old driver, who left the accident unharmed, told MSHP his GPS navigation led him to the bridge. He was driving under the impression that his truck was safe to cross.

Don't get stuck with a heavy load. Customizable navigation systems can help drivers stay on routes made for truck specifications.

Stranded and lost trucks, costly tickets and downtime, angry clients, and embarrassing headlines. Logistic firms need to ensure that their GPS navigation won't lead their trucks onto a road, bridge, or other areas where they aren't permitted due to height or weight restrictions.

And now, with the added demands of COVID-19 causing increased stress, drivers need detailed, reliable, and customizable routing features found in HERE Fleet Management tools.

Stuck between a rock and a boardwalk

Truck drivers can find themselves in a variety of stressful predicaments due to inaccurate location services. Some have suffered fines and embarrassment because they followed their GPS into truck-restricted neighborhoods, getting lost or stuck on routes not intended to facilitate heavy vehicles.

For example, in 2017 a driver was stranded on New Jersey's beachside boardwalk, a densely populated pedestrian-only thoroughfare when he followed his GPS navigation to a delivery destination causing a potentially dangerous and expensive scenario.

So, what are drivers to do, abandon their GPS? No. There's an easier way.

“When we understand behavior... that's really great. When we understand location... that's really great. When you bring those two dimensions together you get an entirely different, and deeper, and more impactful, view of what the driver is facing. The location intelligence that we receive from HERE is really powerful for us... [it] allows us to deliver a higher level of service, a higher level of insight and a higher impact to our customers." - Eliot Feldstein, Senior VP for Corporate and Business Development, Lytx

It's easier to trust your navigation when it's built to consider important and specific details about your vehicle: height and weight to name only two.

With customizable navigation systems, like HERE Fleet Management Solutions, fleet managers and drivers can rest assured that their telematics and GPS system will provide accurate turn-by-turn direction to roads, bridges, and neighborhoods designed to support their trucks specifically.

HERE Fleet Management features optimized truck routing which makes planning truck routes based on maximum height and weight clearance possible. In addition, the solution offers split-lane traffic information, traffic safety alerts, and weather info, helping drivers make clearer decisions, increase asset utilization, and meet demanding ETAs even under strenuous working conditions.

“We came to HERE Technologies with an absolute requirement that we have to have truck navigation that is legal and safe for heavy trucks. But, we needed more. We needed a platform that is open, that would allow us to build our own version of the driver experience. Thanks to HERE we're able to put together a solution where the driver's knowledge is fully utilized; they're able to see how the trip is laid out...'where can I rest along the way? where can I get fuel?' and...that plan can be adjusted on the fly safely." – Kevin Survance, CEO and Co-Founder, Eleos

While trusting a navigation system isn't a bad thing in itself, employing one that isn't taking into account the features of your fleet could find you, literally, in deep water.

With fleet solutions powered by location intelligence, you can avoid awkward and potentially treacherous situations, while improving your overall operations and performance.

See the difference custom navigation and GPS can make with HERE Fleet Management.