Why can't I just use Google Maps for my oversize load?
Google Maps and Apple Maps pick the fastest road for a car. Your permit picks the road for you. The two rarely agree, and only one of them is legal.
What the permit route is
The state looked at your height, width, length and weight and chose roads whose bridges, clearances and weight ratings fit your load. That route is printed on the permit, in the state's own shorthand. Leave it, and you are off permit: a citation, a fine, and if the bridge is low, a strike.
What a car map does not know
- How tall, wide or heavy you are.
- The clearance of the bridge ahead.
- Which roads ban trucks or oversize loads.
- The hours your permit lets you move, and when you need an escort.
- Your permit route. You can type in stops, but the map still picks its own roads between them, and it reroutes the moment you miss a turn.
What drivers do today
Read the permit. Type ten or fifteen stops into the map. Watch every road sign against the permit. Redo it when the map reroutes. One missed exit and you are off permit, and the map will happily keep you off it.
What Honk does instead
Add the permit, as a PDF or a photo. Honk reads the route the state printed and gives you turn-by-turn directions on exactly those roads, with the voice naming the exit by its sign. If you drift, Honk brings you back to the permit route on roads that fit the load on your permit, not on whatever a car map would pick. Honk never uses generic GPS routing and never swaps the permit's road for a faster one.
- Permits from all 50 states.
- The route is usually ready in less than 60 seconds after you add the permit.
- iPhone and Android, plus iPad, tablets and Apple Watch.
- Your first permit is free, with no sign-up.
Questions
Can I use Google Maps alongside my permit?
You can, but Honk was built so you don't have to. Honk reads the size and weight on your permit and gives you directions that respect them all the way to your permitted route. Google Maps won't.
Can I load my permit route into Apple Maps or Google Maps?
Not as a route. You can drop pins and build it by hand, stop by stop, and it takes forever. That is why Honk was made. A permit route also has to stay exactly where the state put it, and a car map moves it the moment traffic changes.
What about a truck GPS unit?
Truck GPS units know your truck's size and avoid low bridges, which is a real help. They still do not read your permit, so the road they pick is a legal truck road, not necessarily the road the state put on your permit.
Does Honk replace my permit?
No. Your permit is still the legal document. Keep it with you and follow everything it says. Honk does not issue permits.