Rand McNally Rolls Out Massive Upgrade to its Navigation Devices

CHICAGO, IL…  Rand McNally, a leader in commercial transportation technology, today announced a major, over-the-air upgrade to its Rand Navigation software. The powerful upgrade, which involves a full map update and extensive improvements to the routing and interface, will be available for all latest model Rand McNally TND™ and OverDryve® tablet devices.*

 The substantial update comes 18 months after the company launched its new, proprietary Rand Navigation platform. Although there have been interim updates, this upgrade includes enhancements that go well beyond updated maps and points of interest. The upgrade will be rolling out to device through the month of November.

 “This major upgrade is part of Rand McNally’s commitment to ongoing improvements and feature enhancements to existing products,” said John McAvoy, Rand McNally’s Vice President of Geographic Information Systems. “We are committed to not only providing ongoing map updates, but also continuous improvement of the features and functionality of our software and devices.

 Powerful Enhancements

Among the upgrades are improvements to the devices’ proprietary operating system (OS), a full map update with additional content, and interface and feature enhancements.

 The OS update boosts the number of  satellites used for improved GPS positioning on the Rand Navigation map base. As a result, location and routing are even more accurate.

 The full-map update includes revisions to highway and roads, travel center and truck services, truck-specific and general points of interest, as well as rest areas, scales, weigh stations, and more. Rand McNally’s year-round proprietary research layers on 33 percent more truck-specific road data than other GPS providers.

 After gathering additional driver feedback, the Rand McNally team also upgraded the user experience with larger and brighter text, more visible points of interest, and double back arrows. The upgraded software includes more “estimated time of arrival” options, as well as local time and county name for real-time, down the road weather alerts. Among other items, the technical team optimized connected services such as real-time weather and fuel prices, reducing data usage.

New Investment

The upgrade is the latest result of ramped up investment in Rand McNally by owner TELEO Capital, which purchased the company late last year with an expressed commitment to develop best-in-class solutions for the transportation market. Also, with TELEO Capital backing, the company is working to build and strengthen its Customer Support function, implement new and more efficient internal systems, and bring on board additional talent.

*Latest model devices are the OverDryve® 8 and 7 Pro II; TND™ Tablet 85, and TND™ 750 and 550