I receive a fairly steady flow of questions from people looking for a truck-specific GPS (i.e. a GPS that knows about road restrictions that impact truck drivers), and until now the options were pretty bleak. Thankfully, Garmin has responded to the demand, and released the trucking industry focused nuvi 465T.
In addition to lane assist, subscription-free traffic, speed limit indicators, Bluetooth and text to speech, this nuvi features exclusively points of interest and location information from NTTS Breakdown. Currently, drivers carry around a phonebook-like directory with this NTTS (National Truck & Trailer Service) Breakdown information - this nuvi now provides driver's that information with the tap of the screen.
The pre-loaded NTTS database includes long-haul focused POIs, such as truck repair, towing and recovery, tire sales and repair, glass repair, fuels stops and more.
The nuvi 465T includes free lifetime traffic service (no word yet if will be ad-supported, as current 2x5T and 7x5T models are), and will also display warning information of upcoming road conditions to help aid driver awareness of possible truck hazards along the route such as sharp curves, steep grades, road narrows and more.
Garmin's press release states that the 465T will feature a "high resolution 4.3-inch display that is easily read from the driver's seat of a long-haul vehicle." That's the same size as Garmin's current wide-screen GPS devices, so it's not clear if this will be a higher resolution LCD or not.
On top of the trucking-specific features, the 465T will sport the usual nuvi features, such as lane guidance, text-to-speech, multi-destination routing with route optimization, and Bluetooth for hands-free calling. Suggested retail price is $499.