Delorme has serious problems

[lyman1]

Again Delorme has inaccurate info in its data base


Thank god I had my Garmin GPS with me. I entered in search 16101 s lincoln highway, Plainfield Illinois. I wanted to go to Rod Baker Ford sales inc in Plainfield.

The road was right except the position on the map is off by over 4.5 miles.

Luckily I had programmed the Garmin GPS. It was leading me in a different direction. The right direction as it turned out.

Microsoft Streets and trips 2007 has it right. I have that program too and entered a search when I got home.


I have noticed businesses in my neighborhood are placed in wrong spots.


Until delorme gets it right I don't think I will be buying anything soon from them!!! Sorry but true.

[HorseTrailRider]

First, Welcome to the Forum.

This as been a problem for a long time and no doubt will always be a problem. It's a massive project for any company to get all 4 millions of roads in just the US located correctly, but then you throw in trying to make sure the block numbers of all these streets are correct.

DeLorme does it's best to find accurate sources for this information, and sometimes the other companies find it first. But, as users we can all help DeLorme correct their database via NetLink.

To me, given the number of miles of roads, railroads, power lines, rivers, lakes, streams, etc, etc, etc. It amazes me that any of this information is accurate, especially once you throw in Canada and Mexico!

[John Moran_2]

I looked at this "problem" in detail when it was first posted. Due to the road layout of this particular area in Plainfield, IL, finding the desired address becomes a multiple choice "drop down menu" exercise.

I did not feel qualified to comment on Plainfield from 2,000 miles or so away on the existence of any used car lot or any new Ford dealer for that matter in the year 2009. Now you see them, now you don't. But it seemed to me that Delorme had the address ranges in this particular case covered better than Google.

p.s. My observations were based on SA2008 Plus Phone and Address searches, as well as Topo8 address searches. I do not have SA2009. Oh yes, I also "googled' for Ford Dealership locations to try to clarify the situation.
JM_2

[mattsteg]

http://www.rodbakerfordtrucks.com/location.htm
Rod baker says that their address is not the one you list. According to topo 8, the closest match to the address you list (16101 lincoln highway, which is clearly not s lincoln highway) and the one Rod Baker lists are between 4.5 and 5 miles apart. Don't have SA installed, but I expect the result would be similar. Google maps also does not find "s lincoln highway" at all either. Seems to me that Plainview's got a lot of funky stuff going on with their addresses.

[chucksunder]

I use Delorme 2009 for making maps for cycling routes. The first time I used it I noticed some streets and highways mislabeled. I reported these to Delorme. The next time and subsequent times I used Delorme I found some more errors. I could spend too much time reporting errors and not enough time making my bike routes. My first experience with Delorme was Delorme SA 1998. That version had fewer errors than 2009. I will, however, continue to use 2009 for making bike maps. I like the appearance of the Delorme printed map, but I wouldn't dream of using it in real time to find my way across town. For that I would use Google or my GPS. Thanks.

[jthoma8318]

Quit making excuses for them. Delorme has been making paper atlases for years and they are known to be very acurate. It is inecusible for them to put out a product full of errors and never make any attempt to fix them. I won't be buying another version of the program. I'm a commercial truck driver and use my laptop as my GPS. I am going to purchase CoPilot by PC Miler. Rand McNally and Delorme are the same company now. They showed no interest for years in producing a truck specific program. Now that they have a GPS device that is truck specific, they refuse to release it as a PC program. No Thanks I don't want to buy another electronic device.

[chucksunder]

If I was a truck driver, I'd go to Target and spend a hundred bucks on a GPS. The one I have works great for finding my way across town or across country.

[eriback]

Without addressing the specific complaints, I have a few comments:

DeLorme and Rand McNally are not the same company. Rand McNally distributes DeLorme's paper atlases to the retail channel.

Rand McNally's trucking GPS has a number of physical properties that were specially designed for truckers, such as design of buttons and the volume controls. Thus a laptop version wouldn't be the same. As well, they have proprietary information that is critical to routing of trucks that won't be found on a consumer GPS product, for instance heights and locations of underpasses. Seems to me that if you're driving an 18 wheeler, $500 (deductible expense) is pretty cheap insurance.

Getting greater accuracy in data is a tradeoff... the more perfect it is, the more expensive the product will be. The best data today is probably that from NavTeq and TeleAtlas, who drive every street and road and have been the main source of data for GPS and online mapping for some years. However, their licensing fees are high. I find the new trend of crowdsourcing updates as practiced by DeLorme and now Google to have great possibilities. But let's face it, we're less than 20 years since DeLorme made the first digital US street atlas available to consumers and one of the first routing programs in the early 90s. The quality of data everywhere is so much better now and expectations have increased. The comment that the paper atlases are accurate thus so should the digital products isn't as easy as it sounds. A paper product requires just drawing a line to make a road. A digital product with routing requires many segments for every road, each of which need to be attributed. While you would hope that the database for both paper and digital products is shared, it's not always practical. In any mapping project/product, there is always a sweet spot where the next level of accuracy would cost more to achieve than the perceived value to the consumer. I don't mean to make excuses for DeLorme as I have not used the current versions of their products, just trying to set some context. I give DeLorme credit for allowing such open discussion on their site.