If you're looking for an app that can help you stay in touch with your coworkers, talk to other experienced truckers and check in with your family back home, then Zello just might be for you.
While not specifically a trucking app, Zello is a great app for truckers. Zello essentially turns your smart phone or device into a walkie-talkie or CB radio. And you don't always have to talk, you can also just listen in. There are a variety of channels on tons of topics ranging from big rigs to photography. Listen in to other truckers discussing issues in trucking, or find a channel related to one of your hobbies.
Positives
Our truckers who tested the app enjoyed having the chance to listen in to conversations about issues in trucking. They also liked that several of the channels were dedicated spaces for new truckers to go in and ask questions of experienced truckers, often getting instant feedback. Our truck driving testers also appreciated that Zello had a wide variety of channels so they could listen in on hobbyist channels or other topics of interest, not just trucking information. Zello even lets you to create your own channel to communicate with friends or family members. As long as they are in cell phone or WiFi range, you can communicate; and you can play back messages later as well, so you aren't limited to only listening live.
Negatives
The biggest downside our drivers notes was that if you enable notifications and choose to follow a very active channel, you will have a lot of notifications when you come back online. However, you can easily clear those notifications if you don't want to listen through them all.
With its standard settings, Zello is not completely hands free. This is relatively easy to change if you go to the 'Options'/'Action'/'Push to Talk button' and change the talk button from press to talk to toggle to talk (see screenshots below). Zello also has a great list of compatible headset accessories that you can use to keep the experience truly hands-free.
Conclusion
We think this is a great app to add to your phone. But let us know what you think! This app is available for Android and Apple.
If you are interested in truck driving apps, check out our reviews of TruckerPath, WeighMyTruck, and TruckBlox.
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