For new CDL drivers learning the clock and the road
Hours rings show what each HOS clock is doing, and truck-safe routes with spoken warnings help on roads you haven't driven yet.
- Hours rings that show each HOS clock at a glance
- Steep grade warnings 2 miles before the downgrade
- Truck stops and rest areas listed along your route
The first year is a lot to learn at once
In your first months with a CDL, the rules and the roads are both new. You learned the 11-hour and 14-hour limits in school, but working them out at 3 a.m. with a receiver running late is different.
The roads bring their own surprises, from a low bridge near a customer to the long downgrade you've only read about. And the parking question comes every day: where you'll stop before your hours run out.
Fort Route shows those rules and roads on your phone as plain numbers and spoken warnings you can act on.
Features that help while you learn
Hours rings
The hours rings show your break, drive, shift and cycle clocks as ELD-style rings that shrink as time runs down, turning amber at 1 hour and red at 30 minutes. A status card spells out how long you can drive now and which rest that ends in. The guides to hours of service rules and the 30-minute break rule explain the limit behind each ring.
Truck-safe routes
Set your truck's height, weight, length, axles and any hazmat once, and truck-safe routing checks every route against them. Routes favor designated truck routes and steer away from residential streets. Map data can be wrong, so posted signs always come first.
Steep grade warnings
Fort Route flags sustained grades (5% or more for a mile, or 6.5% or more for half a mile) on the route sheet and highlights each stretch on the map. Two miles before a downgrade, a voice warning gives the grade and length and tells you to gear down before the top. Read more about steep grade warnings and mountain driving.
Road work alerts
Road work alerts come from 17 state and city DOT feeds and only show work zones in your direction of travel during the hours you'll be driving through. You get an orange line on the route and a spoken alert 2 miles ahead, and the speed sign shows a lower work-zone limit when the feed gives one. The list also names the states on your route that have no feed, so you know what isn't covered.
Parking before the clock runs out
The stops-along-route list shows each truck stop and rest area with its mile marker and time away, so you can match it against the drive time on your rings. The trip planner places your 10-hour reset at a real stop, and the legal arrival time includes it. Fort Route shows where truck parking exists, not whether a space is open right now, so keep a backup in mind; the truck parking guide has more.
Not yet available
Fort Route is in closed beta, and these are not available yet:
- ELD sync (you type your clocks in)
- Live traffic
- Offline maps
- CarPlay and Android Auto
Frequently asked questions
Can Fort Route tell me if I'm legal to drive?
No, Fort Route is a planning aid, and your ELD record is the legal record. The rings count from the clocks you type in, so check them against your ELD at the start of each shift.
What do the four hours rings stand for?
They stand for the four limits that decide when you have to stop: 8 hours of driving before a 30-minute break, the 11-hour driving limit, the 14-hour shift window and the 70-hour cycle. Each ring turns amber with 1 hour left and red with 30 minutes left.
Will Fort Route keep me away from low bridges?
Fort Route plans routes that respect the height you enter, using the clearances recorded in its map data. Coverage varies by area and map data can be wrong, so always obey posted clearance signs. The low bridges guide has more.
Is Fort Route free?
Yes, Fort Route is free during the beta and for the first year after launch. Invite codes go out by email after you request one on the beta page.
Plan your next run with Fort Route
Join the closed beta and we’ll email your invite code when the next group of drivers is added. Free during the beta and for the first year after launch.